God seeks man because the nature of God himself is to be man. Man seeks God through acts of piety, gratitude, charity, and obedience because man's very nature is to seek God his creator and brother. Jesus said, "If you love me, you will obey my commandments."
Is our love for God and striving to obey his commandments something to be hated? Jesus himself fasted for forty days and told the apostles that some evil spirits can only be cast out through prayer and fasting. Is it vanity to fast as Jesus did and taught?
Jesus said, "This is my body." Is it superfluous to go to Mass to receive the Body of Christ? Jesus forgave the sins of the paralytic and restored Peter in John 21 after Peter had denied Him. Is it vanity to confess our sins to priests ordained under the apostolic succession of St. Peter?
Jesus said, "When you did it to the least of my brethren, you did it unto me." Is it vanity to lose sleep and give up treasures on earth to feed the poor? Jesus gave us impossible tasks, yet we are called to obey and rest in His love, not succeed and rest in our success. Catholics know this truth as well as Protestants, and in many cases, they know it much better, yet somehow, when we put our hands to charity we are accused of trying to work our way to heaven without a bit of trust in God's grace.
You cannot hate true religion because the very nature of man as God's child and brother is to strive, fast, pray, give, and sacrifice to identify with Christ- not because we believe that we can obtain His love and holiness by our striving, but because we cannot imagine a living relationship with Jesus our savior in which He does all the giving and sacrifice. We do not pretend we can "even" the balance sheet with God Almighty. I buy my earthly father gifts not to even the ledger but to enrich a love that keeps multiplying. The same is true with our heavenly Father. As Mother Teresa said, we need to be "something beautiful for God."
Finally, I have heard people my whole life claim that the Church and its parishes and monasteries should sell off their treasures to feed the poor, but it is seldom the poor who say this. The first person to say this was Judas, who did not, to say the least, understand the big picture and was stealing from the collection plate. His challenge to Christ was not a Christian precedent. Others who say this are secularists who cannot see the Church in its mystical glory but only in its material functions. A third group are rich people who have beautiful things and care little about the beautiful treasures in the Church because they belong to others, including the poor, the saints, God, and others they do not know or understand. And yes, there are some well-meaning people who say this, but they never polled the poor and asked them what they thought about this lousy idea.
The poor, especially the poor in spirit, love the beautiful things in God's house. The poor do not own many beautiful things and appreciate how collectively, and with their ancestors in the communion of saints, they can enjoy beautiful things in God's house as they worship the One who redeems them. They understand that those who would sell those treasures care nothing about the patrimony of the Church which allows the poorest of the poor to worship God in splendor, glory, and beauty and to be Christ. It is the rich who say, "Sell it," but it is the poor that say no.
Another link here re the poor and Church beauty.
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