Every so often you hear someone say: "I'm a Christian, but I don't believe in going to church."
If someone said they were a musician, but had never attended a concert, you would be suspicious. Of course "going to church" doesn't make anyone a Christian. Being a Christian involves knowing and loving God, and recognizing God in our neighbours - all of them! Meeting together for prayer and worship is one way we can respond.
Each Sunday, the day of Jesus' resurrection, we show this love. At the same time, we give thanks for the assurance that in union with God we can overcome the pain and suffering caused by sin (our own and others'!). Indeed the common meal where the early church met to give thanks is described in Jude's epistle as a love-feast: a name still associated with the liturgy. It is good to remember that by going to church, we affirm our relationship to others, and to God.
Every so often you hear someone say: "You don’t need to be a Christian to go to heaven."
God wants us all. Paul makes it clear that God's mercy is not reserved for a special group (Rm.2:13-16). Others, especially the Jewish people and Muslims, know God as a merciful and loving creator. They see shadows, reflections, or rays of light. Christians believe that Jesus revealed the full glory of God in human form, and that in union with Jesus, in particular by sharing together in commemorating his giving of himself in sacrifice through the Eucharist, we can share in the glory of heaven.
The bodies that are growing fastest, though, are the fringe sects - the Moonies, the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Mormons, and stranger ones still. In some cases, the Scientologists, for example, these sects have no vision of heaven. If one has no vision of where one is going, one's chances of arriving become slimmer. At least Christians have some idea of the direction towards which we are heading!
Every so often you hear someone say: "I'm a better Christian than all those hypocrites who go to church on Sunday and cheat and lie for the rest of the week."
Condemning the church because its members are sinners is like condemning Alcoholics Anonymous because its members are alcoholics. Of course we are sinners, and if we say we are not, we are wrong (1 Jn. 1:8). Of course we fall short of what our true potential as human beings allows us to do, of course we get bogged down in our own petty worlds of self-interest and self-importance, of course we hurt others - and even ourselves. And if we think we can make up for that just by coming to church we are wrong.
But if we realize that we cannot forever put ourselves first, and if we admit that we fall short of the wonder and the glory which we share as children of God, then God will pardon us and comfort us, will hold us by the hand when we are in trouble, will seek us out and lead us when we are lost, will nurse us when we are down and sad, will accept us when we feel rejected. We really do need God, and until we pass through the superficial veneer of self-confidence, until we admit that we are not better than our neighbours, whether they go to church or not, until we stop judging others, look inwards and give ourselves into God's reassuring care, we shall never find true peace, true love or true joy. As Augustine prayed, "You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you. Grant us your rest, O God."
HD