18th of Year B
August 2006
`So this I say to you and attest to you in the Lord, do not go on living the emptyheaded life that the gentiles live. Now that is hardly the way you have learnt Christ, unless you failed to hear him properly when you were taught what the truth is in Jesus. You were to put aside your old self, which belongs to your old way of life and be renewed in spirit so that you could put on the New Man that has been created on God's principles, in the uprightness and holiness of the truth.'
Being religious is not just about doing certain things. Being religious is about being a new type of person.
All religions concentrate on getting their followers to do certain things (certain external acts) like attending religious services, praying at fixed times, fasting, fulfilling certain religious obligations like receiving sacraments, going on pilgrimages, reciting fixed forms of prayer etc.. This is fine insofar as it goes and is particularly suited to young and new Christians and people who's main concern in life is trying to keep body and soul together, which was the condition of the vast majority of people in the world up to sixty years ago.
But things change. People grow and mature and begin to feel the need for greater understanding of their religious practises and for a closer relationship with God. Especially at the present time with the great advances in affluence and education people need a lot more from religion than just a list of duties to perform.
For many people today the `faith of our fathers' is like teaching your children to use the toilet properly and thinking that in doing this you have fulfilled your duty as a parent and your children need no further training or guidance. Surely this is only a first step in ongoing training and guidance. Unfortunately, some of us (and I am talking about all religions) never get beyond or want to get beyond the ‘toilet training' stage. We end up performing certain acts, the reason for which we do not understand sufficiently and which do not change the sort of person we are in any meaningful way. The result is that we plod along with our religious exercises because we fear to stop them or we get totally disillusioned and throw the whole lot, both religious exercises and religion, out the window. Already I can hear some of you thinking that I am encouraging you to abandon your religious exercises, like certain forms of prayed, mass attendance, the Sacraments, etc., I am not saying that at all. Actually the more we understand these religious exercises the greater our participation, and the more important they become in our growing relationship with God.
What I am saying is that I can get bogged down in doing religious things over and over again and fail to advance beyond the doing. I do all these religious things, but inside I remain the same cantankerous, greedy, intolerant, angry, selfish, abusive, dishonest person.
Religion is about becoming (suddenly or gradually) a different kind of person inside; and the religious things we do are very important means to this end.
I know that many of you know exactly what I am talking about. But some of you may be confused and ask “what must I do?”.
‘Jesus was setting out on a journey when a man ran up, knelt before him and put this question to him, “Good master, what must I do to inherit eternal life?' “Jesus replied, ‘you know the commandments, You shall not kill, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not give false witness, You shall not defraud, Honour your father and mother.'
And he said to him, 'Master, I have kept all these since my earliest days.'
Jesus looked steadily at him and he was filled with love for him, and he said, 'You need to do one thing more. Go and sell what you own and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.'
What Jesus was telling him was; you have been avoiding sin and doing good deeds all your life, now is the time to move on and really be a good person.