The Making of Meaning

In his compelling and most interesting book, The Great Partnership: Science, Religion, and the Search for Meaning, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks writes:  Religion is “the constant making and remaking of meaning, by the stories we tell, the rituals we perform and the prayers we say.  The stories are sacred, the rituals divine commands, and prayer a genuine dialogue with the divine.  Religion is an authentic response to a real Presence, but it is also a way of making that presence real by constantly living in response to it.  It is truth translated into deed.”

I have found no better definition for what we do as a people of God who gather for worship.  We tell the stories of our faith, our identity as Christians, in the lessons we read and the sermons we hear.  We respond in thanksgiving and in giving glory and praise to God as we celebrate the Holy Eucharist.  Our prayers during worship, in our families, and in private are the conversations we have as a community and as individuals with God. 

It is in our religious life and in the faith we profess that we come to terms with the meaning and purpose of life.  We remake that meaning throughout the ages and with everything we create in developing our quality of life through our knowledge of history, science and technology.