Is Christianity a religion or a lifestyle? A religion! (IV): Closing

-----continuing

Dearest brothers and sisters.

This is our religion, our binding together, our union with God: Christianity. It is in Christianity that God came down and became man, and unites man to Himself, so that man might experience the very Life of God. And this is the very Life of God: Love.

He, then, gives us the "pledge" or "first fruits" of our inheritance: the very life of the Holy Trinity, which is to love as "God [has] loved us."127 This love (the "charity" of 1 Cor 13) is the source of the new life in Christ, made possible because we have received "power" from the Holy Spirit.128
(CCC 735)

I have much to say but I guess we all can begin to see the richness of our Christian religion. It is sad to hear christians saying that we do not need sacraments, we do not need prayer, we do not need to read the bible, and what we need is to be good only. We are trying to be good away from the source of All Goodness, God.

Only when we see ourselves in union with God and in our neighbor, then we will be like God who is good and loving. And the richness of Christianity shows this union in many things, all the sacraments help us to "enter", "remain" and "grow" in this union of Love.

In Baptism we are united into Christ, and into His Body. And only in this Union can we understand why the Church is the Body of Christ, why St. Paul said that we are all one, we must have the same mind and the same heart.

This is also the reason why Christ gave the power to the Church to forgive sins. Because we keep on breaking the Union and in the sacrament of Reconciliation we are United back in the Life of God.

No wonder the Christianity respects Marriage very much. We see Marriage as a symbol of Christ Union with His Church. And this Holy Sacrament of Matrimony Unites man and woman. Only in this light we will understand why God created Man and Woman: so that they may become One.

Only in this Union we can see why is it necessary for us to receive Holy common-Union every Sunday. In this Holy Sacrament, we are united fully in Christ and in His Body, the Church. No wonder the Eucharist is called the source and the summit of Christian Life.

This is our religion, Christianity. And through all these sacraments we are in union with the Very Life of God. And when we are sharing the very Life of God, we will begin to Love as God has loved us, for God is Love.

This is the will of God, so that we may have our Happiness, our desire, that is a union of Love. What are we looking for in Life if not Love? In God alone we will find our happiness, and in this union with God and with His people we will find our heart's desire: Love.

For he has made known to us in all wisdom and insight the mystery of his will, according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fulness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
(Eph 1:9-10)

Our hearts are made for You, O Lord, and it will not rest until it rests in You
-St. Augustine-

Ad Maiorem Dei Gloriam
-For the greater Glory of God-

your brother in His love,
oka

Is Christianity a religion or a lifestyle? A religion! (III): What about doing good?

----continuing

And so what about doing good? I thought religion is about being a good person? I thought religion is teaching how to live a good life?

I love this story about the rain which waters the earth. It is about a drop of water in a lake. This water always looked to the sky and it always amazed at how beautiful it was to be a rain. This water wanted to be a rain, because a rain can create a wonderful rainbow, and people love rainbow. And so everyday this water always prayed so that one day it would become a rain that create rainbow. And so one day, the wheather was so hot and the water was changed into gas and lifted up to the sky, and it meets other waters who became gas as well. And the next day, the sky became dark, the rain fell down to water the earth.

The question is: can the water choose not to water the earth once it becomes a rain? Of course Not! Rain waters the earth. This is what rain is.

And God is Love. How is it possible that we do not love when we are in union with this God?

"... By this we may be sure that we are in him (Jesus): he who says he abides in him (in Jesus) ought to walk in the same way in which he (Jesus) walked."
(1Jo 2:5-6)

"He who does not love does not know God; for God is love."
(1Jo 4:8)

"No man has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us."
(1Jo 4:12)

"... God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him."
(1Jo 4:16)

And so Love, Good, and Kindness, is the character of God. And when we are in union in Him, we will be like Him. We will be loving, good, and kind.

And this is the problem with todays Christian: we find it so difficult to follow the teaching of Christ. We say, "How can it be that I can be loving, good, kind, etc, etc? That is for the saints". We find The Invitation as a Rule. We look at the calling as things that we can never do.

The question is not "How can I be...". The question is: "Am I in this union with God?". Yes, we will only reach the perfect union when we are in heaven. However, we need to change our mind set about Christianity. If we see Christianity as just a rule to be good, to do this and that, then we are 100% WRONG.

Christianity is about this union with God. It's about sharing The Very Life of God: a perfect union of Love. And when we are in union with God, we will see ourselves change, day by day, to be more like God. And all those are no longer rules, but they are just the manifestations of who we are as we come closer and closer to God.

The problem is that many of us trying to be good without God. And we find it so difficult, and so we choose not to be good. And yet God calls us to be in union with Him. And only in union with Him, we will find the source of Love that will never run dry: God, who is Love.

Why don't we listen for a while to what Mother Teresa said.

Non believers, but also christians, wonder where this sister, this small creature in cheap white sari, finds the courage, the power and the strength to do what she does since years and that seems to us both genius and heroic.
When you ask this question to Mother Teresa she points to the whole community of the Missionaries of Charity and above all to the love of God.

The activity of the sisters, all what we do is only the fruit of prayer, of our unity with Jesus in the Eucharist. Thanks to this unity it is possible for us to spend ourselves in the service of the lepers, the dying, the children, the unwanted and other people. When we come home in the evening, we have an hour of adoration. This is the biggest treasure of the Missionaries of Charity. (M. Teresa)

All that she did is only the fruit of prayer, of her unity with Jesus in the Eucharist. Doing good is not a rule to do, it is just a fruit of union with God.

Next: Closing
-------to be continued

Is Christianity a religion or a lifestyle? A religion! (II): Christianity and the Loving God

----continuing

We have mentioned before, that Christianity is more than just a lifestyle. And we have also tried to change our mindset on what is religion. Religion is about union. It is about union with God and union with our fellow men. This religious tendency, this tendency for communion, has existed since the beginning of human history. We all have this desire for God, we all have this desire for the Infinite. This is the reason why none on earth is able to satisfy us, not even money, not even food, not even success, NOTHING, except God.

And because of this religious, this call for union with God and others, there are a lot of religions in this world. Every religion is trying to find the Infinite in human lives. But how can we, a mere creation, unite ourselves with The Infinite Creator? This is the answer:

It is God, the Infinite, who reaches down to us the finite creation. It was God, the Immortal, who came down from His Heaven in order for us, the creation, comes to Heaven.

"In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins. "
(1Jo 4:10)

The Word became flesh to make us "partakers of the divine nature":78 "For this is why the Word became man, and the Son of God became the Son of man: so that man, by entering into communion with the Word and thus receiving divine sonship, might become a son of God."79 "For the Son of God became man so that we might become God."80 "The only-begotten Son of God, wanting to make us sharers in his divinity, assumed our nature, so that he, made man, might make men gods."81
(CCC 460)

This is what the Christianity Religion is all about. It is about God (The Word) who became human (flesh) so that we might become gods.

"The only-begotten Son of God, wanting to make us sharers in his divinity, assumed our nature, so that he, made man, might make men gods."81

This is man's desire, to unite himself with God, with the Infinite. And this is what God has done: God became man, so that man might become gods, so that man might share His Infinity, His Divinity. God satisfies our hearts' desire. God chose to share His Divinity with us, a creation.

This God who became man is Jesus the Christ. And He is the centre of our religion, He is the centre of our Union, and that is why we call ourselves The Christ-ian.

This is what Christianity is all about. It is about God the Creator who chose to be a creation for love's sake. For the sake of Love, God became man. Out of Love, He came down from Heaven, so that we might experience what our hearts yearn: God, who is Love.

Next: What about doing good? I thought religion is about doing good?
-----to be continued

Is Christianity a religion or a lifestyle? A religion! (I)

Dearest brothers and sisters,

I would just like to share my opinion on this topic. We, young people, often heard or read e-mails telling that Christianity is not a religion, rather, it is a lifestyle. We heard that Jesus never found a religion, He never found Christianity even. What is most important in our faith is about doing good and loving other people. There is no need for "so many rules" that our church has: going to church, pray, read bible, etc, etc. What important is about being a good and loving person. Is all this true?

I was one who used to think that Christianity is not a religion. I used to prefer Christianity as a lifestyle instead. I realized why I preferred lifestyle than religion. Religion sounded like "rules, beliefs, must-go-to-church, etc, etc". It didn't sound interesting at all. Rather lifestyle sounded so nice, good lifestyle, happy lifestyle, loving lifestyle => we all want this don't we?

However, as I reflected about this, I realized that I was wrong. First, I was wrong about confining Christianity only to just a lifestyle, and Second, I was wrong of my understanding on what religion is all about. So just let me share with you one by one.

I was wrong by just confining Christianity to a mere lifestyle. Well, I do agree that Christianity is a life style "to a certain extent". But it is more than that. Why is it wrong to say that Christianity is only a lifestyle? Because, a life style "does not always" need God. Some of us who tend to say that Christianity is a life style "would" (not necessarily always) describe Jesus as a teacher who teaches us how to live a good lives. He tells us how to live our life. But the question is: Is Jesus "just" a teacher?

Saying Christianity just a life style would confine Christianity to what happens in our "lives on earth only". Our lifestyles only exist when we live here on earth. But what happens after that? Is Christianity only about living our lives here on earth?

Unfortunately, many of us Christian have lost the hope of Eternal Life. Many of us have reduced Christianity only to what happens here on earth. Many of us have lost the faith and the hope of the first Christian martyrs who died for Christ. Most of us do not really understand their sacrifice.

Christianity is more than just a lifestyle as Jesus is more than just a Teacher.

"and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God."
(Joh 6:69)"

Christianity is much bigger than just lives here on earth.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."
(Joh 3:16)

And when we say what is most important in our faith is about becoming a good person, a kind person, a loving person, etc, etc, and ignoring other things, we tend only to do the "second half" of the main teaching of our faith: Love your neighbor. We tend to forget the first one "Love your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength".

Have we truly LOVEd God? Do we even "aware" of the God whom we love? This is the question that we need to ask to each and everyone of us.

And so what is Christianity? Let us first change our mind set on what religion is all about.

We often think that religion is just a set of beliefs, rules, good and bad, etc, etc. And so we often miss what religion is all about. I too was mistaken.

One day, I read an article about Christianity and religion, and it says what religion means. And I was surprise from what I read because I never thought about this before.

Religion, the article says, comes from a latin word "religare". This latin word means "to bind together".

That was something new to me. Religion means to bind together. But what are the things that are binded together? Men and God, men and men.

This is what religion is all about. It binds us. It binds us with God and it binds us with our fellow men. And for Christianity, the amazing thing is that, GOD CHOSE to bind Himself with men, His creation.

This is what religion is all about, it is about Union. Everywhere on the surface of the earth, we can see people have this religious tendency. From the ages of long ago until now, we can see people trying to have religion. People tend to look for God. People are desiring God. People try to bind themselves with the Creator, to "Someone Beyond them". And this beliefs bind them as one, and we call it religion.

People are searching for God. That's the irony with today's world. We are hungry of God and yet we avoid God. We look for the Infinite in the finite pleasure of the world. We say that we do not need God. We say that God does not exist. And we keep on searching and searching, and we all know that none will ever satisfy us, and yet we keep on running away from the One who can satisfy us.

This Truth, that we need God, is what Christianity reveals. The Church says.

"The desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God and for God; and God never ceases to draw man to himself. Only in God will he find the truth and happiness he never stops searching for:

The dignity of man rests above all on the fact that he is called to communion with God. This invitation to converse with God is addressed to man as soon as he comes into being. For if man exists it is because God has created him through love, and through love continues to hold him in existence. He cannot live fully according to truth unless he freely acknowledges that love and entrusts himself to his creator."
(CCC 27)

We are created to find this happiness in God, and God has called us into this happiness. And we cannot live fully unless we acknowledge that Love and entrusts ourselves to our Creator.

"Our hearts are created for you, O Lord; and it will not rest until it rest in You."
-St. Augustine

And this is the reason why there are so many religions in the world. People are trying to find God. And yet how can we, the finite, reach the Infinite? How can we, the creation, unite ourselves with the Creator? How is it possible for a bee to unite itself with a Man? How is it possible for a man to unite himself with The God?

Next: Christianity and the loving God
----to be continued