I'll Have the Golden Calf with Fries

"I, the LORD, am your God, 
who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery.You shall not have other gods besides me.
You shall not carve idols for yourselves 
in the shape of anything in the sky above 
or on the earth below or in the waters beneath the earth; 
you shall not bow down before them or worship them."

Today's first reading is the story of God speaking out the ten commandments. The first commandment forbids us from having any false gods, bowing down to statues of any living thing or worshipping them.  Oh boy! I wonder if the Church knows about this commandment.  I've been in a lot of Catholic churches and I've seen a lot of statues are we in trouble or what?   Actually, "or what" would fit better here than "trouble."  Once and for all, Catholics do not and never have worshipped statues.  We use statues, in the same manner, we use pictures of our loved ones, as a reminder of them, we know that the picture is not them, not even a substitute for them, just an image to help us remember them. I am done defending the statues that appear in various Catholic churches, they are a non-issue as far as I am concerned.  But idol worship is a very serious thing. 

God is very serious that we do not worship idols. He knows that idol worship takes us away from His loving care and sends us down the wide and smooth road to perdition.  But, I've established that we do not worship statues.  Doesn't that mean we Catholics have commandment one aced?  There may be a few of us that really and truly do have it aced and do not offend against this commandment but I bet if we really think about it, we can find idols that we do worship that are not statues or pictures. 

Where do we find these things?  We find them inside our heads for the most part. Anything that leads us away from God is an idol that we are bowing down to and making sacrifices to and violating this first commandment.  If something is taking the place of God in our lives, that something is an idol.

Think carefully about your wants and desires.  Focusing on a want or desire simply to satisfy yourself and not caring what effect it has on others is the same as idol worship.  The Israelites knew that the golden calf was not God.  They were not invested in the calf, it cost them nothing because they were using the gold and jewels that the Egyptians gave them to fashion the idol. The calf itself was a beautiful loathsome thing made out of the gold of Egypt and the sin of the people, it was pricelessly valueless.  This is the same thing the object of our desires becomes when it takes the place of God in our lives.  When it takes over and pulls us away from God, then we are worshipping it as God.  Since the object is not God, then it is subject to decay, rust, moths, age, and other things that destroy the temporary. 

So, don't worry about the statues in the church, they are harmless. But think carefully about those things for which you lust for as you watch them, they may turn to rust. 

Now a word from our sponsor...The Holy Souls never forget someone that has prayed for them.  They need our prayers because they cannot help themselves.  Remember them in your prayers today.  An Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be takes but a minute for us but it means so much for them. 

Feeding Frenzy

The past week all over America there was a feeding frenzy of sorts. You know what I mean of course, we all got caught up in it, the Powerball Lottery. Now I never play the lottery, except this time I did, yes this straight laced Catholic Christian boy plunked down four hard earned US of A greenback dollars for the privilege of dreaming and dreaming big!  For a couple of days I was thinking how I would outfit my new Gulf Stream jet and who I would invite for the initial ride. I thought what my parish would do with the ten percent of the winnings that they would get right off of the top.  I envisioned a five story PADS shelter. I would have funded research into finding cures for cancer.  I would have funded a food bank that would wipe out hunger in my state.  There would have been scholarships galore for those whose grades like mine were average or slightly above. I was planning to do so much good.  That is what my four dollars bought me as I joined the feeding frenzy that captured the minds of my fellow citizens.  I have to tell you that it was kind of fun and all in all was worth the four George Washington's I plunked down to the man of mid-eastern extraction behind the counter at the Peacock Mobil Station who pushed a button that caused a machine to spit out two lines of random numbers.  

Well, I am back in the real world again.  The next lottery drawing will come and go without capturing my attention. My dollar bills will stay comfortably inside my wallet until they are called upon to purchase some pedestrian need. But I take solace in the fact that although I cannot fund my large dreams, I can fund smaller ones. I can look out for opportunities to be kind, to be generous, to let the light of Christ shine through me. If I do this without expecting any reward or payback, my example may be what brings a sinner home like the prodigal son, home to God the Father who loves him without end. My example, my love expressed can be the difference between heaven and hell for someone I do not know. 

So yes, I proved my humanity and jumped into the middle of the feeding frenzy.  It was fun and it allowed me the opportunity to think once the announcement of where the winning tickets were sold and my town was not mentioned, that I was luckier than the winners because I have Christ in my life.

Peace to you today and may the light of Christ flood your soul. Act on your good intentions today. Spread a random act of kindness wherever you go.  God bless you and yours. 

The Convert-a-Catholic Challenge is still waiting it's first daring Protestant to take up the cause. Convince this cradle Catholic that the Catholic Church has got it all wrong and that your denomination has got it all right.  Chick to start the debate rolling.  Click here/

Catholic Resources for your use: 

Catechism of the Catholic Church   (Click Here)  don't live in ignorance. If you are going to criticize or even condemn her, use her own words against her.  This free resource tells what we believe in an easy to read format.

Catholics Come Home  (Click Here)  If you are a Catholic and have been away from the Church for awhile, well, we have missed you and consider this an invitation to come home. 

Headquarters - The Vatican - (Click Here)  Nose around at the Vatican. Get to know Pope Francis a little bit better. Find out the inside story right from the horse's mouth. 

Feast of The Holy Family JMJ Makes Sister Emerita Smile

One fond memory I have from my years as a student of St. Joseph and St. Anne School on the Southwest Side of Chicago is the fact that if you wanted to really please Sister you would place squarely in the center of your paper the legend JMJ.  This of course stands for "Jesus, Mary, and Joseph" the Holy Family.   

Today the Church reminds us that Jesus came to earth to serve and not be served. The Gospel reading for today is the story of Jesus being found in the temple.  Can you imagine the fear that Joseph and Mary felt when they could not find the Child that had been placed into their care?  Like any parent they probably thought the worst.  Then can you imagine the relief and maybe just a bit of parental anger they must have felt.  Mary asked Him, "Son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been searching for you with great anxiety?"  Jesus then responds by giving a reply that at the time could only be understood by Mary and Joseph when He told them that He had to be in His Father's house.  The incident closes and we are told that Jesus became obedient to them and advanced in wisdom before men and God. 

A human being is born dependent on a family.  If a baby was born and ignored and left to his/her own devices they would soon die. The human family is the unit God has decided will be the way a human child will learn how to live in the world. The family will teach by example.  The child will learn the "who to's" of life while under the protection of their mother and father.  The parents are also responsible for teaching their child about God and the Kingdom of God and the child's place in it.  The latter is probably more important that the former. 

Today the concept of family is under attack on many fronts. To begin with the concept of marriage being between one man and one woman has come under attack.  Today in the United States and other countries marriage has been re-defined and now includes people of the same sex.  There are a couple of things wrong with same sex marriage.  First and foremost a same sex union can never procreate. Same sex families with two daddies or two mommies are not good for the child.  The ideal family, such as was Our Lord's contains both contributions from the female and male point of view. Sure, a same sex couple can be loving and nurturing to a child but the dual points of view are missing and they are very important in growing a child. 

There are other problems that assault the family as well. Even in those households where there are a traditional mother and father sometimes career and social lives take precedence in life and while the children are cared for physically they lack the care of their psyche that children from previous generations received from their parents. 

When I was growing up my mother, God rest her soul, made sure that dinner time was a time where family came together.  The television, which was visible from the kitchen where we took our meals together, was turned off.  The radio was silent and we ate our meals and actually talked to one another.  Attendance at dinner was mandatory in our household and we remained in each other's company until the meal was completed by all.  We never thought much about it, it was just how it was done and our family was not the exception, almost all of the neighborhood families followed the same ritual. 

Today when people gather around the dinner table they are most often accompanied by their smart phone. These electronic masters serve as distraction and conversation between is thus limited at best.  People feel less loyalty to their family and more to friends and organizations. 

We will eventually reap the results of our letting the family disintegrate.  We see some of the results already today. In former times aging parents were helped by their children. Today aging parents are seen as a problem to be conquered and we place Dad or Mom into the care of others and we lose the great assets that they could give us, namely their wisdom. 

People are also putting off having families later and later in life while they pursue their career and because of this we are losing the cohesion of inter-generational relationships by placing our old out on an figurative iceberg to await their call home to God because we have to sacrifice to the new god of retirement. 

Finally, we can see the results of our assault on the family and family values in any mall or store in America.   You can see many fine examples of children whining, crying, demanding, and even striking their attending parent.  These children are crying out for discipline and to be shown what to do.  Unfortunately, in many cases the parent has not a clue because he/she did not receive instruction by example from his/her family. 

Is it hopeless? Are we doomed?  For the near future I fear things will get worse but eventually their will be a revival of family values.  Someone will discover what is missing and being a family will become popular again.  On this Feast of the Holy Family resolve to show real love to your children and teach them how they should walk. 

Go with God this day and may He, through His Son Jesus bring love into your heart and through the Holy Spirit, light to follow him day by day.