CHURCH ATTENDANCE IS IMPORTANT

 Church attendance / going to church is important

The Bible tells us we need to attend church so we can worship God with other believers and be taught His Word for our spiritual growth. The early church “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer” (Acts 2:42). We should follow that example of devotion—and to the same things. Back then, they had no designated church building, but “every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts” (Acts 2:46). Wherever the meeting takes place, believers thrive on fellowship with other believers and the teaching of God’s Word.

Church attendance is not just a “good suggestion”; it is God’s will for believers. Hebrews 10:25 says we should “not [be] giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” Even in the early church, some were falling into the bad habit of not meeting with other believers. The author of Hebrews says that’s not the way to go. We need the encouragement that church attendance affords. And the approach of the end times should prompt us to be even more devoted to going to church.

Church is the place where believers can love one another (1 John 4:12), encourage one another (Hebrews 3:13), “spur” one another to love and good works (Hebrews 10:24), serve one another (Galatians 5:13), instruct one another (Romans 15:14), honor one another (Romans 12:10), and be kind and compassionate to one another (Ephesians 4:32).

When a person trusts Jesus Christ for salvation, he or she is made a member of the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:27). For a church body to function properly, all of its “body parts” need to be present and working (1 Corinthians 12:14–20). It’s not enough to just attend a church; we should be involved in some type of ministry to others, using the spiritual gifts God has given us (Ephesians 4:11–13). A believer will never reach full spiritual maturity without having that outlet for his gifts, and we all need the assistance and encouragement of other believers (1 Corinthians 12:21–26).

For these reasons and more, church attendance, participation, and fellowship should be regular aspects of a believer's life. Weekly church attendance is in no sense “required” for believers, but someone who belongs to Christ should have a desire to worship God, receive His Word, and fellowship with other believers.

Jesus is the Cornerstone of the Church (1 Peter 2:6), and we are “like living stones . . . being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:5). As the building materials of God’s “spiritual house,” we naturally have a connection with one another, and that connection is evident every time the Church “goes to church.”

WORSHIP IN HINDUISM

IMAGE WORSHIP IN HINDUISM

Preliminary Notions

There are three strata in Hinduism:

a) High Metaphysics that is radically monistic. However, in practice, monism behaves like pantheism, a subtle shade of which pervades the whole of Hinduism. We may call this stratum ‘metaphysical pantheism’.

b) Popular religion based on mythology that, in practice, is polytheistic. However, in principle, all the gods are admitted to be manifestations of the one God. Popular religion also has to deal with demons; these are not the objects of love and devotion but of fear. So the demons have to be kept out of mischief with gifts. We may call this stratum ‘mythological polytheism’.  

c) The above two strata are extremes. Between the two lies the Hindu religion proper, of which the doctrine can be categorised under the three headings of God, the world, and the Soul. It is precisely in the notion of God that we come upon the moral problem of idolatry.

The Notion of God in Hinduism

            There is first the metaphysical notion of the impersonal Absolute. Considered in himself, God is impersonal. Then there is the religious notion of the personal God. In relation to the world, God is personal. The mythological notion contains the explanation of the mode of relationship of God to the world. God assumes three distinct forms corresponding to the respective functions of Creator, Conserver and Consummation. This is Trimurti, the divine Triad or group of three. However, this is essentially different from the Christian doctrine of the Trinity. Trimurti is only the outward expression of God, not his inward nature. The Christian Trinity is three persons in one substance; whereas Trimurti is one essence in three substances.

Avatara is one of the central doctrines of Hinduism. The descent of God commonly called “incarnation”. But the real characteristic of Avatara is a theophany or divine manifestation that is essentially different from the Incarnation of the Word. Thus Vishnu descends in visible form to save the world from disaster. The most important avataras were Rama and Krishna, which gave a strong impetus to the religion of love.

Arcavatara is a complement to the doctrine of Avatara, namely, the indwelling of the divinity in the consecrated idol. There is no idea here of transubstantiation but of a type of incarnation, the divinity assuming the idol as its body. All the same, the sentiments of a devout Hindu may be very like that of a Catholic about the Eucharist.

An Appraisal of Hindu worship

            Having a deep sense of the sacred, the Hindu can single out any person or object as the focus of the divinity. Ignorant of the personal and inner life of God as revealed in Jesus Christ, his efforts reach sense reality by means of a thousand signs and symbols and idols – a yearning search for God. But ignorance, weakness and sin have vitiated this search. Jesus Christ prevents us from idolatry. Thus idolatry is a search for God and at the same time a turning away from him, a prayer and refusal, adoration and a sacrilege. Symbols are unworthy since they are man-made. The multiplicity breaks up the divine oneness. Clinging to the idol prevents reaching out to the Transcendent One. On the other hand, the images are at least occasions of genuine and humble prayer in the daily life of many.

            Idolatry does not imply the belief that God is a mere statue or finite being, but the quite different assumption that a statue can be made to become God or God’s abode or body, that a finite person or symbol can be an adequate object of adoration. In the holy Eucharist the bread is not the abode of Christ. There is no bread; there is only Jesus Christ, whole and entire, whom we adore as our Transcendent Lord in the order of very existence.

            The idol-image, symbol or finite person, embodies man’s desires and conceptions rather than God’s transcendent claims and divine fullness. Clinging to the idols of his family, culture and nation, the idolater can refuse to surrender in spirit and truth to God’s self-revelation. 

Moral Evaluation of Image Worship

            Image worship is sinful when it degenerates into magic or into attempts to placate finite beings like ghosts, demons, natural forces, and so on. In polytheism, at least on the practical plane, the divine oneness is fragmented into aspects and forms, each form being personified and worshipped as person. Worship can be expressed by invocation, reverence and adoration. The worshipper-worshipped relation is a personal one, and if it implies adoration then the relation is one of complete surrender such as only the absolute transcendent can claim. To establish this relation with any thing or person short of the Absolute is sinful. This is what idolatry does: human individuals are deified or aspects of the divinity are humanised in concrete forms for the devotees to worship.

            Worship is not mere meditation. We need symbols to think of the Absolute. But we do not worship the symbols in order to think of the Absolute. We rather contemplate the symbol to worship the Absolute. (Nobody adores the Shroud of Turin; the shroud is only an occasion of the prayer of adoration of and thanksgiving to Jesus). So we do not worship our symbols or thoughts. Symbols are finite and human. They are man made and are the expressions of our own desires and therefore hold out no challenge to us. Whereas, the Eucharist is instituted by Christ, a God-given symbol, and continues to call us to enter into the Paschal Mystery of Jesus Christ. The idols of the image-makers are at best a sort of “personifications” of the divine.

            Idolatry can be a groping movement towards God. But it can also become a clinging to the self, since idols are things that man makes. For a Christian it would definitely be a running away from the light.

            We adore no image of the divinity, except the subsistent and living image of the Father, the Person of Jesus Christ, since “he is the image of the invisible God” (Col 1, 15), and “in him everything continues in being (vs. 17b). The statues and pictures of Christ, his Cross, Sacred Heart, and Divine Mercy are objects of worship for us by relationship to the Divine Person. They are not “personified” or enlivened embodiments of the Divine. The Eucharist we adore directly. The very Person of God the Son is there, not any image or symbol.