To me, religion is the science of things we cannot see or explain using current sets of knowledge. It is esoteric, experimental, subtle, massively grand, fascinatingly awe-inspiring… or at least these descriptions can be applied to the Divine (aka God to many people) that religion seeks to explain.
Religion is supposed to be an easy label to help categorize people according to the style of worship, core values, meaningful traditions and rituals, and underlying beliefs.
Is religion necessary in order to live a life pleasing to God? Religion, by definition, requires a group of people agreeing on certain core tenets. As such, it is true to say that there is no such think as a “religion of one”. However, is religion even necessary to please God?
One thing that is grossly missing in a lot of religious people’s lives is the process of personal discernment. Discernment requires a one-on-one relationship with the Almighty. Many Christians use the phrase “personal relationship with Christ”, but discernment isn’t merely “having” a relationship, but rather it describes how we are in this relationship. Discernment is quiet listening and waiting for the subtleties of God speaking to our hearts with His instructions, guidance, encouragement, consolation. Lots of people like to talk to God, many fewer ever take the time to listen to God speaking back.
Discernment is how Abraham went down in history as the father of monotheism. Discernment is how Jesus asserted His role in salvific history. Discernment is how Muhammad brought monotheism to people who may not have otherwise known it. Abraham was not Jewish; Jesus was not Christian; Muhammad was not Muslim. What made them great is not their religious affiliation, but their one-on-one relationship with the Almighty, which was defined by a life of discernment. We, too, can have that kind of relationship with God, regardless of where, when, or how we worship, or how we try to differentiate ourselves from others, or which of the many worthy values we choose to prioritize.
The worst thing that can happen to a spiritually minded person is group-think. Group-think, in the case of religion, is the idea that there is only one way to interpret ultimate reality, and that we (rather than anyone else) have it all figured out. Group-think forces people to choose a sense of community over the much scarier and lonelier road that leads to personal revelation. Group-think limits believers’ freedom, tries to tell them “they” (meaning whoever happens to be in a position of greatest authority in the group) have the correct interpretation and we ought to just fall in line if we know what’s good for us. Group-think uses fear tactics to herd people together. Group-think limits the very thing God created each of us for – freedom (think free will), courage, service, self-lessness.
If I’m being honest with myself, I do a lot of religious things. I do a lot of spiritual things. But I’m not truly following Jesus yet because I am constantly checking with “the powers that be” to see if what I’m receiving in prayer fits with what others have already acknowledged and affirmed. I’m not following Jesus because I worry about being questioned, being accused of wrong interpretation, being wrong. I’m not following Jesus because there is no fear in perfect love, and love is what Jesus is calling me to.
Much like the Sabbath, which Jesus said was made for man, not the other way around, I believe the Church likewise was made for man. The Church is supposed to be there to strengthen its members, to encourage its members, to support its members. Instead, what I often see is the Church dangling the promise of belongingness to those who check their critical thinking at the door. I see the Church manipulating control away from individuals for the sake of the group, but in the process the entire group suffers, not to mention all those outside the group. Jesus didn’t come to save one group among many. He came to save everybody. Regardless of religious affiliation.
Jesus was clear when He said there was only one thing needed for eternal life: to love God with everything we’ve got, and to love others the way we love ourselves (which also requires us to actually love ourselves in the first place, by the way) (Matthew 22:36-40). Elsewhere He also said that many people will cry out “Lord, Lord”, but He will look at the lives they led (not the beliefs they held) when admitting people into the Kingdom of God (Matthew 7:22-28). It’s interesting to note that the last verse here (Matthew 7:28) says, “when Jesus had finished these words, the multitudes were astonished at his teaching.” Even today, I think many religious, pious people would be “astonished” at this teaching. They’d be saying “yes, but…” Jesus doesn’t leave anything left to interpretation here. To follow Jesus means to DO God’s will. Not to talk about it, not to believe in it, but to DO it.
Yet most religiously-affiliated people are much too concerned about “right beliefs” or “right interpretations” than “right actions”. Oh, lots of people worry about the “right actions” of other people – quick to point out what people shouldn’t be doing because “the Bible says…”, but less people apply this standard to themselves. (Matthew 7:3 calls this “looking at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and paying no attention to the plank in your own eye.”)
Jesus calls us to change ourselves in order to change the world. He does not call us to strong-handedly attempt to change others by preaching at them, making laws that force people into a certain lifestyle over another, or denying people civil rights “on principle”. Recently, I’m saddened at the way people have used the catch-phrase “religious freedom” to try to force their own interpretations of Scriptures onto other people. They are held up by many religious people as modern day quasi-martyrs, when in fact, Jesus had something to say about the place of secular law in a spiritual person’s life when He said in Mathew 12:17, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” Civil rights, social justice, these are secular ideals and they belong in the secular realm. Our spiritual beliefs ought to motivate us to live them out, not to change them according to our own interpretations. What applies to one group of people must apply to all groups of people.
There are people who will read this and cry “heretic”! Yet to be a heretic, one must first accept the premise that there even is such a thing as “accepted belief or doctrine”. Accepted by whom? Doesn’t this term basically mean that everyone is a heretic in relation to some set of beliefs? What is the point of such a label?
The beauty of Scriptures is that it is the living word of God. It is open to interpretation, and as such, is capable of speaking directly to the condition of an individual reader’s (or hearer’s) heart, based on their unique circumstances, life experiences, and personality traits. This is the subtlety of God at it’s finest. This is discernment. There is no “how-to” guide to pleasing God that is equally applicable to everyone. Each of us must consult God directly and honestly, willing to be called a heretic, willing to be ostracized, willing to be threatened with the withdrawal of community, willing to put one’s conscience on the line for the sake of truth. Truth is ultimate, but it is not simple nor easy to explain.
Truth and application are in fact not one and the same. Gravity is true. Yet how gravity applies to someone walking a tightrope versus how it applies to our very planet in orbit differs. The point of reference for each is different. It doesn’t make gravity any less true in one of the circumstances. While on Earth, gravity pulls us towards its center. While in the cosmos, our Earth orbits around the Sun, not itself. The planet is no longer the source of that gravity. Likewise, God calls each of us to Himself in different ways, and none of us are able to discern on behalf of anyone else. It simply cannot be done. We can impose our own interpretations onto others, but this is not the same, nor is it in any way helpful to either party, and certainly it’s not what God calls each individual to do.
So, if I can’t simply trust my religion to tell me what God wants me to do, how do I please God? What exactly do I need to be doing, on a regular, even daily, basis, so that I know that I am right with God? How exactly does a life following Jesus look like?
I know it doesn’t look like sitting comfortably in my middle-class suburban home, enjoying many luxuries that my husband’s salary can afford our family of 4, without actually sharing the wealth with others. I know it doesn’t look like writing a check here and there and patting myself on the back for “being generous.” I know it doesn’t look like enjoying myself in worship, being intellectually stimulated by a provocative homily, moved to tears by inspiring music, comforted by beautiful stained glass or other decorations. It doesn’t look like simply being known by name by many people who happen to spend time at the same place as I do during the same times (Mass at my church, the same events and small groups, etc). I know that it does not mean simply following the 10 commandments. Um, those are pretty basic. Like, Kindergarten in the school of life. You have to have those down before moving on to bigger and better things, but you certainly have not graduated if that’s all you’ve got.
Jesus actually did give us several ideas, both through His words and through His actions. He spent time with people no respectable person wanted to be caught with. He talked to them as if He didn’t realize their past mistakes. Yet He did not coddle them. He called them out of themselves, challenged them to keep striving to be better, not to settle. He healed those who were in need of healing. He celebrated the good times and wept along side others during the sad times. He got justifiably upset at people who were cheating others (turning over tables at the temple). He called out those who said one thing but did another. He welcomed everyone willing to follow Him. He turned no one away. Sometimes people turned away from Him on their own, but it was never He who turned them away. He also took time for Himself. He lived by example form start to finish. He knew that time alone with God the Father Almighty was what gave Him the Spirit of conviction, courage, wisdom. He knew there must be a balance between service and self-care.
And He told us in the Beatitudes some examples of what following Him entails (in Matthew 5:3-12): Blessed (happy) are the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, those who are persecuted because of righteousness, those who are insulted or persecuted or falsely accused because of Him.
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