Christian spirituality, the hidden road to freedom (2)

“Dear Prof, glory be to God for using you as an instrument of liberation in this dark age. My testimony is that a friend of mine was having a serious eye problem and has taken a lot of drugs but all to no avail. As her health condition degenerated, the consulting ophthalmologist placed her for an operation as the only available option to be explored in an attempt to correct the anomaly. When I visited her, she narrated her ordeal to me and told me what the doctor said was the only solution left behind. When I remembered what your oil did for me, I went home and brought your oil and gave to her and it was just a small quantity of it left in the bottle. I made her believe that there is nothing God cannot do if she believes in His power. Few weeks later, the young lady called and said that she woke up from sleep one morning after using it, only for her to discover that the tumour that was growing up right inside her left eye has suddenly disappeared to the glory of GOD. What an amazing working power of God through the medium of your oil .May the good Lord continue to strengthen you to the glory of His name. EMMANUEL C.O  09027291734.
“God has done it for me in no small way. You recall what I told you last time before using your oil for prayer? Today that woman that wanted to embarrass me has finally been exposed in the office. She prepared charms and was boastful of same; she held some top officers with her charms and consequently used them to penalize me. She threatened that the moment she is promoted that will be my end…I continued to live in fear in our department. When I got the oil and prayed, She lost her promotion and I got mine, today I am ahead of her and all her evil plans have become fruitless towards me. I am most grateful to God as the prayer worked for me…She is to be dismissed if the allegations against her are proved to be true…thanks a lot sir” (Names and contact withheld) .
According to the Greek philosophy Diogenes, it was Xenophanes who first equated breath with soul, using the word psyche with its colorful association of coolness, bellows, and butterfly. After about twenty three centuries that is, in 1828, Charles Nodier wrote in Paris, “The different names for the soul, among nearly all people are just so many breath variations and onomatopoeic expression for breathing”.
It follows that psyche, anima savira, semangat,  nephesh, otachuk, loakal  tuniz prana, duck and geist are scared words used by primal peoples the world over for the surge of life, linguistic cousins of what was called sawal in Old English, sawal by the Angelo-Saxons, sala by the Icelandic folk, and eventually, as if stone-polished by the ages, what we now call soul. A persistent presence not conjured up as a mystical hoax or priestly dogma, but keenly recognized as the influence of breath upon birth and death” in these soul moments are the flash point of eternity.
Don’t worry dear reader, “There is no understanding of soul” anyway, as Thomas Moore reminds us, only cultivation, contemplation or care. Because soul defies definition like Soren Kierkegaard would say, “if you define me you negate me” it is revealed here quality by quality.  The soul is the point of mystery in the order of learning of the great life. At the meeting point of destiny lies the language of the soul and at the parting point of destiny the chambers of sublime glory the soul submits to the supreme super soul. Here is mystery of the great life. Back to Christian spirituality
In discussing Christian spirituality, what comes into one’s mind is the Pauline theology. In Pauline theology spirit (pneuma) is opposed to ‘flesh’ (Greek Sarx; Latin caro), and spiritual (pnuematikos) is set over against either ‘fleshly’ (Greek Sarkikos, Latin carnalis- Gal. 3:3, 5: 13; 1cor 3: 1-3; Rom 7:14) or “animal” (Greek psychikos, Latin animalis 1 cor 2: 14-15), but significantly for later development, they are contrasted neither with “body” (Greek-soma; Latin corpus) or ‘bodily’ (Greek somatikos; Latin corporalis) nor with “matter” (Greek hyle; Latin materia).
For Paul the ‘pneumatic’ or spiritual person is one whose whole being and life are ordered, led and influenced by the spirit of God according to W.H Principe C.S.B in the New Dictionary of Catholic Spirituality. Christian spirituality is also the response of the Christian to the divine call of the church- the body of Christ.  Here we are talking of the life of the spirit of Christ which transcends the chaotic propensity of the carnal mind.
Christian spirituality extends from the Medieval period through the Reformation period to the present day. Thus, apart from the Medieval and Reformation spiritualities, other spiritualities have developed in Christianity in Nigeria; different kinds of Christian spiritualities have emerged in the country. In his article, “Varieties of Christians Spirituality in Nigeria, Dr. E. A Offiong gives the variety of spirituality to include “….Christian Missionary Spirituality, Orthodox Mission Spirituality, Aludura Spirituality as well as the Pentecostal Spirituality.
Without going too deep into the above, it is imperative to assert here that misunderstanding of the term ‘spirituality’ has made many to disregard it in there voyage to materialism. Even most modern priests are caught in the web of sensuality and materialism. Modern spiritual seekers must take over the office of priesthood and must therefore visit the paradigm sites of spirituality with ultra sensitive spirituals measuring apparatus in order to rediscover the unity of spirituality in Christianity.
I have severally attempted to search deeper into the spirituality of our Lord Jesus Christ as a child, I have also finally come to the recognition that some information that could assist any sincere believer in this regard (except the Bible) are all hidden.
Thus, I have continued to ask, why is it that the oldest libraries in the world, are secret libraries? What are people really afraid of? Are they worried that the so called ‘truth’, protected and concealed for so many thousands of years will finally come to light? A little time from now, when the arch-angels trumpet shall sound, many religious wisdom and knowledge shall be found to be in total error, because some sons of God shall all be ruptured into the spiritual library of the golden truth. This as a new birth of spirituality shall make religion obsolete as core spirituality becomes the doxology of the saints. This can only occur if mankind decides to be in matrimony with proper research leading to the core abode of Christian spirituality.
Research and progress into Christian spirituality (not religiosity) should not be held back. At this point and due to what I may call misunderstanding and misapplication of truth leading to “the priest cover up” and in view of the topsy-turvy of modern spiritual reality, one may be tempted to doubt every accepted religious pattern of thought (creed and credo) or working hypothesis. So many things have gone wrong in Christendom. Yes, we indeed need to question them because if existing ideas are not questioned, research is at end. Yes, if new research comes up and is authentic, the old working hypothesis, however familiar it may have become must be replaced by a new one. This may lead to serious war because no religious leader would want his political cum ecclesiastical economic kingdom to be pulled down.
As a matter of fact, the hour has come to introduce spirituality at the very center of our religious faith. The time has come for our pope, cardinals, bishops, reverend, pastors, prophets, apostles, evangelist, Christian spiritual masters to mention only a few to admit their inadequacies in making proper discoveries in the infinite spiritual dimension of religion. Only then shall we realize that we are only but infinite spiritual beings whose worship of the universal cause must be in spirit and in truth. Our future and great opportunities lie in the true knowledge of spirituality.