I always knew I was going to college. From grammar school on, that was a given. Not that everyone should go to college but, for me, it was the obvious path. I remember obesessing, starting in junior year of high school, about which college I would go to. It consumed me. And when I got to college, and then veterinary school, it totally engulfed me. Most of my waking hours were spent in class or studying. Analise from ACM, I think, can relate to this as she is now in her residency and, I believe, is experiencing a similar situation. If you want to succeed at something, it takes commitment. But at what cost?
Today’s reading from Baruch centers on the Israelites in Babylonian captivity. The prophet tells them that it is not God’s intention to destroy them but to punish them as would a parent disciplining their child. No parent is joyful for having to punish a child or put them into a modern day exile (sending them to their room). Parents punish in order to break the cycle of bad behavior for they know this behavior will be destructive for the child. As does God. The Israelites are caught up in the cycle of sin, punishment, repentance and return to God.
What is the sin God is most angered about on the part of the Israelites? Which sin has resulted in their condemnation at the hands of the Babylonians? It is the one that was so prominent while they were in the desert and crafted the golden calf. Idol worship. While in Canaan, God’s people drifted to worship the gods of their neighbors. Gods who could neither see or speak. Who were crafted from gold, silver and wood. Whose creators were mortal and who, themselves, would perish. Could mere mortals create immortal gods? These gods could not lead them or guide them, nor were they filled with spirit.
Do we craft gods today out of gold, silver or wood? Maybe not. But we do craft idols for ourselves. For me, succeeding in my studies was the primary focus during my days at the University of Illinois. I went to mass when I could but my faith definitely took a back seat to the gods of pathology, anatomy and physiology. I was studying and worshipping the gods that the true God created. Like admiring the Mona Lisa and not Leonardo da Vinci. The created but not the Creator. And don’t we all have our idols today? Treasures, power, fame and pleasure. A good job. A nice home. A great car. Hobbies. Sports. These can become our idols. But what is an idol? These things, in of themselves, are not bad. We need money. We need to work and have leisure time. But when do these things become idols?
Paragraph 2112 of the Catechism concerning idols is summarized as:
“It is the divination of a creature in place of God; the substitution of some one (or thing) for God; worshipping a creature (even money, pleasure, or power) instead of the Creator. “
So it is not the thing or person themselves that are the issue. It is, if we allow them to occupy the place that God should dwell. There is a saying that goes something like, where your time and money is spent is what you value. Does what you focus on push God to the side, telling Him that “I will find time for you…sometime. As soon as I am done with ____” We saw this in Wednesday’s Gospel from Luke when Jesus uses exaggeration to make His point when he tells a would-be follower who wanted to first go and bury his Father:
But he replied, “Lord, let me go first and bury my father.”
But he answered him, “Let the dead bury their dead.
What about what us as Catholics? Do we worship idols in our statues, paintings and devotionals? We do bow down to statues of Mary. We do wear scapular medals to help protect us. Idol worship? It can be if the person worships the object itself. If the painting of Mary becomes the end. The actual focus of the worship. But what we as Catholics should be doing is venerating the object as a way of honoring the individual in the image. The object should be the reminder of the person that we are really venerating. Worship itself is reserved for God and the Lord but we venerate and honor His Mother and the saints. We do the same thing when we view or kiss the picture of a loved one. Either alive or who have passed on. The picture keeps their memory alive in us. As long as we see the object as a reference to the person being honored, and not the true focus.
We all stray. We all drift from God at various times in our lives. But Baruch tells the captives in Babylon, and he tells us, about God’s forgiveness:
Fear not, my children; call out to God!
He who brought this upon you will remember you.
As your hearts have been disposed to stray from God,
turn now ten times the more to seek him;
For he who has brought disaster upon you
will, in saving you, bring you back enduring joy.”
While we, as Christians, have the ultimate path to God’s forgiveness.
