You dont need religion only Jesus..how to reply to

[Randy_Carson]

My sister is always saying to me that you dont need religion only Jesus. This confuses me and I dont know how to respond! I have told her I never have felt as close to Jesus as in my Catholic faith. What else can I tell her?

Archbishop Dolan cited the conversion story of St. Paul to illustrate the connection, noting that “Jesus did not ask, ‘Saul, why do you persecute my people?’ or ‘Why do you persecute my church?’ Jesus asked, ‘Why do you persecute me?’”

He invited his audience to consider those words carefully as he noted that, once converted, Saul/Paul “seeks out the church, the united followers of Jesus. He sought out the church in order to find Jesus, so that he could be united in the disciples’ work of evangelization.”

Yet, the archbishop said, that connection seems to be lost on many of today’s people, including many lapsed, inactive and fallen-away Catholics — some of whom have renounced and rejected the Catholic faith.

“We are living in an era where people believe in Christ, but not in his church,” said Archbishop Dolan. “They want the king, but not the kingdom; they want to believe without belonging; they want the faith, but not the faithful. But for the committed Catholic, the answer to that is, ‘no can do.’ Jesus and the church are one.”

 

[pnewton]

By the way the dogma of “the immaculate conception” was also created by Pope Pius IX which I have never found in the Bible.

Many things have been added and only God and Satan know why.

May God Bless you and open your hearts and eyes to His truth.

Many things are acceptable here, but this level of disrespect is inappropriate. I am sorry you feel you must call on Satan as an explanation for what you do not understand.

The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception does appear in the Bible and was first introduced by the angel Gabriel. There we find the angel greeting Mary with a royal greeting (as in "Hail, Caesar) and calling her the one is is in a state of having been graced, to literaly describe the perfect participle that is used to describe Mary and is used no else in the Bible. Now, you may say, and you would be right, that this does not mean that Mary was conceived without sin. However, it does allow for that interpretation. Pope Pius did not create this doctrine, he defined it as dogma, a very different thing.

All of this is beside the point that the earlier claim was that the Catholic Church no longer teaches what the disciples taught. There is nothing that the disciples taught that the Catholic Church does not teach. Yes, there are things, like the Trinity, that the disciples did not understand at the time that are taught today, but the Catholic Church is scarcely alone in this.

 

[StrawberryJam]

I always find this idea a display in ignorace of the English language. The primary definition of religion is belief in a supreme being or beings. So, what does one need Jesus for it one does not have any sort of belief in God?

Exactly.

 

[farnhamyrl]

You tell them they don’t understand the definition of religion.

 

[HardRockGTR]

My sister is always saying to me that you dont need religion only Jesus. This confuses me and I dont know how to respond! I have told her I never have felt as close to Jesus as in my Catholic faith. What else can I tell her?

I unfortunately know a girl like this, who claims that she doesn’t need to read the Bible or go to church to be Christian. As far as I’m concerned, she only believes in God and Jesus being her savior, while coming up with excuses to behave in ways often condemned by most branches.

Needless to say, I can’t take her seriously.

 

[John_Radice]

I’ve read the posts with interest. It’s such a cliche, heard often from Protestants. I responded once to a friend by taking him back to the root of the word, which is to do with being bound together (related word: ligature). I suggested that religion was best understood as the process of discipleship, and all that involves - submission to one another as well as to Christ, obedience to leaders, acts of service, etc.

 

[MJCamp]

Starting with the Bible. The New Testament in It’s current form was not finalized until 382AD. 350 years after the death of Jesus. The proposed cannon was 73 books which the Church still acknowledges today. The Catholic Church gave the world the Bible. The Bible does not exist apart from the Church and the Church does not exist apart from the Bible.
Matthew 16:18-19 “And I tell you , you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will entrust to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
This passage clearly shows that Jesus is certainly establishing His Church. He gives this Church the ability to ratify issues not only on earth but also in heaven. What Church is Jesus talking about here?

“You must follow the bishop as Jesus Christ follows the Father, and the presbytery as you would Apostles. Reverence the deacons as you would the command of God. Let no one do anything of concern to the Church without the bishop. Let that be considered a valid Eucharist which is celebrated by the bishop, or by one whom he appoints. Wherever the bishop appears, let the people be there, just as wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church.” St. Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Smyrnaeans 8:1-2, 107AD

“We call this food the Eucharist; and no one else is permitted to partake of it, except one who believes our teaching to be true and who has been washed in the washing which is for the remission of sins and for regeneration; and is thereby living as Christ enjoined. For not as common bread nor common drink do we receive these; but since Jesus Christ our Savior was made incarnate by the word of God and had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so too, as we have been taught, the food which has been made into the Eucharist by the Eucharistic prayer set down by Him, and by the change of which our blood and flesh is nurtured, is both the flesh and the blood of that incarnated Jesus.” - St. Justin Martyr First Apology 66, 151 AD

These two passages by Early Church Fathers, we clearly see there is a hierarchy of bishop, his presbytery of priests, and deacons. This church is also given the authority to partake in a valid Eucharist, passed on from the original apostles and disciples of Jesus time.

2Peter3:16 describing Paul’s Letters “In them are some things hard to understand, which the ignorant or unstable distort to their own destruction, just as they do the other scriptures.”
Authority of the Church is very important in studying and deciphering scripture which was originally meant to be used in the readings of the mass

 

[bmonk]

Perhaps Jesus is enough that we do not need religion.

However, how do we encounter Jesus? Who would teach us?

The Bible is not enough by itself: there are tens of thousands of denominations that claim to follow the Bible and the Bible alone. If they cannot agree on what it means enough to remain united, how can I alone expect to understand? How can I trust what they claim is there not to be a later addition or false interpretation?

The only other authority that can teach me about Jesus is the Catholic Church–the communion that Jesus founded, gave authority to, and sent out to teach the nations about him. More: this is the community that established the Bible–as the saying goes, Jesus did not give us a Bible; he founded a Church. So, what does this community say?

That we have been given the community as a support in faith, as a source of nourishment through the sacraments and prayers, as a source of encouragement in weakness and doubt, and so on.

There may be some strong enough to make it without this sort of “religious” support. I am not one such. It may not be necessary to have such aids–but if you can use a rope and other equipment to climb a mountain successfully and safely, would you insist on climbing it without that help? Some might–for the thrill of danger–but this endangers your chance at everlasting life. Is it worth risking everything, just to avoid using what Jesus gave us?