Piety vs. pietism

THEY can look the same, if appearances and things external

are only considered. But one is true while the other is fake in this

whole business of developing our proper relation with God and with

others.  We need to have the skill of distinguishing between the two

and of choosing the right one.

            Piety sprouts from a genuine love of God with whom a

person can truly have a personal encounter with God, an encounter that

produces a lot of living effects. Pietism is just a matter of going

through the motions of piety but is barren in things that really

matter, although it may mimic some fruitfulness.

            Everyone is supposed to develop a personal relationship of

intimate love of God, a love that would lead us to love everybody

else, no matter how he is. This is what piety is all about. It is

actually a duty that everyone has since he or she has to correspond to

God’s continuing love for all of us. In other words, God’s love for us

should be repaid also with our love for him.

            But given our condition of being a knowing and free

creature, we can always choose to be true or false in that duty to

correspond to God’s love. This is where we have to make frequent

self-examination to check if indeed our relationship with God and with

others is truly taking the right path.

            It can also happen that given our wounded condition, we

can fall into the fake pietism without fully realizing it. This is the

case when one falls into what is known as spiritual lukewarmness and

complacency, a general feeling of self-satisfaction that blinds one

from moving forward and growing more in his spiritual life.

            We need to see that our relationship with God is a working

one, full of love that will always have effects both internally and

externally. If there is true piety, we will always be fired up by the

many forms and expressions of love that actually are limitless in its

possibilities. There is never a dull moment when piety is alive and

kicking, because even if we are restrained physically, the heart will

always throb with love.

            When we notice that we are feeling empty and idle, we need

to do everything to regain a felt intimacy with God. We have to feel

God’s great love for us so we can ignite our own love for him and

others. The ideal to aim at always is for us to feel driven and

passionate and hot in our love for God and others.

            That is why we also a need a plan or strategy, complete

with concrete means, to see to it that our piety is sustained amid the

ups and downs of our daily drama. These means can be some moments of

quiet mental prayer or meditation, a time for spiritual reading, for

saying the Rosary, for attending the Holy Mass and receiving Holy

Communion, and of course, a time of hard work.

            We can also determine if our piety is true piety and not

false pietism if after those practices of piety, we feel the impulse

and the urge to do a lot of good like doing personal apostolate

everywhere, sanctifying our work without fear of the effort and

sacrifices involved, etc. In other words, true piety makes us to be

both contemplative and active. We would not be one or the other only.

            In our daily examination of conscience before we end the

day, let’s try to make an assessment as to whether we managed to

strike a good balance between the contemplative and active aspects of

our life, which should be like the two sides of the same coin.