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Question

Good morning p. Angel and happy feast of the Presentation,

I wondered: what is the religious sense? How is it part of the person? Does it concern somebody’s soul, or soul-and-body? Is it a fundamental structure of the human being? I think so, but I can’t formally support the theory.

Thanks! I assure prayers for your intentions.

Stefano

The priest’s answer

Dear Stefano,

1. the religious sense or sentiment consists of an emotional intuition by which a human being feels the sense of self-finitude and, at the same time, of dependence on One, in whose hands is his own’s life and the existence of the universe.

The Second Vatican Council speaks of an arcane force that people of all times feel within and beyond the cosmos.

“From ancient times down to the present, there is found among various peoples a certain perception of that hidden power which hovers over the course of things and over the events of human history; at times some indeed have come to the recognition of a Supreme Being, or even of a Father. This perception and recognition penetrates their lives with a profound religious sense” (Nostra aetate, 2).

2. The religious sense is that sentiment that gives rise to a sense of admiration and gratitude for the creation for the One Who made it and Who supports it and makes people feel the need to worship Him.

This sentiment is expressed in a very beautiful and complete way in a Psalm: “How can I repay the LORD for all the good done for me?” (Quid retribuam Domino pro omnibus quae retribuit mihi?, Ps 116.12).

And here is the answer that becomes action and actual thanksgiving: “I will raise the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD” (Calicem salutaris accipiam et nomen Domini invocabo, Ps 116.13).

It was the sentiment of Giuseppina Bakita, when she was a pagan, who, as a child, said before the beauty and greatness of the creation: “Tell me who made it, because I want to thank him [tr.]”.

3. Religion, however, is not simply an emotional intuition.

Although it starts from that, it originates, in turn, and develops, with questions that no one escapes: what is the meaning of life, what is the meaning of suffering and, above all, of death.

Someone (Pascal) noticed that the man is the only animal who is aware that he is going to die and thinks about death.

As the Council recalls: “Not only is man tormented by pain and by the advancing deterioration of his body, but even more so by a dread of perpetual extinction. He rightly follows the intuition of his heart when he abhors and repudiates the utter ruin and total disappearance of his own person. He rebels against death because he bears in himself an eternal seed which cannot be reduced to sheer matter. All the endeavors of technology, though useful in the extreme, cannot calm his anxiety; for prolongation of biological life is unable to satisfy that desire for higher life which is inescapably lodged in his breast” (Gaudium et spes, 18).

Therefore, “It is in the face of death that the riddle of human existence grows most acute” (ib.).

4. Religion therefore arises from an interior attitude (of the soul) that is expressed in worship, that is, in giving glory to God.

The soul is directly involved in the glorification through its acts of worship. But acts are also expressed through the body by various rites and ceremonies.

This is what we see in the psalmist’s question and answer that I mentioned above: “How can I repay the LORD for all the good done for me?” (soul); “I will raise the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD” (body).

5. You also ask if religion is a fundamental structure of human beings.

If by ‘structure’ you mean one of the essential and constitutive elements of human beings, the answer is no.

Men are structured in body and soul. These are man’s two constitutive and substantial elements.

So, there is no third component like the soul and body.

6. Religion arises from an activity of the soul, expressed both in the intuition that we depend on Someone in Whose hands is our life and in the further questions that man asks himself and that also involve one’s will and bodily life.

The religious act is a personal stance by which a human being stands in front of the divinity with his or her own totality made of body and soul.

7. Probably, by the term ‘structure’, you mean something fundamental that is expressed sooner or later in everyone’s life.

If so, I agree with you.

8. But, to use a more precise language, rather than saying that it is a structural element of man, we can say that it is a feature or a characteristic of man.

It appears as a differentiating element between humans and animals, which have no religious activity, lacking in rationality and freedom.

And it is a universal phenomenon because, at all times, human beings have been religious and also because all human beings are religious in some way, or in any case raise the religious issue.

Plutarch (46-127 AD), a Greek thinker and historian, made this interesting statement: “If you travel around the world, you might find cities without walls, or where people ignore writing, have no kings, use no coins, know no theaters and gyms; but no one saw or will ever see a city without temples and without divinity” (Against Colote, 31 [tr.]).

9. This fact made a well-known ethnologist and anthropologist, J. L. A. de Quatrefages (1810-1892), say that man is a religious animal.

This expression can also be found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church: “In many ways, throughout history down to the present day, men have given expression to their quest for God in their religious beliefs and behavior: in their prayers, sacrifices, rituals, meditations, and so forth. These forms of religious expression, despite the ambiguities they often bring with them, are so universal that one may well call man a religious being” (CCC 28).

So that “Man is by nature and vocation a religious being” (CCC 44).

And the reason is immediately explained: “Coming from God, going toward God, man lives a fully human life only if he freely lives by his bond with God” (Ib.).

10. Without religion, that is without God, man has no light on himself.

The Second Vatican Council rightly stated that “For without the Creator the creature would disappear” (GS 36).

And it added: “When God is forgotten, however, the creature itself grows unintelligible” (ib.).

11. Finally, I would like to add that the full answer to the religious question is found only in Christ.

And it cannot be otherwise if Jesus is God made Flesh.

For this reason, the Second Vatican Council affirmed that “only in the mystery of the incarnate Word does the mystery of man take on light … Christ, the final Adam, by the revelation of the mystery of the Father and His love, fully reveals man to man himself and makes his supreme calling clear” (GS 22).

Thanks for the prayers you assured me, and I bless you.

Father Angelo