Very Rev. Ihor Kutash kutash@unicorne.org  

Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk writes: "On Sundays and feast days come to the church, and falling down with reverence before God, be mindful of all the mercies you may ever have received from Him. Thank Him for them with all your heart, and as a sign of your thankfulness, promise to live as He has commanded you".

At this time of Lent it is good for us to remember why it is that we go to Church. We do not go to be entertained. There are many other sources of entertainment which are much easier to attain. In fact the Liturgy may indeed at times appear to us to be long and boring. Even when we do understand the language in which it is celebrated. We go to obey the Lord. We go because He has told us that when we would gather together in His name He Himself would be present in a special way. In time if we are patient and attentive we may indeed find ourselves delightfully entertained by being in the presence of the One who is called the "Gladsome (the Greek word for this is the root for the word "hilarious"!) Light".

We do not go to socialize. There is indeed a tremendous comfort in being together with God’s people who make sacrifices, giving up rest, entertainment, money, time and other resources to make this special statement about belonging to God - deciding to praise and worship Him together notwithstanding whatever obstacles there may be to this. But that includes being in the presence of people with whom we may not be very pleased – for when people come together regularly they also manage to rub each other the wrong way and must learn to forgive, to tolerate, in short – to love in deed and not in word alone.

We do not go because it is the popular thing to do. There have indeed been times when it was socially acceptable and even advantageous to be in Church. These are not those times. Just as there are countries where it is downright dangerous to gather together for Christian prayer and worship, in our own land of plenty and ease many risk being considered out of date and fanatical because they go to Church regularly. No one experiences this pressure to conform to the silent (sometimes not so silent) bias against Church attendance more than the young. Those who overcome it – and attend even sporadically may indeed be doing a heroic deed for which they ought to commended and praised.

Finally we do not go just because it is a way of easing our guilt for not being the sort of perfect and good people we would like to imagine ourselves to be. The Church does indeed minister to our souls and pour healing oil upon the wounds of our soul if we permit it to do so. There is healing in the Wings of the One Who wept over Jerusalem because its inhabitants would not allow Him together them together under His kind and compassionate guidance and protection – as a mother hen gathers her chicks. But guilt, useful as it can sometimes be to show us that something needs correcting in our lives, is not a sufficient stimulus for us to make that heroic effort of weekly (perhaps indeed rather weakly!) attending Church.

We go to Church because it is a wonderful way – a most indispensable way - of expressing gratitude and loyalty to the One Who every second of our lives showers us with all sorts of good things, beginning with life itself. We go to tell Him we love Him and appreciate Him. We go to tell Him we recognize our faults and our hyprocrisies and want to be made willing to change, to become the sort of people we can imagine ourselves one day to be – the sort of people He created us to be.

We go for ourselves and for all the many others whom we love – and who we have a hard time loving. We stand on their behalf – just as so many times others have stood for us before the Throne of God and we say "Thank you" and "Forgive us" and "Keep on giving us what we need to live and grow into Your eternal family".

And we make promises that we know very well we shall not keep. And we shall keep on making them – and dealing with our guilt and sense of failure because we fall all the time – over and over, until by His strength (and our will to keep on rising each time we fall) we learn how to truly live as He has commanded us: in love, in gratitude, in kindness, in peace, in joy. Forever. For that is how long we shall be living: forever!