Word to the Wise
Thursday, March 23, 2023 - 4th Week of Lent - Thurs
[Exod 32:7-14 and John 5:31-47]"Go down at once to your people whom you brought out of Egypt, for they have become depraved. They have soon turned aside from the way I pointed out to them, making for themselves a molten calf and worshiping it, sacrificing to it and crying out, 'This is your God, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.'" [Exodus]
The story of the golden calf in the desert is familiar to us. Moses is up on the mountain with God too long for the people to wait. So, they manage to persuade Moses' brother, Aaron, to create an idol for them to worship!!! But it is only the beginning of the struggle throughout the history of the Chosen People to remain faithful to the covenant God made with Abraham and Moses. Local deities, especially those connected with fertility, were a constant temptation. The Old Testament prophets had to continually remind the Chosen People of the tendency to create a God of their own designs and desires.
That temptation remains in our own time. We are constantly offered the temptation to create a God of our own designs. This is essentially what happened to Adam and Eve. Any god that humans create is really only a reflection of the desires of the human heart. Whether it is money, sex, power, substance, nature, even another human person, these are all items that can claim our affection and worship. History constantly shows us how this happens. It takes effort to remain faithful to our calling in baptism to follow Christ and his teachings. In our own "secular," individualistic and consumer-oriented society, the false gods surround us with their siren calls which can seem so loud that we cannot hear the voice of God calling to us from the scriptures and tradition.
The season of Lent offers us an opportunity to be aware of the false gods around us or even the ones we can create without realizing it until we are captured by them. There is only one God, who came to save us from this. Human worship of other gods resulted in the human death of the one whom God sent. The resurrection of Jesus shows that the last word rests with the God of revelation in Jesus Christ. Lent is meant to remind us of this and to celebrate it at Easter. AMEN