Why Church? A Personal—and Pauline—Perspective
Jan 27, 2025

Why Church? A Personal—and Pauline—Perspective

It is not uncommon for Christians to be asked, “Why do you go to church?” Answers vary, naturally. Here is the full answer I would like to give.

To non-Christians and even some of the faith, “church” is a building. A common objection, almost a reproach from some, to the idea that one should not only want to go to church but even need to go in some sense, is that God is everywhere, and we can worship him in the fields without need for the apparent constraint of a building and “services.” They are not wrong in saying that God can (indeed should) be worshiped anywhere. What they seem to struggle with, perhaps even resent or reject, is that God gave us his Church and bids us come to him together, usually in a church, to meet him in the flesh.

Church Embodied

Going to church is part of being in the Church. Christ told us that when we are baptized we become members of his Body, the Church, and he is the Head of that mystical Body. A body is not a collection of independent members that can ignore their integration with and experience of other members of the body. But why “church”? The answer is simply “Church!” But the infinite complexity of that answer requires a lifetime to fathom.

Several things constitute a “church” and give it a material presence that matters for the Church. Oddly, the building itself is not of the highest importance in this, even though it has great significance. One can go to any of a vast array of the “houses of God,” from the smallest, humblest rural ones to the grandest, awe-inspiring cathedrals. What they all share is the presence of the essential elements that give purpose to any of those gathering places of the faithful.

The true nature of “church” is that it provides a locus for gathering for worship through liturgy, sacraments, and fellowship. The absence of liturgy or fellowship does not invalidate the purpose of a church building, but may make the fuller purpose of our life in Christ less explicit. The absence of sacraments, however, makes our life in Christ incomplete.

What is liturgy and why is it important? For some, it is a straightjacket, a muzzle on their desire to proclaim their faith in free-form. For others, it is the putting on of spiritual vestments that fore-echo the raiment of their resurrected life. Yet, liturgy is the essence of what Christ showed us to do. His last supper with his disciples is the proto-liturgy from which all other liturgies are derived. “Take this, all of you, and eat of it: for this is my body which will be given up for you…. Take this, all of you, and drink from it: for this is the chalice of my blood, the blood of the new and eternal covenant, which will be poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this in memory of me.” These words uttered by The Word are not mere instruction. They are the definitive, authoritative words of consecration of the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. They are a way of life given us by The Way himself. Christ instituted the Holy Eucharist and gave us the three things at the heart of why being in a church is not just something we do. Jesus spoke words that are inherently liturgical. They proclaim truths in a manner that can be repeated and clothed in sacred ritual for the purpose of bestowing the sacrament of his Body and Blood on those who gather together in his name in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. Liturgy gives material expression to our soul’s deepest desire to be partakers of that supper with Our Lord, and to do so in the company of his apostles, his saints.

Words of the Word

Because the liturgy of the Church has Christ’s own actions and words as its founding reason for existence, it follows that liturgy should seek to embody holiness in its language and in how we perform it. Our spoken languages are poor instruments by which to convey the glory and majesty of the one, true, and only living God, whose ineffable nature will never be able to be spoken of in its fullness in this life. Yet the Holy Spirit has, over centuries, given us that still, small voice of Jesus in our hearts. Our most affecting poetry, our sweetest lyricism of tongue, the keenest comfort and joy of musical delight; these profound foods for the soul, heart, and mind are inspired by the Spirit and embodied in our most glorious of liturgies. Jesus speaks to us still today through his Spirit when our liturgies embrace holiness and reverence that speak of the greater reality we anticipate in heaven even as we struggle in this world to embrace the risen Christ and live his Way.

Yet even liturgy at its very best is but a vessel that holds within it the true treasure that our hearts need to make them whole and complete. It is in the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist that we meet Jesus in the flesh. His flesh and his blood are the reason he spoke as he did in that upper room. Through the authority he gave his apostles, our priests are empowered to consecrate mere bread and wine so that they become the Body and Blood of Christ, a mystical change that is identical to that made to those simple elements when Our Lord himself spoke the words of consecration at supper. Here indeed is true food and true drink to sustain and build up the soul created by God for him, so that, in its mortal body now, it becomes a stronger part of the Body that is its true, eternal home.

It is in the most holy sacrament of the altar that we are fed for eternity. In the absence of that divine sustenance, our souls truly hunger and thirst. Jesus did not just want us to do this simply to preserve and promote the memory of him, as essential as that is. He did not even ask us to do it. He commanded it: “Take this!” “Do this!” He is our only real life, and to live that life, he must be in us, and he gave us that gift of his true presence in us through the simplest of sustaining foods mystically transformed into himself. He taught us that if we do not eat of his flesh and drink of his blood we have no life in us. So we must come to the Supper of the Lord, and to do so we put on the wedding garments of glorious liturgy, for we are truly coming to be with the Bridegroom and no “good-enough glad-rags” will do. Being “in church” with a pure heart is no less than being in The Church, that mystical Body of Christ, and being fed with Christ himself. It is the manifestation of eternity in the here and now, and when we come before the Throne of Grace, we come before our only true King and must do so with all the preparation and humility that implies. It is in those other sacraments of the Church—baptism, confirmation, and confession—that we are made ready to receive Christ himself in us. Sacraments are the vehicles by which we reach eternal life in Jesus Christ.

Community of Hearts

Fellowship is perhaps the easiest element of church for most people to understand and embrace. For its human society alone, it is much to be desired. All the more so when it gathers persons of like mind and heart together in celebration of holy things. But the depth of Christian fellowship is far more profound than the chatter over refreshments after Mass would seem to fashion for us. Inevitably, we come to what is known as the Communion of Saints. This is no mere nomenclature of metaphorical convenience. It expresses the relationship of each to all others in the Body of Christ. For when we are baptized, we are made anew as the dwelling place of God himself. We are welcomed into the company of his saints on earth. All too often, we may not be saintly in our lives, but all children need to grow, and as children of God, we too need to learn how to be the saints he has made us to be. The sacraments are the source of growth in that true life. It is in fellowship that we are given material substance to allow our faith and our works the opportunity, through grace, to grow and live the love that has been given us, that same love that sustains us in all places at all times and in all circumstances.

Jesus told us that the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength, and to also love your neighbor as yourself. The utterly immutable bedrock of these two commandments is love. Not love, the passionate emotion. This love that Jesus commanded us to have and to express most fully to God and to others in this world is sacramental in nature. It is no less than the surrender of ourselves, our wills and passions, to the reality of Jesus alive in us, so that he is the substance of who we are and what we do. That can only happen in its fullest, mystical action if we are sacramentally taking and embodying Christ in the Holy Eucharist. For when we eat the food that is love itself, we transform our mere flesh and blood here so that it can be the action of eternal love in the world.

Sacrificial Feast

If that were the entire matter, it alone would be mystery enough for eternity. But when we “break bread,” we are entering into the sacrifice that Jesus made by offering himself on the Cross as the ransom for the whole world. The Last Supper was the start of the Passion of the Christ, the fulfilment of all that was spoken in Scripture for the salvation of the world. The institution of the Holy Eucharist by Jesus in the Upper Room is the means by which we are made partakers of the great Paschal Mystery of his Passion, his Sacrifice once for all on the Cross, and his Resurrection.

By his surrender to the cross, Jesus offered his body and blood for us in the most obvious, literal sense. Yet his sacrifice on the cross is the very truth of the Holy Eucharist, and our taking and eating of the consecrated body and blood is our surrender to his presence in us. It is food to strengthen and enable us by his life-giving sustenance to take up our own cross in this world. We live because he died for us. We have life eternal because he sacrificed his will to that of his Father for love of the Father and us, and gave up his life so that we might live forever with him. He died and rose again that we too may die to self and rise to new life in him. That is the reason the Holy Eucharist is the quintessential activity for all Christians.

Even before we are confirmed and admitted to the glorious banquet he prepared, we are bidden to come before the holy altar and worship him. We adore the Lord and bless him, because by his holy cross he has redeemed the world. It is the infinite love of Jesus Christ who died for me and for all sinners, and who rose from the dead, that is the beating heart of eternity, and we are invited to share in his life at every celebration of the Holy Eucharist so we may truly live forever.

The primacy of love in all things that Jesus commands us to have is given its finest definition by St. Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 13). In that powerhouse of spiritual inspiration, St. Paul speaks to the central reality and truth of the Gospel and all that Christ taught us and showed us in his Paschal Mystery. Love, true love that is Jesus Christ living in us, is who we are designed to be. When we Christians “go to church,” we are entering into the Kingdom of God to sit at table with Jesus and to feast again on the food that is the living God, and to be made alive for eternity by his sacrifice for us on the cross. We are his witnesses as his saints in this world, and we keep company with his saints who have gone before us to be at rest with him, those faithful witnesses that form so great a cloud around us.

Our Sunday Best

Going to church is not just something we do. It is our witness to and expression of who we are, guests at the banquet of love himself. Liturgy clothes us to reverently and humbly receive the gift of the food of eternal life in us, and to praise and glorify Jesus Christ for his sacrifice for us. The sacraments sanctify us for life in this world where darkness rails against the light of Christ, empowering us with love to face everything and anything that we encounter on our journey to our true home. Fellowship sends us out into the world to live that eternal life in the here and now.

Why do I go to church? To be in love and let love, my one true love who died to save me, be in me! So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.


[Further reading can be found in the author’s book, Chapter 13: An Exploration of 1 Corinthians 13 and its Implications for Everyone, available from Mizpah Press (https://www.mizpah.press/).]

Image Source: AB/pickic.com

Jonathan Ridler

Jonathan Ridler is a retired IT professional who also happens to enjoy creative writing. His publications to date include two short stage plays that have been performed to acclaim, and a book of prayers for everyday use that is suitable for private devotions or public worship. With a number of other books in the pipeline, including collections of short stories and more, readers will enjoy a wide range of content and styles to make them think, pray, laugh and learn.