A Ramble About Religious Life

The Christian life is, first and foremost, a religious life. That is, it is a life which is lived by a religious rule.

"No, it's a relationship with God! How can you say that it's a religion? A religion is all about rules, laws, "do"s and "don't"s and the traditions which human beings have made up. That's not my faith. I know God and He knows me. He doesn't make me follow any rules to be saved. How dare you even suggest that!"

The Christian life is the life of a disciple. It is the life of someone who has committed themselves to learning, living, and mastering the Path of Jesus Christ. It is the life of someone who has answered His call to leave everything behind, one way or another, and follow Him. It is the life of rigorous self-discipline as we strive to crucify the self with its passions and desires.

"Wait a second, I professed faith in Jesus, I was even baptized; are you saying that I'm not a Christian because I don't try to follow everything Jesus or the Apostles said? Are you saying I'm not saved?"

Our relationship with God begins the moment Grace breaks through our spiritual disorder, and we profess faith in Christ. It is legitimized and sealed with baptism as we are joined to Christ in His death so that we might be joined to Him in His resurrection. But a relationship with God through Christ does not count as discipleship any more than being born counts as a four year college degree. You must submit to sixteen or seventeen years of schooling, or the equivalent thereof, to obtain the degree. Even so, you must submit to the religious rule of Christian discipleship if you hope to attain the high callng of God in Christ Jesus, which is deification. Typically, parents send their kids to college in the hopes of them attaining that for year degree, and pay large sums of money to see that goal realized. God the Father paid for us to have the privilege of discipleship to attain that high calling with the torture, humiliation, and gruesome murder of God the Son incarnated as a human being by ruthless men.He expects all those born into His family to study hard and achieve the goal, not waste His investment on frat parties, failed classes, and attempts at cheating to just squeak by. No parent expects that.

So, the Christian life is the life of a disciple, and it is a life lived by religious rule.

What is a "religious rule?" Put simply, a religious rule is the set of rules imposed on a religious community by their founder. The most common of such rules are poverty, obedience, and celibacy. Other rules may include the wearing of certain clothes, a prohibition against speaking, required service in the community, or a mandatory mission trip depending on the religious community in question. If someone wants to be a Franciscan, they must follow the religious rule of the Franciscan order. If they want to be a Carmelite, they must follow the religious rule of the Carmelite order. It is their choice if they want to join these orders or not. No one forces them to do it. You cannot join the order and then just do whatever you want. You will be expelled from the order after a short period of time. It is assumed that you know what you are getting into when you join and enter your novitiate.

The Church is, fundamentally, a religious community. This should be an obvious fact, but the trend in churches today is to ridicule or object to anything which uses the word "religious" in it. There were rules laid down for this community to follow as a means to further the single objective of deificiation by both our Founder, and those He chose as His immediate successors. Those rules are not pleasurable. They are not easy. And, ultimately, they will cost you everything you thought you held dear as you pursue the one single goal of the Christian life, union with God.

If you refuse to follow those rules, please don't delude yourself into thinking you are a disciple of Jesus Christ. You may be a baptized member of the Church, but you are not a disciple, and are not living the Christian life. You are a small child who is refusing to go to school and learn anything, and you will do a tremendous amount of damage to yourself and others because of your willful ignorance if someone who is learned and responsible doesn't babysit you and watch you constantly.

You must have someone teach you, and you must be willing to be instructed in order to drive a car. You must be willing to take the time to learn how it works and what the rules of the road are. If you don't, you may only damage your transmission and make the car undriveable at best, at worst you may kill yourself and many other people. The Christian life is the same way. You cannot make up your own rules and expect everyone else on the road to get out of your way and drive by the rules you think are fair.

The religious rule of the Christian life was laid down in the first three centuries by Christ Himself, His Apostles, and their successors. There is only one goal in mind, and that religious rule is geared to help you achieve that goal. The only reason why someone would refuse to follow that religious rule is if they have some other goal or agenda, and not the goal of deification. Union with God through Jesus Christ was the only goal of those who laid down that religious rule. Everything which interfered with that was expected to be stripped away.

Achieving the obedience to these rules perfectly is not the goal. The religious rule is a tool to assist you in your discipleship, but it is the means, not the end. If it becomes the end in and of itself then you are still not a disciple of Jesus Christ, but of your own self-importance and ambition with your own self-esteem as your goal and not the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. It's as though you only care about what your classmates think of you; whether or not you're the most popular, and not whether or not you understand the material your supposed to be studying and move on to graduation.

God loves us deeply ad richly and that will never change. Evey parent that loves their child will want them to have the best chance of success in life possible. God is no different.

You may live in the dorm. You may wear the college sweater. You may ever show up for classes. But if you don't buckle down and apply yourself and really work hard to graduate, you're not really a student are you?

Stop making excuses. Stop expecting to be able to remain an infant for the rest of your life. There are a few people in this world who do stop growing before they reach a year old. These people have a serious growth disorder and will never be able to care for themselves, much less anyone else. This is a person to be pitied, not emulated.

Are you afraid of failing? Why? The only person really afraid of failing is the person who cares more about what other people think of him than about learning and mastering the material. Any sincere student knows that they will fail again and again until they grasp the concept, and once they do, those failures only serve to teach them what not to do. You will fail. You will struggle. But in the process of failing and struggling, you will learn, and you will come to understand what it is you are trying to learn.

Stop being afraid to live up to your commitment to Him which you made when you were baptized. Stop being afraid to really see the darkest part of yourself and learn to accept it for what it is. Stop being afraid to have a real relationship with God, and not the illusion of a relationship that you can control and feel "safe" with. Stop being afraid to face Jesus Christ naked, humiliated, and weak and realize that this is the only way to honestly face Him. The illusion you imagine, the fantasy you control in your head, won't cut it.

Stop being afraid t engage God as He is and realize that this is the best thing you could ever possibly do. Everything else is the illusion, the fantasy. God alone is the Reality and the best thing you can do is to cooperate with Him as He strips away your illusions until only He remains. The religious rule of the Christian life was laid down to foster and encourage this. The only reason why you wouldn't want to follow it is if you want to remain blind, ignorant, and separated from Him. Think about it long and hard and choose very carefully whether or not you want to be "religious."