Many of us had unashamedly placed God second in our every day life. More often then not, we tend to acknowledge God's presence only when we are already in such dire situations; when we know that nothing or nobody else could do anything anymore to help us. We would be begging desperately for God to forgive us or to help us to get out of the predicaments that we are in, promising to live in good faith forever should we be given the second chance.
The true meaning, the real value of religion, to some of us is just like another one of those extra curricular activities which we do not have any wish to partake sometime, but out of respect or obligation to others, we would attend Sunday services without fail and yet how many or us are truly there, in flesh and mind? One homily by one of our priest recently was interesting enough that even children would look at their family members and start to tease each other as to which group sounded more appropriate for each person.
Group One are those who would make every effort to join the others for Church service every Sunday and as soon as they are seated, they would just dozed off or read their favorite papers throughout the entire service. These would be a group of "total shut down". They feel that they must go to Church and yet they do not participate during the service and they do not seem to feel guilty about their actions at all.
Group Two would be those who "came, saw and leave", meaning, they come for the service and while the Gospels are being read and the homily is being delivered, they would either be busy reading something or playing with their hand phones; the Words of God serves no purpose to this group. Once the Holy Communion is over, they would just leave and come back the next Sunday. They would not even bother to wait for the final blessings. Their actions are akin to guests coming into a house, waiting to be served and after they had savored the food, they would just get up and leave, without even giving thanks to the house owner.
Group Three are those who come to participate right from the start. Jesus Himself had said: "Where two or three are gathered in My Name, there I would always be". Those in Group Three hold on to this belief and they come to Church not just to show others that they are "Christians" but that they are there to reflect back on their daily lives and hoping to learn more about Christ, about His teachings, which they hoped to incorporate into their family values in order to build generations that would have religion as their foundation of life.
So which group best describe each of us? Or do we belong to another group that only come out in full force during Christmas, Good Friday or Easter seasons? Are we Christians who are only skin-deep and take God for granted, assuming that in good times, there is no need at all for Him to be part of our lives and would start to hurl blames and question His fairness when misfortunes befall our family?