Word to the Wise
Monday, July 29, 2019 - July 29 - St. Martha
[Exodus 32:15-24, 30-34 and John 11:19-27 or Luke 10:38-42,1230]Moses asked Aaron, "What did this people ever do to you that you should lead them into so grave a sin?" Aaron replied, "Let not my lord be angry. You know well enough how prone the people are to evil. They said to me, 'Make us a good to be our leader; as for the man Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him.' So I told them, 'Let anyone who has gold jewelry take it off.' They gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and this calf came out." [Exodus]
JULY 29 ST. MARTHA
It's an old Sunday school joke: Who broke all ten commandments at once? The answer: Moses, when he broke the stone tablets on seeing the Golden Calf! Aaron's response to Moses when Moses questioned him is basically a shrug. If the God that Moses spoke to is absent, why not make another one? One God is as good as another when you're out in a desert! Moses literally makes the people consume their "consumer God" by grinding it into dust, dissolving it in water and making the people drink it!
When faith becomes just one among many religious options and we come up with a God of our own designs, there is really no faith at all - only "brand loyalty." The broad narrative of the Old Testament is one of the People of God constantly growing slack in their faith and adopting local religious deities, especially fertility rites in place of faith in the God who had been revealed to them as the ONLY God!
It's a fair question. Do we have any "Golden Calves" in our life or our nation? Would "the economy" qualify? Would "lifestyle" qualify? Would our political system with all its symbols and patriotic gestures qualify? Would the world of sports qualify? Surveys are showing that Mass attendance in the U.S.A., is at about 25% for those who go every Sunday! What is the competition? What do we truly believe in, and how do we show it? AMEN