Thinking of God

     A high school classmate of mine wrote recently on Facebook, “Isn’t it better to be sitting in a boat on Sunday thinking about God, than to be in church thinking about fishing?” My first reaction was, “What’s your point?” Isn’t this just someone trying to rationalize an excuse for not attending Mass? Well, if it’s not, let’s try to put it in terms that might hit a little closer to home. Picture a man saying this to his wife, as she complains he doesn’t spend any time with her: “But honey, isn’t better for me to be sitting in a boat fishing with the guys and thinking of you, than to be with you and instead thinking about fishing with the guys?” What wife would respond to that with, “You know, you’re right. Carry on!”? None that I know, and certainly not my own wife. Yet how is this any different when applied to our relationship with God?
     Another friend of mine has posted, “I believe in God. I just don’t have to meet him on Sunday.” Again, let’s apply this to a loved one: “I love you, but it doesn’t mean I ever have to visit you.” How would that one go over? Not well, I think we can all safely assume.
     It comes down to this basic truth: Christianity is about relationship. I’ve heard it said, and wisely, that one cannot be a Christian on a deserted island. Indeed, that is true. And why is Christianity about relationship? Because Christianity is about service, and  because our God lives in perfect relationship. A desert island provides no possibility to be in service to anyone, except perhaps to be in prayer about others. When Jesus commanded the apostles to love one another, he spoke not of an emotion but of action. (Our English language is so limited, is it not?) And just how is that command of love carried out? In service to one another.
     But let’s go back to the beginning of this entry. If God were a visible human being, we would never think of brushing God off by saying, “Well, I’ll be thinking of you while I stay away from you.” But why must we be in the pews each Sunday? God, after all, is everywhere, and those pews are simply filled with hypocrites anyway. I’ve always loved hearing about those hypocrites. My answer has always been, “Yes, and thank God we’re in church! Imagine how we’d be if we weren’t!”. Okay, so there are folks who leave at Communion time. Okay, so there are folks who come out of Mass and get angry when they don’t get a straight shot right out of the parking lot, as if they’ll never get home in this lifetime. As is often said, the Church is not a haven for saints but a hospital for sinners. We are flawed people, and creation is not yet finished. While the Eucharist is meant to change us, that change may not be instantaneous, and God has far more patience than we do.
     And now that we are in summer, what about the vacations many of us will take? So often nowadays God is forgotten. It used to be, all those years ago, that the first thing a family did upon arriving for vacation is to find the church so as to attend Mass on the weekend. Does that happen just as often today? My fear is that it does not. And yet, oftentimes, vacation is a time to take in nature, which tends to make God more manifest for us. Thus, our response should be to worship God in thanksgiving for the beauty of creation. I myself will be with my family at the oceanside. I find the ocean to be a reminder both of the immensity of God and of the attentiveness of God in every detail of creation. We humans are subject to the power of nature, and especially of the ocean when we visit it, yet God is infinitely more powerful than all of it. Even so, God is not only more immense than the entire universe, but so powerful to be found also in the tiniest act of creation as well as in every human heart.
     Why, then, must we abandon that fishing boat on Sunday and give God worship first? God, who calls each of us by name, redeems us as a people. Therefore, it is as a people that we must worship God as Christians. Every eighth day we come together as a worshipping community to offer to God the once and perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. We do this because we love God, and “people in love make signs of love” (Music in Catholic Worship, 4), lest that unexpressed love die. Those who claim that they simply “don’t get anything out of going to Mass” are looking for the wrong thing. We gain the joy of expressing our thanks and praise to God, worshipping the God who made us, thanking God for the salvation won for us by the death and resurrection of his Son, Jesus Christ.
     What better to be doing on Sunday?
     Your comments are always most welcome.