When we hear the story of how the Israelites worshipped a golden calf while waiting for Moses to come down from atop Mt. Sinai, we might come away with the impression that they are turning away from the worship of the One God whose name is not to be spoken. Actually, they are still worshipping the Lord, but they don’t want God to be who God is. They want a God who has shape and gender. They want to be able to see God, to touch God and ultimately restrict God to a particular physical space and time. The reason idols were forbidden is simply because God does not want them to determine who God is and who God is not.
The reality is this. No matter how close we come to God, we will never truly know or understand God. God is so immense, so beautiful, so powerful and so good that our human minds are not able to completely comprehend God. God is transcendent. One part of being transcendent is that God is beyond our human comprehension, beyond space and time, untouchable, and ultimately unknowable. The molten calf of which we hear this morning or any graphic or carved image of God is a rejection of who God is because it limits God.
Through the Scriptures, God tries to reveal who and what God is. As profound as they are, the sacred writings are not able to completely reveal God’s nature. This is precisely why God sent Jesus, God’s Word made flesh, the Incarnation.
Jesus was rejected by his own people for the same reason that their ancestors made idols. Those who rejected Jesus did so because Jesus was not what they expected, nor was he what they wanted in a Messiah. In the Gospel, Jesus goes to great lengths to cite all those who witness to who he is; namely, John the Baptist, the works that he performs, the voice of God, and the Scriptures. Even with all these witnesses, the Jewish leaders rejected him because they could not control who he was just as their ancestors could not control who the God of Sinai is.
When we come to celebrate the Eucharist, we all do so with an image of God and of Jesus in our hearts. However, we have to realize that this image is limited. For just when we think we have God and Jesus all figured out, God will find a way to surprise us and make us take another look. God cannot be controlled by what we think God. All we can really say is, “God is.”
Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator