Topic:  Why be committed to a particular religion? 

Source of this posting: Moderator response

Date originally posted: June 12, 2004

Moderator who originally posted this source: Father Phillip

Question:  I volunteer to help with prison Mass in my town and the other day, one of the prisoners began to explain to me how he is spiritual but not religous. That he doesn't go for different religions, but thinks everyone should just believe in one God. That there was no point to being Catholic over any other religion and that we'd all get along much better if we could just agree on one general religion - that it's all the same God anyway. My friend and I tried to explain the importance of the sacraments, but other than that, we really didn't know what to say, and the argument of the sacraments didn't seem to help. How would you explain the need and importance of committing to the Catholic faith (or any faith)? So many of the prisoners (as well as other people) want to just have their own religion - where they can make up their own ideas and rules and take whatever they want from this religion or that and leave the rest, where everything is about what they personally want - what's convenient.

Answer: 

How wonderful that you volunteer at the prison! Jesus said that HE was in prison and we visited HIM. So you are, actually, visiting Jesus when you go to the prison; you sound like a really great person!

You and your prisoner friend raise a very important question. Let's begin with a rather general comment; ok?

Being Christian means, among other things, becoming more and more like Jesus. When we read the Gospels to discover Who Jesus was and is, we see the Perfect Man Who perfectly reveals Who God is. And we are called to become ever more like Him.

In the Gospels Jesus seems to spend most of His time and energy talking about how much God loves the people Jesus encounters. Jesus touches their lives and transforms those lives with God's love. Jesus heals those Who are sick and comforts those are alone, grieving, and doubting. Jesus reaches out to those who are on the edges of society....And those are pretty much the things that the Lord calls us to do in our journey to become more like Him.

That is to say, Jesus didn't spend a whole lot of time talking in the Gospels about whether His listeners should be Jewish (His own religion) or something else.

So, why bother being Catholic or Christian?

Well, there are lots of really good reasons, but before we look at those, let's remind ourselves that Jesus basically came to proclaim God's Truth. That divine Truth is summed-up in the Great Commandment, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself." So, our "job" as Christians is to LOVE!

One of my seminary professors once said -- rightly -- "Very rarely can we argue anybody into Truth, but very often a person can be LOVED into Truth." So, our privilege is to be the 'agents,' as it were, through whom God LOVES people into Truth.

Why, then, be Catholic Christians...or any religion for that matter?

As Catholic Christians we believe that Jesus Christ is the final and full revelation of God. So, we want to follow this One Who is God. We want to conform our lives to the example of love and compassion which He gives us during His life on earth.

Furthermore, we believe that Jesus calls us into community with Him, with God, in the Holy Spirit, and with God's people. So, we want to do all that we can to conform our lives and hearts and minds and souls and wills to the sense of that community which is the Church. That's where the Tradition of the Church gives us extra help to become more fully part of that community of love.

Committing oneself to a particular expression of religion is also extremely valuable because none of us wants to be alone. Built into the very fabric of our being is a desire for community. We want a significant other; we want a circle of friends; we want a family; we want a work environment that is affirming; we want to be part of a sports team -- these are all evidences of our desire to be part of a community, or in fact, of many communities.

In Christianity we say that the desire to be part of community is sanctified by the Sacramental indwelling of the Holy Trinity at Baptism. God, as it were, makes holy this desire for community in the waters of Baptism. When we want to be part of virtually any community, we are reflecting the Presence of the Trinity in our lives. The desire to be part of a community is, itself therefore, a holy desire.

So, when we are contemplating that deep desire to nourish our spirits we want -- even need -- a community which will affirm that spirituality. While we do need a certain amount of "space" to nurture our spiritual lives, we also need a community that will remind us that we are not alone in our spiritual journey.

Human beings commit themselves to a community of like-minded spiritual seekers to find that support. Being part of a religious organization -- in our case, the Catholic Church -- helps us develop that deep need and desire to be open to God.

Other reasons abound for why religion is important. People claim just to be "spiritual" and not religious. But that's not the whole story. Virtually all human beings are religious in some way or another.

For instance, when the Communist Party in Russia banned religion in the 1920s and 30s, they, then, had to "invent" a different kind of religion to satisfy this longing in their people and -- even -- within themselves. They embalmed Lenin and made his tomb into a kind of pilgrimage site where people could go to "worship."

People are created with a need to "ritualize." We want to find or to create outward means -- rituals -- to express an inchoate, unarticulated sense of spirit. We are almost never content JUST to feel the spirit; we need to be able to touch and taste and experience the world of the spirit in tangible, visible, audible ways. So, we create rituals. Religion helps us meet that basic human need.

My question, of course, goes something like this: Why wouldn't I want to trust the rituals of smart, holy people who've been working at this for 2000 years rather than have to go to the trouble of trying to invent a ritual on my own?!?!? (I guess I'm just too lazy!)

And then there is the whole issue of culture. Pope John Paul II has said that culture is itself a gift from God. By plugging into our cultural background -- and I would add our ethnicity and linguistic and gender -- we are harkening back to some of those primordial verities that have shaped and formed us. Through the centuries God has been touching and forming and challenging "us" (in our forebears) through our cultures.

Religion -- which, to be sure, is more than just culture although culture almost always is an important component of religion -- gives us a significant avenue through which we can be enriched. Culture can, of course, become a constricting lens which limits our sense of God. That's why we need to continue to learn and grow and be challenged by new people and new experiences. Nevertheless, culture is important and should be cherished, and religious culture can be an important gift which we need.

Philosophy also adds an important insight to a full reflection on your question -- and that of your prisoner friend. One of the great truths of Christian Philosophy is that in order to understand the macrocosm we have to be rather firmly rooted in and familiar with the microcosm. Other philosophers have said something similar by suggesting that we can really only understand the general by knowing the particular well.

Let me try to put this more straightforwardly. For example, I can read all the poetry in the world about "love." I can listen to lectures about the nature of love. I can even be moved by great music and art which are inspired by love. Helpful as all of these things may be, I still don't really know love.

BUT, when I actually fall in love with a particular person, THEN I have a much better and fuller knowledge of what love is.

I can read all the books there are on parenting. I can do to a hundred parenting classes to acquire skills. I can talk to every parent in my circle of friends to get pointers. But it's not until I hold my own child in my arms do I really understand what being a parent is all about.

The particular experience of loving THIS person, of parenting THIS child -- these are the things which make the general, macrocosmic ideas of "love" and "parenting" meaningful.

So it is with religion. Not until I personally know the transforming reality of Jesus Christ in my own life do I understand what "religion" is about. Not until I experience the joy of worshipping in my own parish community -- filled with friends and family and colleagues -- do I "get" why being part of THIS religion is so important.

Finally, I would just remind you that faith is a gift from God. Faith in Jesus. Faith in the holy Catholic Church. God is the giver of the gift. So, we have to be content to wait on the Lord. We have to be willing to co-operate with God (which you are doing magnificently by going to the prison) in communicating the Good News of Jesus. But then, we have to sit back and let God offer the gift to people -- including your prisoner friend -- in ways and at times that God knows are best. Remember: our job is to love!

Blessings!