Who Worships False Idols These Days?

In yesterday’s post I referred to doctrine, morality and piety as (potential) false idols. One might have rightly asked, “Really? Who worships false idols these days? I haven’t seen any golden calves around in quite some time.”

That’s certainly true: we no longer build statues made out of precious metals and worship them as deities. But that doesn’t mean that idol worship has gone completely by the wayside… it’s simply become more subtle and sophisticated.

I’d like to take a short post to briefly explain.

In short, we commit idol worship anytime we place at the center of our lives anything but God. Yesterday’s post was focused on some of the ways that those who are striving to follow Him can unwittingly fall into idol worship by placing some good things at the center.

And that gets to an important point: a false idol isn’t necessarily a bad thing that we “worship”: it can be a good thing, too. It’s simply giving anything -- good or bad -- greater centrality in our lives than we ought to.

So idol worship could be drugs, alcohol, pornography, etc., but it can also be good things that we actually overvalue: our work, our hobby, or even our relationships… it’s possible to replace God at the center of our lives with our friends or family, even our spouses or children.

We are both called and empowered to live an integrated life, in which we give everything its due. When we fail to do so, when we over- or undervalue anything significant... we run into problems. And that's not to say that an angry old guy with a white beard "up there" is going to shake his finger at us... it's to say that when we misprioritize anything of significance, the result is dis-order in our lives... dis-integration.

Like it or not, we are hardwired by God, for God. In the oft-quoted words of St. Augustine, "Our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee." When we get the center right, everything else falls into place. But when we don't...

Yesterday I mentioned that one of my temptations is to overvalue doctrine; another of my temptations is to overvalue technology, to give it greater due than I ought. I tend to do this by having my cell phone at hand and obsessively checking my email -- work & personal -- when I might be spending that time being fully present to my wife and my children.

I find it helpful to reflect regularly on this: what are the things in my life that I overvalue? What are the things that I’m giving more time or effort to than is due them? In short… what are my personal false idols?

Good News, Not Good Advice

Christians in the First World today have a serious image problem, one which cripples our attempts to share our faith with others, and -- sadly -- one which is in many ways our own doing. As the Anglican scholar N.T. Wright has noted, the unfortunate reality is that many people -- including many Christians! -- have fundamentally misunderstood the Gospel of Jesus Christ as Good (or Not So Good) Advice.

To put it another way, many people -- again, including many Christians -- see the essence of Christianity as a moral code, as a set of rules and regulations which require certain behaviors and forbid others, as a bunch of "Thou Shalt Not's".



 

We’ll dive deeper into this topic in other posts, but for now I simply want to note that while Christianity certainly entails a morality, it is not, at its heart, defined as a morality. Rather, it is the proclamation of Good News: of something that has happened, that is happening, and that will happen.



 

What are these things, these events, that have happened, are happening, and will happen? They are

1. the coming of Jesus Christ into the world 2000 years ago and the redemption which He accomplished and initiated then;


2. the encounter with Him which is offered to each and every human being in the midst of their lives, and encounter which has the capacity to slowly but surely transform them and their lives; and


3. He return at the end of history, at which point the transformation which began 2000 years ago will be fulfilled, completed and accomplished.

Let me conclude this “teaser” post which this quote, describing the essence of Christianity: “Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.” Google the quote… you might be surprised at who wrote it.

The encounter with the Risen Jesus can transform your life now... today.

Do you believe this is possible? Why, or why not?

 

It Looks Better on the Inside

 

At the Easter Sunday Mass one of the options for the reading from the Gospels is John 20:1-9, in which we read about how Mary Magdalene told Peter and John (the disciple whom Jesus loved) that Jesus’ body was missing from the tomb and about their response: they ran to the tomb.

We’re told that Peter and John both ran to the tomb, and that although John reached the tomb first, he did not go in until Peter arrived.

Note what happens after Peter has arrived, entered the tomb and examined the scene: “Then the other disciple [John], who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed” (verse 8).

John -- who’d reached the tomb first -- goes into the tomb, sees, and believes.

He goes in, and then he sees and believes.

It is only when he has entered in that he is able to see and to believe.

In the experience of many people who’ve embraced Christianity in general or Catholicism in particular, there comes a point at which further investigation "from the outside” yields diminishing results: a decision has to be made to “enter in,” and once that happens… seeing and believing.

Have you had that experience? Are you in that position now? Enter in, that you might see and believe.

What is Truth?

“What is truth?” Those are the words of that great postmodern philosopher Pontius Pilate, uttered nearly 2000 years ago (maybe postmodern isn’t as postmodern as we thought).

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="490"] Mihaly Munkacsy, Christ before Pilate, 1881[/caption]

 

While many today share Pilate’s skepticism, many others have found the Truth. Not just truths, mind you, but the Truth: the truth about themselves, about their lives, about their destiny. And with it they have found peace, joy and purpose.

You can find it too.

Are you ready?