“To fall in love with God is the greatest romance; to seek him the greatest adventure; to find him, the greatest human achievement.”
? Augustine of Hippo
God is love. And religion, I believe, can be most understood when we look at it through the lens of love.
Without looking at it this way, religion can so easily fall into a mere set of rules and rituals. It can fall into various ideas about a Divine Being who acts on a whim and watches us ever so closely to judge and to condemn us for our every fault. I think it is within these perspectives that people often start to leave “religion” and prefer “spirituality”.
Not a mere set of rules and rituals
People leave religion because they see it as a mere structure of obligations and punishments. They see it as an institution that must be pleased, or a hobby that can be outgrown. God is therefore seen as a tyrant that stifles one’s freedom, a God who constantly reminds us of our sins.
Looking through the lens of love, however, we start to see religion in another way.
Looking through the lens of love, we begin to see that religion is not a chain that stifles our liberties, but a tie that binds us to the One who loves us most.
That is why it is not so easy for a true believer to just leave one’s religion. To leave is to let go of Someone you love, Someone whom you love above all else and who loves you even before you were even born.
A precious relationship
To someone who believes, one’s religion is one’s most important relationship. It is that relationship that gives meaning to everything else in life. A relationship that shows you what true beauty and happiness is.
How could one just give it up when one has realized how much he or she has been loved?
Jesus is love personified. He has shown us love to the utmost, a love that is willing to sacrifice and to suffer for the one who is loved.
To know Him is heaven; to be separated from Him, even while on earth is hell.
The freedom to love
This is the freedom God gave us?—?to choose to be loved or to refuse His love forever.
It is not the fiery chasms of hell that a believer fears, it is to be apart from God. For to be away from Him is utmost loneliness and emptiness. It is a life one cannot possibly imagine enduring for all eternity.
And that is why the one who loves God is one who does not forsake Him easily. The believer is one who is willing to do what it takes so as not to lose one’s relationship with God.
“I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Therefore choose life, that you may live, you and your descendants, to love the LORD your God, to obey his voice, and to cling to him; for he is your life, and the length of your days…”?—?Deuteronomy 30:19–10, WEB-BE
When difficult times come
You don’t just abandon your loved one when difficult times come or when you are not happy about other things that come along with loving Him. If your Lover has cousins or friends who are annoying you, do you leave your Lover because of them? If your Lover had been betrayed by those who professed to believe Him, must you leave the One you love because of those who failed to be true to Him?
That is also the reason why true believers are even willing to die rather than forsake their faith. Religion is not a mere crutch to depend upon or an illusion that could make one feel warm inside. It is a reality to every believer that one is willing to suffer for.
“Suffering…purifies the soul. In suffering, we learn who our true friend is.”?—?St. Faustina, Divine Mercy in My Soul
When we fall short in love
Looking through the lens of love, we also begin to understand what sin is. Sin is not just something meant to cast us down or to condemn us. Sin is falling short of loving fully.
Do we not fall short even in our human relationships? And is it beyond our grasp to understand how important it is to acknowledge our faults so we could keep the relationships that matter to us?
To be in a relationship, we learn the value of being forgiven. And to be forgiven, we must humbly recognize our imperfections. Imperfections that hurt the ones we love.
Rules of love
For even in love, there are certain rules. Rules that teach us how best to treat the other person, and how best to treat ourselves.
It is the same with God’s commandments. His laws are not meant to merely oblige us with heavy burdens. His laws are rules of love to help us keep the relationships we have: our relationship with each other, and our relationship with God.
Do we not observe the same rules in our relationships? Truth, kindness, gentleness, generosity, patience, unselfishness. Are these not necessary when you love someone? And do we not try to keep our loved ones from harm by letting them know what is good and what is bad for them?
This then is religion through the lens of love. It is about a relationship. It is about Someone.
Love rituals
If we see religion as a mere set of rules and rituals, we’d avoid it like a plague. But if by grace our eyes are opened, and we see it as falling desperately, passionately and blissfully in love with the most Beautiful One forever, all of us would suddenly desire to be saints!
When we look at it from this perspective, we begin to see that even the rituals observed in honor of one’s religion can be likened to the rituals we have in our human relationships. For what is a ritual? It is but a thing we do to remind us of the importance of our loved ones. It is something we do to keep our relationships healthy and alive.
The song that a believer sings to God is like a serenade that warms a human heart. The readings from the Bible are like love letters from a Lover who is far away. Prayers are conversations with the Lover who awaits to hear from the beloved.
“Prayer is the inner bath of love into which the soul plunges itself.”?—?St. Jean Marie Vianney
An attentive Lover
To others, the image of an All-Powerful God is something uncomfortable. Being constantly watched is a fear of many about God. But is not Someone who loves attentive to His beloved? Do we not notice even the smallest things with those we love?
While God should be rightfully feared for His power, He should also be endeared to us for His love. A love that knows no limits. A love that does not end or fade away. A love that is true, gentle and kind.
A compassionate God
Jesus came down to us and loved us just where we are. He became a little child, a vulnerable human being whom we could approach and hold upon our arms.
For a true believer, mere spirituality is not enough. The one who loves surrenders all?—?heart, mind, body and soul to one’s Lover, the greatest lover of them all.
“To the extent that we know this God made man, we come to love him madly. I would like you to know him in order to be truly in love with him… How not to love this Jesus of our soul? He is uncreated Beauty, eternal Wisdom, Goodness, Life, Love… Oh! Love Jesus. Who can love you better? He thirsts for your heart”?—?St. Teresa de Andes
“You shall call on me, and you shall go and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You shall seek me, and find me, when you search for me with all your heart.”?—?Jeremiah 12, WEB-BE
The thing about hope is that it’s a positive force that shines the most when it’s dark. When everything’s going well, we hardly notice it’s there. But when things go against us, when our dreams fade and when we see no immediate reprieve from our troubles, that’s when hope does its best work for us.
"Where Hope Can Be Found"