Saving Faith Verses ReligionThere are two types of Catholics, those that are truly Catholic Christians and those that are merely religious worshippers. In other words, there are those who practice religion for whatever reason and then there are those who posses true faith. And believe me when I say there is a real difference.
Religion is humanities creation; faith is Gods gift. A religious person comes to Mass to momentarily ease a guilty conscience and check off a Sunday obligation; while faith comes to Mass to see Christ Jesus. Religion sees Jesus as a meal ticket; faith sees Jesus as God. Religion searches for physical needs to be met by performing religious rituals; while faith on the other hand see rituals as a means of communing with God and receiving grace. Religion sees the signs, but not what the signs point to. But again faith sees Christ Jesus. The Church has this syndrome; worship, hymns, prayers, rituals, sacraments, sermons, creeds, benedictions, and even scripture. But what should be exciting becomes a common place where one cannot see beyond all the commotion in order to see the Word of God made flesh and dwelling among us. Religion is focused on right ritual while faith is focused on a right relationship with God. Religion is caught up in words while faith uses those same words to abide with the object of the words, Christ Jesus. Religion becomes common and mundane, but faith is always fresh and seeks to commune with God.
People who are religious do one of two things; they either wear their religion on the outside with pride and arrogance, like the Pharisees before them where everything was literal and outward in appearance giving the impression that their lives were in order. The other religious type is the one who hides it. They are the ones that shock you when you find out that they attend church. These people have not made Christ Jesus the center of their lives and they will die in their religion. In John 6, Jesus made it perfectly clear that unless we consume all of Him as the very substance of life, one will die of eternal starvation. When one sees Christ Jesus as the primary substance of life and ingests His life, death, and resurrection as we ingest food to live on, then one has faith, not religion. You see, religion cannot survive death, but faith in Christ Jesus can. Religion will not come out victorious on the other side of trials and tribulations, but faith in Christ is the ultimate victory in any and all circumstances. Religion will meet death with fear and trembling, but faith will cry out, “To live is as Christ, to die is gain!”
“The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?” So asked St. Paul of the Corinthian Christians (1 Corinthians 10:16). It most certainly is! Yet the religious do not believe.
To those who merely attend Mass in order to check off another Sunday obligation cannot believe. For they, like countless other professing Christians who are not in full communion with the Church, see the elements as merely symbolic, meaningless pieces of bread and wine. But does their opinion mean they merely encounter the elements? In their places of worship it is true that the non-Catholic does indeed encounter nothing more than a mere symbol, but is that true within the confines Catholic Church? Certainly not! While non-Catholics and many professing Catholics fail to believe they are encountering the real Christ, His body, blood, soul and divinity under the appearance of bread and wine, doesn’t change the fact that they are indeed these things. They are merely carbon copies of their Pharisaic counterparts of old, who stood toe-to-toe, face-to-face, and nose-to-nose with Jesus, yet failed to accept or believe He was the Messiah.
Whoever comes forward to eat and drink from the Lords table without true faith and belief or fails to purify their soul of sin through the act of confession, reaps not blessing but condemnation. They are guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Those that do such a thing do not offer the first fruits of self-sacrifice after the manner in which Able offered the first fruits of his flock, become like Cain who offered something second rate and unacceptable to the Lord. In other words, they partake of the Lords table in an unworthy manner, thus eating and drinking judgment unto his or herself like their forefathers who partook unworthily in the early Church found themselves weak, sick, and some even died. Many are wrought with such things today for the very same reasons. The elements of bread and wine are truly the body and blood of the Lord. There is no symbolic intent in St. Paul’s words. In fact there is not a single instance recorded in all of scripture that testifies to anyone reaping the Lords judgment for having profaned a mere symbol (see 1 Corinthians 11:23-30). One cannot “drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the Lord’s Table and the table of demons” (10:21).
Is all of this not true? Was there not one false disciple reclining at the table with the Lord at the Last Supper? There most certainly was! And until the proper moment in time had come he was unbeknownst by the other eleven. Judas Iscariot walked alongside the Lord for three years. He witnessed first hand all the miracles that Jesus worked among the sick, dieing, and even the dead and was even commissioned alongside the other eleven who were then sent out to preach the Gospel. He was with them when they received the power to cast out demons, heal the sick, cleanse lepers and raise the dead (see Matthew 10:5-14). Judas was even entrusted to be the keeper of the group’s finances. But despite all of that Jesus referred to him as being a devil (John 6:70) and the “son of perdition” (John 17:12), a term that St. Paul would later use to describe the Antichrist (2 Thessalonians 2:3). And he died after sharing in the bread and wine that Christ consecrated at the Last Supper.
Unfortunately there are many among us today, sitting at the Lord’s Table, who posses the same spirit that controlled the life of Judas Iscariot. But despite that fact and all the unbelief, the Eucharist is still in fact Christ Jesus coming to us veiled under the appearance of bread and wine.
So the question I propose is this: How do you partake of the meal that’s set before you? Do you come with mere religion checking off another Sunday obligation so that the bland taste of bread and the sweet taste of wine leave the taste of condemnation upon your tongue and then go home with one more religious quota satisfied which will soon be washed away with Sunday dinner? Or do you come in faith where the bland taste of the bread will become as sweet as milk and honey as your spirit is stirred reminding you of your sins and the Savior who took them unto Himself and suffered your punishment?
Have you ever wondered why Christ chose to utilized bread and wine to represent His body and blood? I know I did until the late Bishop Fulton Sheen eloquently explained the answer: “First of all, because no two substances in nature better symbolize unity than bread and wine. As bread is made from a multiplicity of grains of wheat, and wine is made from a multiplicity of grapes, so the many who believe are one in Christ. Second, no two substances in nature have to suffer more to become what they are than bread and wine. Wheat has to pass through the rigors of winter, be ground between the Calvary of a meal, and then subjected to purging fire before it can become bread. Grapes in their turn must be subjected to the Gethsemane of a wine press and have their life crushed from them to become wine. Thus do they symbolize the Passion and Sufferings of Christ, and the condition of Salvation, for our Lord said unless we die to ourselves we cannot live in Him. A third reason is that there are no two substances in nature, which have more traditionally nourished man than bread and wine. In bringing these elements to the altar, men are equivalently bringing themselves. When bread and wine are taken or consumed, they are changed into man’s body and blood. But when He took bread and wine, He changed them into Himself” (Life of Christ, Image Books, p.278).
In order for all of us to avoid the trap of falling into mere mundane religion, we need to heed the words of St. Francis De Sales: “From the beginning until the priest goes up to the altar make your preparation with him. This consists in placing yourself in the presence of God, recognizing your unworthiness, and asking pardon for your sins (and mean it from the depths of your heart). (2) From the time he goes up to the altar until the Gospel consider our Lord’s coming and His life in this world by a simple, general consideration. (3) From the Gospel until after the Creed consider our Saviors preaching and affirm that you are resolved to live and die faithful and obedient to His holy word and in union with the holy Catholic Church. (4) From the Gospel to the Our Father apply your heart to the mysteries of the Passion and Death of our Redeemer. They are actually and essentially represented in this Holy Sacrifice. Together with the priest and the rest of the people you will offer them to God the Father for His honor and for your own salvation. (5) From the Our Father to the communion strive to excite a thousand desires in your heart and ardently wish to be joined and united forever to our Savior in everlasting love. (6) From the communion to the end of Mass give thanks to Jesus Christ for His incarnation, life, passion, and death, and for the love He manifests in this Holy Sacrifice. Implore Him always to be merciful to you, your parents, friends, and the whole Church. Humble yourself with all your heart and devoutly receive the blessing our Lord gives you through the ministry of His minister” (Introduction To The Devout Life, Image Books, p. 104-105).
A true relationship with Christ is evidenced in the breaking of the bread and should result in a changed life and behavior. It should make us sensitive to our sins, our faults, and failures. It should make us see them in the light of the tremendous price Christ paid to secure our redemption. As we gather together with our brothers and sisters to celebrate the Eucharistic meal, we should be conscience of our oneness not only with those who partake of the elements with us, but with Christ Himself. The Eucharist is a family meal, and the Lord of the family desires that His children love one another and care for one another. That we should be one in Christ and that oneness should be evident in everything we say or do during Mass and after Mass when we step back out into the world even if others fail to recognize us as such.
I can imagine Cleopas and his friend standing in amazement, perhaps embracing in great joy, asking each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while He talked with us on the road and opened the scriptures to us?” Their world had finally come together again. With their hearts still ablaze they set off at once for Jerusalem. It matter not that darkness had fallen across the land and traveling at night was extremely dangerous, the joy that Jesus had placed in their hearts through the hearing of His words and the breaking of bread made the danger seem trivial. They were determined to share with the other disciples what had transpired on the road to Emmaus. And that’s the type of attitude that we should have.
May The Peace Of Christ Be With You!
