No to Religion?
Thomas Merton once wrote in his book, New Seeds of Contemplation,
If a writer is so cautious that he never writes anything that cannot be criticized, he will never write anything that can be read. If you want to help other people you have got to make up your mind to write things that some men will condemn.
One of the most frequent questions I receive from new readers to this blog goes something like this, “How can you be a priest and have ‘no to religion’ in the title of your blog?” It is a fair question to which I usually respond by pointing the person to one of my early blogposts entitled, Two “Nos”, One “Yes”, and the Kingdom to Come. Once the person has read the post (found here), he or she will sometimes still disagree with my judgement, but more often than not the post does what it was intended to do–start a conversation about our faith.
When I first decided to add a subtitle to the blog I considered the fact that there would be some readers, perhaps more than a few, who did not understand why I had chosen these particular words. The fact that I was a priest in active parish ministry gave me hope, however, that most people would know my intent was not to be in opposition to the Church, but to invite others to a deeper awareness of the implications of professing the Christian faith. I also knew that many of my readers would be unfamiliar with the thought of Fr. Alexander Schmemann, from whose funeral homily the words were taken. In his wonderful book on the Sacraments, For The Life Of The World, he points out something I believe we have largely forgotten when he writes,
Christianity, however, is in a profound sense the end of all religion….Nowhere in the New Testament, in fact, is Christianity presented as a cult or as a religion. Religion is needed where there is a wall of separation between God and man. But Christ who is both God and man has broken down the wall between man and God. He has inaugurated a new life, not a new religion.
Too often there are Christians who still see themselves as separated from God, at least on some level, and our American culture tends to support the idea. One example that comes to mind is the recent popular song by Bette Midler that proclaims, “God is watching us, from a distance“. I have no doubt that this song was written with the intent of promoting peace, but when examined with the eyes of faith, the song is not only lacking in its support of Christianity, but is in blatant contradiction to it. One of the verses that always strikes me when I hear the song is this one:
From a distance we all have enough,
and no one is in need.
And there are no guns, no bombs, and no disease,
no hungry mouths to feed.
The words of the song imply that if we just get far enough away from one another, everything will be beautiful. It presents a false hope and a false peace. In reality, we don’t all have enough and there are people who are hungry and in need. Guns, bombs and disease are very real. Christ tells us that we will be judged upon whether or not we see those in need and by how we treat them.
“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit upon his glorious throne, and all the nations will be assembled before him. And he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.’ Then the righteous will answer him and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?’ And the king will say to them in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.’ Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, a stranger and you gave me no welcome, naked and you gave me no clothing, ill and in prison, and you did not care for me.’ Then they will answer and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison, and not minister to your needs?’ He will answer them, ‘Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.’ And these will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.” (Matthew 25:31-46)
This passage of the Gospel is one that cannot be lived from a distance. When we put distance between ourselves and our neighbor, we are placing ourselves far from Christ.
Perhaps the most disturbing image, however, is the idea that God is simply up in heaven watching us from a distance. The central tenant of Christianity is that God became man and lived among us. It is the radical notion that there is no longer a separation between God and man, that what was broken in the fall has been restored. When we gather each week at the liturgy we believe we are already standing with the saints and angels at the heavenly liturgy. God is not distant when we gather together for prayer. In fact, He is so close that we can still see Him with our eyes and touch Him with our hands. In the same way the first followers of Christ were instructed to do, we still dare to eat His flesh and drink His blood. And when we do this with the eyes of faith we will begin to see more clearly each day that it is not religion that sustains us, but Christ Himself who continues to love us into existence.
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