Idolatry
2112 The first commandment condemns polytheism. It requires man neither to believe in, nor to venerate, other divinities than the one true God. Scripture constantly recalls this rejection of “idols, [of] silver and gold, the work of men’s hands. They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see.” These empty idols make their worshippers empty: “Those who make them are like them; so are all who trust in them.”42 God, however, is the “living God”43 who gives life and intervenes in history.
2113 Idolatry not only refers to false pagan worship. It remains a constant temptation to faith. Idolatry consists in divinizing what is not God. Man commits idolatry whenever he honors and reveres a creature in place of God, whether this be gods or demons (for example, satanism), power, pleasure, race, ancestors, the state, money, etc. Jesus says, “You cannot serve God and mammon.”44 Many martyrs died for not adoring “the Beast”45 refusing even to simulate such worship. Idolatry rejects the unique Lordship of God; it is therefore incompatible with communion with God.46
2114 Human life finds its unity in the adoration of the one God. The commandment to worship the Lord alone integrates man and saves him from an endless disintegration. Idolatry is a perversion of man’s innate religious sense. An idolater is someone who “transfers his indestructible notion of God to anything other than God.”
Catechism of the Catholic Church
“No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other: or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”
—Matthew 6:24
Personally my goal as a young person was to get rich. Didn’t happen. Instead my wife and I had 11 unplanned kids. God knew what real riches meant. Real riches is faith in God, His will and the insight to use the hardships in life to practice virtue. The alternative of not getting what you want is being resentful.
I have a little plaque hanging in my kitchen which says: “To be rich is to know you have enough.” Thanks be to God we always had enough. But it took me years to realize that. Life would be much less stressful and resentful if we all learned that early on.
“To be rich is to know you have enough.”
Amen.
That saying reminds me of St. Mother Theresa of Calcutta. She was walking through the slums of Calcutta and a very poor woman invited her in for a handful of rice. Mother immediately felt that she couldn’t take the offer because of the woman’s extreme poverty, but then, in a moment of grace, Mother accepted. She saw how happy the poor woman was to be able to feed her visitor. Accepting this humble gift from the poor woman made the woman feel rich….temporal and spiritually rich.
Pope Francis is struggling.
I pray for him.
He seems to be doing his work.
When he joins God in doing God’s work then the miracle.
Then the leadership.
Then the salvation of souls.
The Amazonian pitfall is loss of Catholics to Pentecostal churches.
The failure of Liberation Theology has resulted in the loss of faithful Catholics. Step back to go forward.
Until that time, the struggle of the man in white continues.
“Oh Lord. How Great are Your Works!”
Alleluia Ez 33:11
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked man, says the Lord,
but rather in his conversion that he may live.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Contemporary idolatry is scientism, and what a false god that is.
Thank you, Dr. Kurland, for posting about scientism in an early entry here at TAC. I cross posted a link to it on my FB timeline.