What is the true nature of religion?
Today’s world asks, “How unimportant can you make religion in your life?” I challenge you to ask, “How much could this religion change my life?”
In today’s world, many see the word “religion” negatively. In a supposedly freer and more open society, religion is portrayed as restrictive and divisive. Religion is supposed to be about “life, the universe, and everything,” but today, people mostly ask: how small can it be? How little time, few demands, slight change, little impact can it be relegated to? With this approach, is it any wonder that people suffer from despair and are more divided than ever?
The reading from James addresses the nature of Christian religion: it comes from God, who entered our world to reveal himself; it gives life, because God willed to give us new life by the word of truth, which is “able to save your souls;” it depends on a response: “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God is to care for orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained by the world,” i.e., do good and reject evil.
A political issue that has risen to prominence in our country is the medical health crisis. There seem to be connections between chronic medical conditions, medication, and the quality of available food. But there is also a spiritual health crisis. “Garbage in, garbage out,” affects spiritual health no less than physical. There is a hunger for truth today no less than ever before, but it seems harder to find amid endless distractions. In a world where the Truth of our faith may be scoffed at as elitist in favor of smaller, faster, less satisfying and ultimately stunting truths, stay faithful to the Word of Truth that binds us together and saves us.
-Fr. Nate
