SpiritMatters Monthly August 2009

Tell me your story...

I am willing to bet that most people at some point in their lives have had a “religious” experience. Whether it was a very strange coincidence, a vision, a revelation, a premonition or some other mysterious occurrence, most of us can identify an event or experience that has defied rational explanation. What is truly fascinating to me is not that people have these experiences, but how reluctant they usually are to talk about them. Even the clergy and religious, those whom we might expect to be the most open and understanding of mystical experiences, often prove to be very tight-lipped about experiences that do not fit or may challenge the prevailing religious attitudes at the time. We all want to be considered reasonable, rational people, so when we have experiences that challenge our view of the world, we are likely to suppress them or keep them to ourselves, rather than talk about them and risk being labeled an eccentric or a fanatic.

We often define religious communities as groups of people that share a common belief. Long before the term “catholic” was used to describe Christians of a particular denomination, it was used to refer to those Christians which upheld the general or universal beliefs of the entire church. What the church, and other religious communities, often forget though, is that those things which are now considered universal beliefs, often began as someone’s individual experience. A good example of this phenomenon is the Feast of the Transfiguration, celebrated by Christians in the catholic tradition on August 6th. The story is told that Peter, James, and John followed Jesus to the top of a mountain, where his image was mysteriously transformed and Moses and Elijah suddenly appeared at his side. Since 1456, the Transfiguration has been celebrated as a major feast of the church; parishes have been named after this event and it has been depicted in countless works of art. The story has been retold so often that it has become a part of the common belief of many Christians. But what we often forget is that this story which is now a part of the common belief of many, actually began as the private experience of a very few. Only three individuals actually experienced the Transfiguration, and yet now it is a celebrated feast of the entire catholic tradition.

The Transfiguration is just one of the many examples I could give of the experiences of a few becoming the beliefs of the many. I don’t think that this phenomenon is peculiar to the Christian religion, but rather a tendency of most religions although we may frequently overlook it. How might our lives change if we lived constantly aware that we owe our most cherished beliefs to the experiences of others? How might we value our own experiences if we realized how meaningful they might be to someone else? What would happen if we combed through our religions and got rid of every story or every belief that wasn’t accepted by everyone else? What would we be left with? Not much I would venture to say. Our lives and our faiths are made richer by the stories of others. The Transfiguration is a pretty weird story, but if I am honest, probably not that much weirder than some things I have experienced in my life. Part of why I love my job is that it affords me the opportunity to listen to the religious stories of others and that has enriched my life immeasurably. What’s your story?