The very first commandment, and the longest, speaks to us about our relationship to God.
“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall not have other gods beside me. You shall not make for yourself an idol or a likeness of anything in the heavens above or on the earth below or in the waters beneath the earth; you shall not bow down before them or serve them. For I, the LORD, your God, am a jealous God, inflicting punishment for their ancestors’ wickedness on the children of those who hate me, down to the third and fourth generation; but showing love down to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.” (Exodus 20: 2-6)
When we were children and memorized the commandments, we were taught a short form: “I am the Lord your God; you shall not have any other gods before me.”
In the first reading for today’s liturgy, St. Paul reflects on this commandment:
“For although they knew God they did not accord him glory as God or give him thanks. Instead, they became vain in their reasoning, and their senseless minds were darkened. While claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for the likeness of an image of mortal man or of birds or of four-legged animals or of snakes.” (Romans 1:21-23)
Our studies of the ancient Mediterranean world have revealed many of the different idols that the people of this region worshipped. The gods of the ancient world took many shapes, many of them the shape of animals. Some worshipped the heavenly bodies – the sun, the moon and the stars. This behavior simply ignores our fundamental relationship with God. God is the Creator; we are the creatures. If we read the account of the fall of Adam and Eve, we learn that the very first temptation and resulting sin was to deny this basic relationship. Ever since, human beings have tried to play at being God. God has given us great intellectual powers, many physical skills, and a creative spirit so that we can be partners with God in tending this created world. However, we, like our ancestors are constantly looking for ways to play at being God.
Perhaps we no longer create images of animals as the objects of our worship. Now we have begun to worship our own abilities and powers, forsaking God’s will and choosing to do what we deem necessary and beneficial. Such behavior is just as foolish as that of our ancestors.
Interestingly enough, when events and natural disasters show us how powerless we really are, instead of turning to God and acknowledging God as the author of life and the Creator of the universe, we use these events to further deny God, claiming that a good and loving God would not allow such things to happen. This kind of thinking simply compounds our foolishness.
Perhaps this is why the Church begins every day with Psalm 95 which reminds us: For he is our God, we are the people he shepherds, the sheep in his hands. (Psalm 95:7)
Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator