20170803
ARE CATHOLICS IDOL WORSHIPPERS?
Readings
at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: Green.
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First reading
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Exodus 40:16-21,34-38 ©
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The tabernacle is set up
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Moses did exactly as the Lord had directed him. The tabernacle was
set up on the first day of the first month in the second year. Moses erected
the tabernacle. He fixed the sockets for it, put up its frames, put its
crossbars in position, set up its posts. He spread the tent over the tabernacle
and on top of this the covering for the tent, as the Lord had directed Moses.
He took the Testimony and placed it inside the ark. He set the shafts to the
ark and placed the throne of mercy on it. He brought the ark into the
tabernacle and put the screening veil in place; thus he screened the ark of the
Lord, as the Lord had directed Moses.
The cloud
covered the Tent of Meeting and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.
Moses could not enter the Tent of Meeting because of the cloud that rested on
it and because of the glory of the Lord that filled the tabernacle.
At every
stage of their journey, whenever the cloud rose from the tabernacle the sons of
Israel would resume their march. If the cloud did not rise, they waited and
would not march until it did. For the cloud of the Lord rested on the
tabernacle by day, and a fire shone within the cloud by night, for all the
House of Israel to see. And so it was for every stage of their journey.
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Responsorial Psalm
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Psalm 83(84):3-6,8,11 ©
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How lovely is your dwelling-place, Lord, God of
hosts.
My soul is longing and yearning,
is yearning for the courts of the Lord.
My heart and my soul ring out their joy
to God, the living God.
How lovely is your dwelling-place, Lord, God of
hosts.
The sparrow herself finds a home
and the swallow a nest for her brood;
she lays her young by your altars,
Lord of hosts, my king and my God.
How lovely is your dwelling-place, Lord, God of
hosts.
They are happy, who dwell in your house,
for ever singing your praise.
They walk with ever-growing strength,
they will see the God of gods in Zion.
How lovely is your dwelling-place, Lord, God of
hosts.
One day within your courts
is better than a thousand elsewhere.
The threshold of the house of God
I prefer to the dwellings of the wicked.
How lovely is your dwelling-place, Lord, God of
hosts.
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Gospel Acclamation
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Jn15:15
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Alleluia, alleluia!
I call you friends, says the Lord,
because I have made known to you
everything I have learnt from my Father.
Alleluia!
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Or
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cf.Ac16:14
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Open our heart, O Lord,
to accept the words of your Son.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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Matthew 13:47-53 ©
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Jesus said to the crowds: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet
cast into the sea that brings in a haul of all kinds. When it is full, the
fishermen haul it ashore; then, sitting down, they collect the good ones in a
basket and throw away those that are no use. This is how it will be at the end
of time: the angels will appear and separate the wicked from the just to throw
them into the blazing furnace where there will be weeping and grinding of
teeth.
‘Have you
understood all this?’ They said, ‘Yes.’ And he said to them, ‘Well then, every
scribe who becomes a disciple of the kingdom of heaven is like a householder
who brings out from his storeroom things both new and old.’
ARE CATHOLICS IDOL WORSHIPPERS?
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ Ex 40:16-21, 34-38; Ps 83:3-6,8,11; Mt 13:47-53 ]
Catholics are
often accused of not being faithful to the bible and branded as idol worshippers. This is because of
the rich sacramentals, icons, images and symbols that we use for our worship,
devotion and liturgy. Are we breaking the first commandment as some
accuse us of? What does the first commandment forbid? “You shall
have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a graven image,
or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth
beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to
them or serve them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God.” (Ex 20:3f)
If that were
so, it would seem contradictory that Moses, having punished the
Israelites for making the golden calf, ordered the construction of a Tabernacle
to house the Ark where the Ten Commandments were kept and where they could
offer burnt offerings. (cf Ex 35-40)
This Tent of Meeting would become the sacred place where God was present in a
very special way. “The cloud covered the Tent of Meeting and the glory of the
Lord filled the tabernacle. Moses could not enter the Tent of Meeting
because of the cloud that rested on it and because of the glory of the Lord
that filled the tabernacle.” Not only was it the Sacred Presence of
God, we read that the Tabernacle accompanied and guided them along their
journey. “At every stage of their journey, whenever the cloud rose from
the tabernacle the sons of Israel would resume their march. If the cloud
did not rise, they waited and would not march until it did. For the cloud
of the Lord rested on the tabernacle by day, and a fire shone within the cloud
by night, for all the House of Israel to see. And so it was for every
stage of their journey.”
The truth
remains that in spite of the anger that God and Moses felt with the
people who made the golden calf, there was still the human need to
remember the presence of God. That was what Aaron said to Moses. “Let not the anger of my
Lord burn hot; you know the people, that they are set on evil. For they said to
me, ‘Make us gods who shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who
brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of
him.’” (Ex 32:22f) Human beings are not pure spirit and we need
tangible things to see and feel to help us feel the closeness of God and of our
loved ones. Human beings need signs, symbols and things to convey the
deeper reality of their experiences. We need sacred symbols.
Hence, since time immemorial, shrines have been constructed so that God could
be remembered and worshipped.
This explains
why the Tabernacle was replaced 500 years later by the Temple built by King
Solomon.
Jesus Himself would visit the Temple yearly for worship. The Temple was
most sacred to the Israelites and the Jews. In their history, the
destruction and desecration of the Temple was considered the most heinous
crimes that could be committed. The Maccabean brothers died to purify the
Temple as we read in the book of Maccabees. It was one of the charges
against Jesus when he was brought to trial before the High Priest. (cf Mt 26:61)
In years to come, the Torah was considered the most holy book of the
Jews. The psalmist felt the presence of God in the Temple. He said,
“How lovely is your dwelling-place, Lord, God of hosts. My
soul is longing and yearning, is yearning for the courts of the Lord. They are
happy, who dwell in your house, forever singing your praise. They walk
with ever-growing strength, they will see the God of gods in Zion. One day
within your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. The threshold of the
house of God I prefer to the dwellings of the wicked.” So we cannot deny
the need of human beings to create symbols and things to remind them of God’s
presence.
Thus, in the
Catholic Church, we make use of many signs and symbols to mediate God’s
presence so that people could be led to contemplate on the greatness and
splendor of God. Just like in the Old Testament where Moses ordered the people to
establish an elaborate liturgy with the intricate vestments and sacred vessels
to enhance the awesomeness of God’s presence, so does the Church as well in her
liturgy. No one can deny that such sacramentals employed by the Church
enrich and bring out the liturgical celebration and help the worshippers to
experience interiorly what they express externally.
This is where
there is a thin line between idolatry and sacramentals. Idolatry is to
make an image and worship it as a god. To render homage to
something that is of the earth, created by God who is the source of everything
is to deny that there is only one God. This is what the first commandment seeks
to emphasize that God is One. There is also the historical context where
the pagan neighbours of the Israelites worshipped many other gods that they had
carved for themselves. To worship a thing as if it is a god, is to
worship an illusion and to worship nothingness. In other words, idols are
not real. As the psalm says, “Their idols are silver and gold, the work
of men’s hands. They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not
see. They have ears, but do not hear; noses, but do not smell. They
have hands, but do not feel; feet, but do not walk; and they do not make a
sound in their throat. Those who make them are like them; so are all who
trust in them.” (Ps 115:4-8)
Sacramentals
are different. They are instituted by the Church. They are not
identified with the reality but put us in a right disposition to receive God’s
grace. Sacramentals “are sacred signs which bear a resemblance to the
sacraments. They signify effects, particularly of a spiritual nature, which are
obtained through the intercession of the Church. By them, men are disposed to
receive the chief effect of the sacraments, and various occasions in life are
rendered holy” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 1667). They are firstly
not carved images of God who is pure Spirit, but they are images of people and
things that we have seen, for example, the image of the cross, the crucifix,
our Lord, Mary and the Saints. These images help us to focus our
eyes on God. Catholics do not identify the sacred things as the reality
itself but as means by which God works so that we can experience tangibly His
presence, as in the Temple or the Ark of the Covenant which the Israelites
brought with them to win battles against their enemies.
At its
highest level, the Church uses Sacraments instituted by Christ which are
outward signs that give grace to those who receive them worthily. The Eucharist is par
excellence of the presence of Christ because He transformed bread and wine to
be His body and blood. Another sacrament is the Sacrament of the Sick.
Even Jesus asked the disciples to use oil to heal the sick. “And
they cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many that were sick and healed
them.” (Mk 6:13) St James exhorted the Christians to do the
same. “Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church,
and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the
Lord; and the prayer of faith will save the sick man, and the Lord will
raise him up; and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.” (Jms
5:14)
Of course,
these are means to the end, which is to experience God’s healing grace and
His presence.
As Jesus told the Samaritan woman, it is not which mountain we should worship
“but true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for such the
Father seeks to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must
worship in spirit and truth.” (Jn 4:23f)
In other words, it is the motive, the intention and the disposition of the
heart and mind that matters. The externals are merely means for us to
create the right disposition for us to encounter God. They are necessary
means because human beings need to communicate and encounter reality through
the incarnational means. Sacraments and sacramentals are based on the
Incarnation of our Lord. God became man so that we can see Him as Jesus
told Philip, “He who has seen me has seen the Father.’ (Jn 14:9)
The gospel
puts everything in perspective. In the parable of the dragnet, Jesus
speaks about the need to sort out what is good and what is bad. In the same way, we
need to be vigilant with regard to the use of sacramentals, that popular piety
does not fall into superstition but means to encounter God and the
sacred. The Church has this grave responsibility to ensure that they are
used rightly. “Manifestations of popular piety are subject to the
jurisdiction of the local Ordinary. It is for him to regulate such
manifestations, to encourage them as a means of assisting the faithful in
living the Christian life, and to purify and evangelize them where necessary.
He is also to ensure that they do not substitute for the Liturgy nor become
part of the liturgical celebrations.” (CDF, Directory On Popular Piety,
no 21)
Indeed, Jesus
encourages us to appreciate the past traditions and yet be open to new
developments as well because faith is dynamic and circumstances are changing. If the Church were to
just insist on past traditions, we would be out of sync with the world.
When our symbols cannot mediate God’s presence anymore, we would have dead
symbols which are useless and superstitious. But we must be careful not
to throw out all old traditions because they have much to teach us and are of
use to us in our faith. Truly, “every scribe who becomes a disciple of
the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out from his storeroom
things both new and old.”
Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of
Singapore © All Rights Reserved
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