Can you love Jesus but not be religious?

There is a new trend among people these days, claiming to be spiritual but not religious. They find religion to be unnecessary and also consider it to be the cause of most problems in the world. One of the popular understanding among spiritual people is that each one can practice their faith in private instead of coming together in an organized institution. We know that there is nothing wrong in being spiritual, all religious people are in fact spiritual as they deal with the spiritual dimension. However, why is being religious, frowned upon by many?

By the very definition, religion simply deals with the worship of a God or gods. According to Christianity it would be defined as the worship of the one true God, but the definition wouldn't stop there...If we go back to the Biblical understanding of religion in the letter of St James, he says "If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world." As you see the Catholic understanding of religion involves both the worship of God and good works.

Do we really need religion?
While being spiritual is good as we all have a soul that needs nourishment, we cannot forget that we also have a visible body that needs visible forms of nourishment. We cannot have faith locked up in our soul and not reflected in our actions. Also if each person were left to interpret the Bible on their own, it would lead to utter confusion among believers. 2Peter 1:20 clearly states "First of all you must understand this, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation".  Again we see the difficulty in personal interpretation of scripture in the story of Philip and the Eunuch. Philip asked him "Do you understand what you are reading? and he said, how can I, unless someone guides me? We all need guidance to understand scripture correctly but it is also important that this guidance comes from one with authority. The disciples were the ones given the authority by Jesus, who then passed on the authority to their own disciples who we today call the Fathers of the Church and thus the authority to teach and interpret scripture is passed down in the Catholic Church.


Jesus started religion
To claim to love Jesus but hate his church would be hypocrisy as scripture clearly shows that he was the one who founded the church in an organized and authoritative structure. In Matthew 16:18 Jesus gives Peter the position of authority when he says "You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church." While Jesus had many disciples, we see a clear authority given to Peter. It was he who headed the meeting in which Matthias was chosen to replace Judas. He was the first to speak to the crowds after Pentecost. He inflicted the first punishment (Acts 5:1-11) and excommunicated the first heretic (Acts 8:18-23). He led the first council in Jerusalem. It was to him that the revelation came that Gentiles were to be accepted as Christians. Hence we see how the structure and hierarchy was formed in the Catholic Church.

Scripture also show that Jesus intended the church to be a visible structure as we see in in Matthew 18 "If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.

Can you practice faith privately?
If you don't like the idea of going for mass every Sunday or meeting publicly for prayer, you are not alone, apparently even first century Christians struggled with it. In the book of Hebrews 10:25 this attitude is given a correction, "Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another- and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

What about scandals in the church?
Very often, people argue that the church has lost its holiness because of the scandals that have shook the church in the recent years. However, someone rightly said, you do not leave Jesus because of Judas. Which basically means, you cannot abandon the church that God has given you simply because few could not live up to its teachings. While our faith may be shaken by the scandals in the church, may your faith also be uplifted with the tremendous work of missionaries and saints of the church. If you look closely, you will see the good outweighs the bad by great margins. If we are to trust Jesus, we must trust the structure he has put in place for us and trust that the gates of Hades will never prevail against his Holy church.