From the Catholic Liturgy for the 3^rd Sunday of Lent, March 4, 2018.  OT: Exodus 20:1-17; Gospel: John 2:13-25. Theme: Religion – Rules or Relationships?

Back when I was in my theological studies, my moral theology professor began the very first class by asking us to consider a scenario that I would now like each one of you to think about and come up with your answer: You are driving through the cornfields of Nebraska when you come upon an intersection with a stop sign. You can see for miles around you in every direction because the terrain is flat as a pancake. There are no other vehicles to be seen. Do you stop at the intersection as indicated for safety, or do you keep on driving right through the stop sign?

If your answer was that you would obey the traffic law and stop at the intersection, then I venture to guess that your approach to religion is pretty heavy on the rules and regulations, and your image of God might be somewhat like an All-Powerful Divine Probation Officer. If your answer was that you would keep driving right through the intersection because you can clearly see that there is no danger of an accident, then congratulations! You are well on the road to having an approach to God and religion that is the one taught by Jesus Christ.

You see, by the time that Jesus came to earth, about 2,000 years after the beginning of Judaism, the Jewish religion had become all about laws and the people became its slaves. This corruption of the commandments happened because over time, wealth and prosperity in the Promised Land made them forget that they were once an enslaved people and that God had brought them out of slavery in Egypt. He had given them the commandments as a way to live a truly free life, from the inside out. The commandments were not meant to be a burden but a blessing; they were meant to be a way by which the people would be an extension of God’s mercy on earth; by their attitudes and behavior they would be able to shows the pagan nations what the real God was like.

But as often happens with human beings as life gets better…we tend to forget who we are and where we came from. And this is why the commandments are as important to us today as they were to God’s people 2,000 years ago.  Especially important for us is the Third Commandment to keep the Lord’s Day holy by attending Mass and worshipping together as God’s people. By coming together every Sunday to worship and hear God’s Word proclaimed, to offer the Eucharistic Sacrifice and receive the Risen Lord Jesus in Holy Communion as spiritual nourishment for our souls, we are constantly reminded of WHO we are. WHERE we came from, and WHERE we are headed for all eternity.  We are empowered by our worship to embrace the commandments as expressions of our relationship with God from the heart and not as mandatory rules that we must obey to avoid punishment. There’s a world of difference between these two approaches to God and religion.

So, I think it is very good for each of us to ask ourselves: Do I come before God as person of the rules or as a person in a relationship?  This is a vital question because observing religion by the rules has no power to save anyone and only leads to view of God that is pretty meaningless and even useless to our lives.

However…

Religion as relationship opens wide the door of our hearts to God and allows us to receive the healing graces of mind, body and soul that He wants to pour out on us.

Religion as relationship opens wide the doors of God’s heart to us, and we begin to trust Him as a loving Father who surrounds us with his compassion and mercy.

Religion as relationship becomes a pathway of peace with our neighbor and enables us to embrace the commandments as an expression of our human freedom, of our choice to love.

Religion as relationship understands the real meaning of today’s Responsorial Psalm where it says:

The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul.

The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart.

They are more precious than gold…and sweeter than honey from the comb.