Dear Parishioners and Friends,
In the
encyclical Lumen Fidei (“Light of
Faith”) Pope Francis says that the history of Israel shows us the temptation of
unbelief in the form of idolatry. In the desert, while Moses is in long
conversation with a mysterious and hidden God, the rest of Israel decides to
make a golden calf and worship it.
It seemed better
to Israel to worship an idol whose face they could see directly rather than
renounce the physical sight of God in order to see him with the eyes of faith. The
Pope reminds us that “faith by its very nature demands renouncing the immediate
possession which sight would appear to offer” (LF, 13).
“Idols exist,”
the Pope continues, “… as a pretext for setting ourselves at the center of
reality and worshipping the work of our own hands” (LF, 13). Faith, on the
other hand, “breaks with idols to turn to the living God in a personal
encounter” (LF, 13).
The temptation
to idolatry is very much alive today. A certain scientism causes us to think
that reality is only what we can see and touch in the physical world. Idolatry
is putting ourselves and/or the work of our hands at the center of reality.
Faith means a entrusting of oneself to the Lord who is merciful love.
In Christ,
Msgr. Baker
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