1st Class Religion,2nd Class Relationship or 1st Class Relationship, 2nd Class Religion

This morning at Mass, I was challenged with question above. Put another way, is my relationship with God put in second place to my religion. A poignant question for me at the moment as I am very much finding my feet after a long journey round various religions and opinions. I have experienced the good and bad of every religion I have encountered. The  result of all these encounters has been that for a very long time I have had a belief but not a faith. Many religions, so to speak, but no actual relationship with God. 
You envisage a nomadic soul, but a great deal of this seeking has been on one path. The path of the Anglican Church, which is the one I still follow. There are however many different paths within the Anglican faith.

What the Homily brought to mind this morning, is how easy it was to just follow the popular path. To follow a particular type of religious life, just because everyone else is. Doing that is what had caused my lack of relationship with God. I had been swept along on a current without stopping to examine what would deepen my relationship with God.

One day early in the new year about two years ago, I found myself in a Church the like of which I had not seen since I had embarked on the Anglican tradition. I knew they existed, I knew I sympathised but had never encountered it. This Church and the people in it and the friendships that have developed out of it, have taught me what it is to build a relationship with God again. Foot step by foot step I am finding my way along the path to understanding God again. Tip toe by tip toe I am learning to accept who I am and how I relate to the Church.

 It had been easy to seek peace in money, belongings, and secular ideals. It had been easy to think that just attending any Church on a Sunday would make a meaningful relationship with God. It is much harder to acknowledge that like your human relationships, the one you have with God needs to be worked at. It is fortunate for me and I am sure for many others, that God is infinitely more patient than his human children.
Behind the surface of, what has been described to me as "The great grand show, we put on for Jesus", is a deep and meaningful theology. Beyond the spectacle of  Mass is a rule of life that requires work and sacrifice, but brings with it a peace and tranquillity I spent many years trying to find.

To many who do not understand High Anglo-Catholic worship, it may look fussy and stand offish. It is through the meticulousness of each part of our life and faith, that we give God our best. It is in the daily rule of office and Mass that we can build our understanding of God. When we fail, it allows us to see the relentless patience and forgiveness that God has for us.  It is in trying our best to live this life we see the hope that God places before us unfailingly.

To have a first class relationship with God, you have to be true to yourself, your beliefs and your faith. To falter in any of these and you place between you and God a barrier.