The third importance of personal prayer is its being a way to make our religion, or relationship with God, more genuine and more deeply rooted. Perhaps most of us have already heard this many times,
"Religion is not important. It is faith and personal relationship with God and the Lord Jesus that counts."
Many of those who say these, sad to know, are Christians - and Catholics - who may have not taken a serious reflection about what they are saying.
Many people equate religion with mere rites, rituals and obligations. They forget that religion includes these and much, much more besides. It may be true that many Christians, particularly Catholics, focus on the mere externals of faith, the rites and the rituals, but not the fundamentals and the more significant parts of religion such as personal relationship with God and our Savior Jesus Christ. But this shortcoming does not take away from religion its essence of being the manner by which we reestablish our relationship with God. That is why it was called religion for etymologically one of its meanings is to bind back, that is, to reestablish our ties with God which have been broken because of sin. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is indeed the most fundamental aspect of our religion for without Christ, there would be no Christianity and no Catholic Church. But our complete expression of such faith is not a mere lip service, that is, saying that one believes in the Lord Jesus Christ and has established a personal relationship with Him. When He came into this world, He established a Church, the Church for that matter, meaning a body of people who believe in and follow Him. Christianity is very much a communal religion and not merely having a personal union with God and the Savior.
Now we don't mean to say that these people who say that personal faith and personal relationship with God and the Lord are wrong. Actually that's what we are supposed to discuss here. But what we are saying is that having merely personal relationship with God is not enough for He meant to build the family of God and when we say family we mean more than one, actually everyone else. So we agree with them that having a personal relationship with God and our Savior is truly important. For having such personal relationship, our practice of religion becomes more genuine and deeply rooted.
Genuine because religion as we said is the binding back of man to God hence it is truly something that must be personally considered for without any personal commitment to such a relationship, our religion would be nothing but a meaningless membership into a corporate body to which we invest some capital at the start of day and which we can sell before the end of the trading at the stock exchange.
Deeply rooted because we go down to the basics of religion, which is being united again with the God who have made us and whom humanity has rejected but still made initiatives so that we may regain our rightful place within His eternal design: of being His children in the Lord Jesus Christ, our brother, the first born of all creation. Unless we have a personal relationship with God, we shall never understood the purpose of the Savior and the importance of His Church.
How do we make our religion become more genuine and more deeply rooted then? It is by developing our personal prayer life. For it is in this manner that we become more personally acquainted with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. With the Father because we gradually understand more His great love which He manifested first by creating us into His image and likeness [see Genesis 1:27] and then by sending His only begotten Son to save us and lead us away from damnation [see John 3:16] ; with the Son, who have given up His status as divine in order to become man [see Philippians 2: 6-11] in order to lead us from the darkness of sin into His most wonderful light [see 1 Peter 2:9] and called us to become His friends [see John 15: 12-17]; and with the Holy Spirit, who made our bodies His temples [see 1 Corinthians 6:19] and helps us to call upon the Father even through mere groans when we could not find the right words to express what our hearts wish to tell Him [see Romans 8:26].
By developing our personal prayer life, we can make our religion more genuine, or truer, and more deeply rooted, or more firmly anchored. So that the next time someone tells us that personal relationship with God and the Savior really matters, we can respond not only with a YES, THAT'S TRUE with full conviction but with a firmer gratitude for having a real religion.
"Religion is not important. It is faith and personal relationship with God and the Lord Jesus that counts."
Many of those who say these, sad to know, are Christians - and Catholics - who may have not taken a serious reflection about what they are saying.
Many people equate religion with mere rites, rituals and obligations. They forget that religion includes these and much, much more besides. It may be true that many Christians, particularly Catholics, focus on the mere externals of faith, the rites and the rituals, but not the fundamentals and the more significant parts of religion such as personal relationship with God and our Savior Jesus Christ. But this shortcoming does not take away from religion its essence of being the manner by which we reestablish our relationship with God. That is why it was called religion for etymologically one of its meanings is to bind back, that is, to reestablish our ties with God which have been broken because of sin. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is indeed the most fundamental aspect of our religion for without Christ, there would be no Christianity and no Catholic Church. But our complete expression of such faith is not a mere lip service, that is, saying that one believes in the Lord Jesus Christ and has established a personal relationship with Him. When He came into this world, He established a Church, the Church for that matter, meaning a body of people who believe in and follow Him. Christianity is very much a communal religion and not merely having a personal union with God and the Savior.
Now we don't mean to say that these people who say that personal faith and personal relationship with God and the Lord are wrong. Actually that's what we are supposed to discuss here. But what we are saying is that having merely personal relationship with God is not enough for He meant to build the family of God and when we say family we mean more than one, actually everyone else. So we agree with them that having a personal relationship with God and our Savior is truly important. For having such personal relationship, our practice of religion becomes more genuine and deeply rooted.
Genuine because religion as we said is the binding back of man to God hence it is truly something that must be personally considered for without any personal commitment to such a relationship, our religion would be nothing but a meaningless membership into a corporate body to which we invest some capital at the start of day and which we can sell before the end of the trading at the stock exchange.
Deeply rooted because we go down to the basics of religion, which is being united again with the God who have made us and whom humanity has rejected but still made initiatives so that we may regain our rightful place within His eternal design: of being His children in the Lord Jesus Christ, our brother, the first born of all creation. Unless we have a personal relationship with God, we shall never understood the purpose of the Savior and the importance of His Church.
How do we make our religion become more genuine and more deeply rooted then? It is by developing our personal prayer life. For it is in this manner that we become more personally acquainted with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. With the Father because we gradually understand more His great love which He manifested first by creating us into His image and likeness [see Genesis 1:27] and then by sending His only begotten Son to save us and lead us away from damnation [see John 3:16] ; with the Son, who have given up His status as divine in order to become man [see Philippians 2: 6-11] in order to lead us from the darkness of sin into His most wonderful light [see 1 Peter 2:9] and called us to become His friends [see John 15: 12-17]; and with the Holy Spirit, who made our bodies His temples [see 1 Corinthians 6:19] and helps us to call upon the Father even through mere groans when we could not find the right words to express what our hearts wish to tell Him [see Romans 8:26].
By developing our personal prayer life, we can make our religion more genuine, or truer, and more deeply rooted, or more firmly anchored. So that the next time someone tells us that personal relationship with God and the Savior really matters, we can respond not only with a YES, THAT'S TRUE with full conviction but with a firmer gratitude for having a real religion.
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