Mario Bravo-Lamas, April 20, 2025
Christian spirituality is not limited to what we believe (orthodoxy) or what we do (orthopraxy), but also encompasses what we love. As Saint Augustine once said: “Love and do what you will,” not as a license for boundless action, but as an invitation to let true love — love for God and neighbor — be the guiding force of our lives. At the center of spiritual life is love: a love that transforms, that orders our desires, that conforms us to Christ (Matthew 22:37-39). This affective dimension of discipleship has been called orthopathy: a harmony between our affections and the heart of Christ.
Spiritual formation, then, is a process that transforms the heart. It is not merely about acquiring knowledge (orthodoxy) or behaving correctly (orthopraxy), but about loving what God loves and rejecting what grieves Him. As James K. A. Smith states, “we are what we love,” and these loves are shaped by our daily practices, not just our ideas. True spirituality is, in this sense, a pedagogy of desire.
1. A New Identity in Christ by Grace
Everything begins with God’s first love. “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” (1 John 4:10-11). Spiritual life is born out of a transformative experience: being loved, forgiven, welcomed. Like the prodigal son embraced by the father (Luke 15), this experience not only restores dignity, but also ignites the desire to live in love.
This identity — received, not earned — frees us from the need to prove our worth or seek love in places that do not heal. In Christ, we are beloved sons and daughters. This emotional security is the starting point for a formation that touches the deepest parts of the heart: our wounds, attachments, and desires.
Grace, then, is not just a theological truth, but a lived reality. As Will Willimon wrote: “God restored the divine-human relationship we had broken.” This restoration gives us belonging, reconciliation, and a new way of inhabiting the world through received love.
2. Union with Christ: Loving What He Loves
Christian spirituality is not about following an admirable figure from the outside, but participating in a living relationship from within, because we are “incorporated, integrated into the inner life of God Himself through Christ” (John 17:20-23). Our union with Christ — the center of discipleship — transforms not only what we think or do, but also what we feel and desire. “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20).
In this sense, spiritual transformation involves an affective renewal. James K. A. Smith emphasizes: “we become what we love,” and our loves are shaped by repeated practices that orient the heart toward a vision of the good life. That is why spirituality cannot be merely an intellectual effort: it requires concrete practices that recalibrate our affections toward God.
Christian practices — such as prayer, contemplation, and communal life — recalibrate our affections. They are spaces where the heart is retrained to love differently. In community, we learn to worship, serve, and share, not as empty duties, but as tangible ways of forming a heart aligned with Christ.
3. Imitation of Christ: Embodied Love and Transformed Affections
Discipleship does not end with knowing Christ, but in becoming like Him. The imitation of Christ is an affective transformation: learning to love as He loved, to have compassion as He did, to be righteously indignant, to forgive with grace. It is not about copying external gestures, but about allowing the Spirit to form in us a heart like His.
This inner work is precisely the work of the Holy Spirit: “the love of God has been poured out into our hearts” (Romans 5:5). It is the Spirit who enables us to love our enemies, serve the least, and embrace the cross with hope.
True holiness is mature love: not emotional perfection, but a heart fully surrendered to God and neighbor. That is why orthopathy is not optional: we must learn to love well as an essential part of healthy spirituality.
Conclusion: We Worship What We Love
This aligns with the ancient spiritual tradition that describes this path as a journey: purification, illumination, and union. The purgative way cleanses disordered affections. The illuminative kindles love for God. And the unitive leads to an interior peace that rests in Him. It is not a linear path, but a journey marked by trials, consolations, and deep discoveries that shape us into the image of Christ.
We live in a world that shapes our affections through consumption and distraction. But Christian spirituality offers a deep affective formation. As Smith reminds us, we become what we worship. Therefore, Christian worship — both personal and communal — not only expresses love but also forms it.
This is the spirituality we embrace: a life shaped by the love of God, responding with a transformed heart and growing until Christ is formed in us (Galatians 4:19).
