Take me to Church

I've met ranchers that are Catholic but do not see the need to attend church, for anything but Christmas and Easter.  A reason for this that I've been given is that they spend more time with God out in His creation than any of the people that are in church.  And so I begin:

The question that pops into my mind (especially that we are in the ADVENT season and preparing for CHRISTMAS) is if our goal is to get to heaven and simply "being in nature" is enough to get us there; then why did God become Man in the Incarnation?

The Catechism of the Catholic Church says that there is 2 ways man can come to know of God.  First and primarily its through REVELATION (someone reveals Him to you by telling you about Him etc...)  Second we can come to know of God by looking at His footprints (basically by being in nature).  Example: The one who cannot explain the reason for why the earth is here is inviting God to show Himself.  Okay, YES, the rancher has a half a leg to stand on, nature does draw you closer to God but is not in itself enough.

Quick and simple:God wants more than for us to just know OF Him, he wants us to have a relationship with Him.  It's the difference of staring at a pretty girl's picture in the year book vs. actually going on a date with her (starting a relationship with her).  Simple knowledge of His existence isn't enough to get us into Heaven. There isn't one saint that would say, "You know I never went to church, read the bible, or prayed yet here I am!"  NO, the answer is that no saint has ever said that.

In Frank Sheed's book Theology and Sanity, he explains that we must have a goal in mind in order to have hope.  When I wrestled in high school my goal was to make state and so all season I had allot of HOPE, when state was over I kind of went into a despair (especially my senior year when it hit me I'd probably never wrestle another match).  But our goal is heaven and that makes our hope eternal, which means we shouldn't despair.

So we need this eternal goal, why? To form our conscience (our decision making machine).  Why?  So we can make decisions to reach our goal.  So where do we form our conscience and strengthen our will (the yes to actions)?  First we are formed by the Church's teaching, don't like one?  Then look it up and see why she teaches what she teaches!  Next read the bible, for God's sake read the gospels and learn his-story (HISTORY).

All this learning and forming is like learning all the right wrestling moves to reach that state tournament, but just knowledge of the moves still can't get you there.  You have to be strong enough to execute them over the opponent.  You need strength and skill!  In wrestling you grow your strength from practice, conditioning, and lifting weights.  Our strength in the Church is GRACE, this we receive from the weight room of the Sacraments (the Eucharist and Confession being the best strengtheners). 

So to come back full circle, look at our rancher friend who "doesn't need to attend church".  He is taking a path of less resistance.  Now remember how to train for the state wrestling tournament we would practice, condition, and lift weights?  Well we are meeting resistance in those things to grow stronger thus making the ability to reach our goal easier.  Those who don't train become weak and "flabby" as Frank Sheed puts it.  Same goes in our spiritual life, our "untrained" will wants to stay home on Sunday and get fat (it doesn't want to meet resistance).  Go out there and meet your resistance head on and begin training for that eternal crown of HEAVEN.  Go to Mass, Confession, and never stop praying.  A quote from St. Padre Pio "Pray, Hope, and Don't Worry"  Peace.