Of course as Catholics we can say our religion is the MOST personal relationship with God through HIs son , Jesus Christ.
Our Church teachings and devotions and practices are ways we find to worship Him and relate closer to Him. Non Catholic Christians would have no problem with marriage or family counseling, and this is exactly what many of our Church practices, devotions are - ways to grow closer to Jesus Christ, was to enhance our relationship with Him. But in the Non Catholic so called non religious tradition, they have workshop after workshop, book after book, sermon after sermon etc, that reinvent devotions and practices and instruction for living that our Catholic Church has dealt with already. in terms of theology or personal devotions or practices. Yet every generation a new non-Catholic Christian book or DVD or whatever comes on the family should worship God, the way spouses should relate, the way Christian citizens should live in the world and on and on. Our Catholic devotions, and practices, all those that make up our religion have been forged throughout the centuries and worn the test of time to become the most efficacious and meaningful so that we don’t have to reinvent the wheel every generation. While some old ideas fade, new ones develop such as the Divine Mercy Chaplet. While many years old to the world , its brand new in terms of the Catholic Church. But they ALL are ways to know HIM better and love Him more. That IS REALATIONSHIP OF THE TRUE RELIGION.
To argue that Christianity is not a religion or worse that religion is evil and something to be avoided is both ignorant and unbiblical. The bible tells us that Christianity the TRUE, PURE religion(James 1:27) And as you pointed out, religion is simply a way to worship God, Non Catholics have sermon after sermon describing exactly that , how to follow Gods laws! This dichotomy between a relationship and religion is simply something created to emphasize that Christians should KNOW Christ and not follow simple rituals without having a relationship with our Lord.
Well, those of us who a truly Catholic, and not like many nominal Catholics who end up leaving the Church because they never really knew the Church, clearly have a deep and always growing relationship with Jesus Christ, and thus God the Father. But, we have grown in that relationship due to our religion which teaches us how to grow closer through prayer, adoration, the rosary, Confession, reading the bible, marriage, devotions to the Saints, fasting, tithing, reverential postures and sacramentals, and on and on! All those things non Catholics see as things taking away from Jesus Christ are ALL , everything in the life of the Church , is to have a deeper relationship with HIM! Some poorly catechized Catholics do just jump through the ritual hoops without giving second thought about their connection to Christ. That is a spiritual crime that they do that and that they were never taught better.
So next time someone mentions this ask them what they do to have a relationship with their wives or kids. They will tell you they go out to movies, have birthday parties, give gifts, read the bible and pray together, have meals together, etc. Ask them if those are just rituals? Of course they are not! They are means by which we have relationship with our loved ones. And our Catholic religions has given us over the 2000 years a wisdom of various means to have relationship with Jesus Christ. Our calendar is full of saint birthday parties, the Eucharist is our Church Sunday meal, prayer time together. It is no different than the Evangelical Harvest Crusade, or the daily bible verse memorization, or the so called fellowshipping, prayer rallys etc. While they will say those all involve prayer and devotion to Jesus, we as Catholics should be prepared to say so does my Rosary, my novena, Adoration, my scapular. If we cant explain it as such we better be alarmed.
Nevertheless, I hear many many rules and regulations coming from non Catholic Christian radio and TV sermons and described in books and DVDs etc. Every year there are hundreds of new Christian book on ways to pray, raise a family, strengthen a marriage, grow in faith. They wouldn’t describe those as rules and regulations that serve as bondage. Why not?? Simply because they consider those as instruction to grow in ones relationship with Jesus. And that is exactly what ALL of the Catholic Church’s “rules and regulations” are about. One distinction that could be made is that while we as Catholics correctly believe that it matters how we live our lives in terms of eternal life, our Catholic teachings, the so called rules and regulations do carry more weight! In other words we should consider them as more than merely the latest fad in Christian writings, and regard them as matters of eternal life. But if we don’t heed these “rules and regulations” in faith, and instead follow simply as superstitious rituals then the charge of relationship versus false religion is true. But that ritualistic practice of Catholicism would be a false Catholicism. We can only conform our lives to the teachings of the Church by having relationship with HIM, and the Church teachings, the so called rules and regulations, show us what that life should look like. The rules and regulations without a relationship with Christ are meaningless in terms of salvation , they presume a faith in HIM and desire to grow in that faith.
Whenever I hear this comparison between relationship and religion I cant help thinking that the person saying it is either just a parrot saying something without thinking or really doesn’t have much insight to both his own religion and especially that of the Catholic Church.
What do you think?
