|
Avoiding
Idolatry
January
9, 2005 Homily
Fr.
George Smiga
Matthew
3:13-17
As
you read the Hebrew Scriptures there is one sin that is criticized
more than any other. It is the sin of idolatry. The prophets
are always railing against it. More so than murder or adultery,
Israel is told over and over again to avoid idolatry. She
is commanded not to worship false gods.
Now
you might think that this sin of idolatry has little relevance
to our lives. But that would be incorrect. In fact, there
is a particularly strong temptation to idolatry in light of
current events, particularly the recent tsunami disaster.
So,
what is idolatry and why is it wrong? Idolatry is setting
up as God something that is not God. It is wrong because it
gives us the impression that we can see God or fully understand
God or perhaps control God. The prophets knew better. They
knew that God is so much greater than us that there is no
way that we could fully see or understand God and certainly
never control God. They insisted that the only thing we can
know about God for sure is what God has told us. To presume
that we knew more than that was pride, and to pretend that
we could somehow figure God out was false. It was idolatry.
Now
we who follow Christ believe that Jesus is God made flesh.
We worship Christ as the splendor of God. We believe that
in a real way Jesus reveals God to us. Yet even in Christ
we never know God completely. Such knowledge is reserved for
heaven. Even in the revelation of Christ the only things we
know for sure are the truths which God has revealed to us.
This
is why today's Gospel is so important. In the Gospel today
God reveals an important truth about Jesus and about us. As
Jesus comes out of the water after his baptism, God identifies
Jesus as the beloved Son and thereby makes it clear to us
that we who belong to Jesus are beloved daughters and sons.
This is the good news, the center of our faith: God loves
us as God's own children. We know this and we believe it because
God has told it to us.
But
there are many other things we would like to know about God
that have not been revealed. And here is where we current
events begin to influence our thinking. Whenever there is
a disaster such as the tsunami disaster, we desperately want
to know how God is involved. You have all hear the questions
and perhaps thought them yourselves. “How could God allow
such a calamity to take place? Why did God not stop the deaths
of so many people? Why did so many innocent children die?”
Why
did God not stop the tsunami disaster? The answer is, we don't
know. But we desperately want to know and here is where things
become dangerous. In our desire to know, in our desire to
make sense, we can create a false god. Again you have heard
these attempts to make sense out of this disaster in the media
and in people's conversation. They will say, “The tsunami
happened because God was angry, because God wanted to punish
us or the people of Indonesia. God did this to teach a lesson.
God did this to reduce the overpopulation on the earth.”
All
these so-called explanations of this disaster attempt to make
sense out of the tsunami, but they are blasphemous. They are
idolatry because they set up as God something that is not
God. They are idolatry because they create a false god, a
god of vengeance, a god who does not care about the death
of innocents, a god who has no compassion for human beings
and their lives.
Moreover,
these explanations contradict the things that we know for
sure about God. We know that God cares for us, that God sees
us as God's own children. We know this because God has revealed
this to us.
Therefore,
the gospel today calls us to avoid idolatry. It commands us
not to set up false gods in order to explain the tsunami disaster
or any other evil that happens in our lives. As Christians
we are called to limit our knowledge of God to those things
that we know, to those things which have been revealed to
us. What are those things? What are the things we know for
sure? God loves us and cares for us. God does not will the
death of the innocent. God treats all people as valuable and
precious. God calls us to do what we can to relieve the suffering
of those who have been affected by the tsunami. God calls
us to use all of our intelligence and science to prevent such
loss of life in the future. That is what we know. Why did
God not stop the tsunami? That we do not know. And it is better
to admit that we do not know rather than creating a false
god to explain it. It is better to admit our own ignorance
of things beyond us than to distort our God who has been revealed
to us as a parent who cares for all people and loves us as
beloved daughters and sons.
|
