What is this thing we call religion?

October 3, 2024

Today’s first reading has a stark opening sentence:

These are the commands, decrees and laws the Lord your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess,  so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the Lord your God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life.  

This is a kind of teaching that is very representative of the understanding of religion held by  most of the followers of any religion  Most adherents of religions see their own religion as a system of rules, of do(s) and don’t(s), a religion that stipulates various conditions to be fulfilled if one wished to be saved, and go to heaven or attain liberation, or even if one wants to gain the favour of God. And much time and energy is spent on clarifying (splitting hairs?) what exactly the law demands and how to follow it.  For example, in Israel today, there are the ordinary Jews, the orthodox Jews and the ultra-orthodox Jews, and each group has a different interpretation of what it means to follow the Sabbath. Thus orthodox Jews even put their lights on timer switches so that they do not ‘work’ over the Sabbath to switch on or turn off the lights, and the ultra-orthodox go even further.  In Hinduism, some of the religious rules applicable to women during their menstrual period mandates that they cannot enter temples, or even pray in the pooja room (the prayer room) in their own homes.  In Catholicism, many older people will remember the great discord or debate that was created when receiving the Eucharist in the hand replaced receiving it on one’s tongue.  

This making of religion into a system of rules and prescribed practices, of dos and donts, has turned several people away from religion, especially when the rules don’t make sense to them. And since they have no recourse by which they could challenge these rules, it is no wonder that many thinking persons would turn away from religion.

But beyond all these rules what is religion really? Religion comes from the root ‘religare’ which means to bind closely together, and so refers to the name we give to the way we ‘bind’ ourselves to God.  In short it refers to the relationship we have with God. The term God itself has however been so corrupted over the ages, that most people think of God as a powerful being who sits in some realm beyond our own, and whose primary action seems to be to decide whether to punish or reward us.  And since this is the common understanding of God,  for most people, religion is largely confined to finding ways to placate or please this “God”. As a result, these laws and commandments become very important, and following them becomes the essence of religion.  But if we understand religion as a name given to the relationship we share with this Ultimate Reality - whether we call it God or Ultimate Truth or an All-pervading energy, - then maybe we would have a different understanding of religion, different from an understanding of religion as a rule book on how to please God.

If this is what religion really is, then we can see that each religious genius, including Jesus, offers us an understanding of this relationship with God or this Ultimate Reality, that is distinctive of that genius.  In fact the Hindu mystic, Ramakrishna, who is best known for his pluralistic approach to religions, reportedly claimed to have experienced God in different ways by ‘becoming’ (for short periods at a time) a member of different Hindu sects and even of Islam and Christianity.  The idea, behind this ‘experiment’ of his was, of course, that since God or this Ultimate Reality cannot be ‘limited’ by any one experience, each religious genius offers us a glimpse into just ‘part’ of this ultimate reality.  This, of course, ties in with Pope Francis’ recent off-the-cuff remark in Singapore: “All religions are paths to God.  I will use an analogy; they are like different languages that express the divine”. Belonging to a ‘religion’ that follows one of these religious geniuses is basically an attempt to experience God in the same way that that particular religious genius experienced God.

As a result one has Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains, Zoroastrians, Bahaii, several types of Hindus, and followers of many other religions, depending on which religious genius’ revelation of God appeals to one, or which one we grow up with and understand better.  But then each group, as it gets more and more institutionalised, creates guidelines (in the form of beliefs, rituals, commandments and rules) that are meant to help one experience or ‘see’ that particular face of the ultimate reality.  And even within one group, (Hindu, Christian, Muslim, or any other) there aren’t just one set of guidelines, for over the ages, powerful teachers in each group tend to create their own modifications of these guidelines, so that soon enough each sub-group or  denomination has its own guidelines. Similarly, we too are called, as adult and thinking members of these groups, not to blindly protect these guidelines, but to keep reflecting on them, and continuously improve them, so that they can help more and more people to experience that relationship with God that is intended.

After all, we must not forget that as long as these remain as guidelines that help us have the same experience of God that the one we follow taught us about, then they are helpful guidelines.  But, as Jesus taught, we must never forget that the Sabbath (all these guidelines) were made for human beings, and not human beings for the Sabbath. It is also the case, that there are those who call themselves Christians but do not wish to belong to any particular denomination, because while they are drawn to that experience of God revealed to us by Jesus, they do not particularly find the guidelines of any one denomination/sub-group helpful.

I would suggest that an important part of Jesus' mission was to free us of this understanding of religion which was focused on laws/rules. We have a telling incident in the Gospel, where the religious authorities bring a woman caught in adultery, a sin that was so serious and completely against Jewish religious law (or even our current Christian law), that the punishment prescribed by the Jewish Scripture was to stone her to death.  And yet Jesus disarms her accusers, and when all have left, turns to her and asks her: “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”  “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.” (John 8:10-11) This story is a clear reminder of what this religion we call Christianity is all about. It is not about the rules - whether of divorce, adultery, homosexuality, abortion or so many other issues about which we so often fight. The religion we call Christianity is the name given to that experience of God that Jesus shared with us - the experience of God as a loving Father. And while all these commandments and rules are generally helpful to avoid sin, if we have focused on these instead of focusing on what these were meant to lead us towards, namely to experience the love of God, have we regressed into exactly that kind of religion that Jesus hated? And so I end with St. Augustine’s controversial statement that is, I believe, an expression of the basic essence of Christianity: Love, and do what you will. 

First Reading: Deuteronomy 6: 1-6

These are the commands, decrees and laws the Lord your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess,  so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the Lord your God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life.  

Hear, Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, promised you.

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.  These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts.

 

Second Reading: Hebrews 7: 23-28

Now there have been many of those priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office;  but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood.  Therefore he is able to save completely[a] those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.

Such a high priest truly meets our need—one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself. For the law appoints as high priests men in all their weakness; but the oath, which came after the law, appointed the Son, who has been made perfect forever.

 

Gospel: Mark 12: (13-) 28b-34

One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”

“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

“Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions.