Piety
We know that we belong to God, and the whole world is
under the power of the Evil One. We also know that the Son of God has
come and has given us discernment to know the one who is true. And we are
in the one who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and
eternal life. Children, be on your guard against idols. 1 John 5:19-21
“The one who has the bride is the bridegroom; the best
man, who stands and listens for him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s
voice. So this joy of mine has been made complete. He must
increase; I must decrease.” John 3:29-30
Study
In a relatively rare occurrence,
we get a double serving of poetic Johannine Christianity in both the first and
second reading – part of the first letter of John along with the Gospel of John. Scholars attribute this letter and the fourth
Gospel to the Apostle John and his school of theology. The letter was written because the community
was having debates and to “combat certain false ideas, especially about Jesus,
and to deepen the spiritual and social awareness of the Christian community.”
Based on the arguments put
forth, the community must have been distracted by “idols.” This has been a perpetual issue from Adam
until today. Even in ancient civilization,
people put things ahead of God.
An interesting term “idols.” When I was growing up, the term usually
brought to mind symbols of more rustic societies such as Stonehenge or the monuments/heads
on Easter Island. However, when we
consider the Creed or the commandments, the very foundation of our faith is
that there is One God and we should put nothing above God in our lives. Over time, our idols (temptations) may change
but we must reject them so that the presence of God in our lives increases
while the ego (self) or others must decrease. As taught in the Catechism 2113:
Idolatry
not only refers to false pagan worship. It remains a constant temptation to
faith. Idolatry consists in divinizing what is not God. Man commits idolatry
whenever he honors and reveres a creature in place of God, whether this be gods
or demons (for example, Satanism), power, pleasure, race, ancestors, the state,
money, etc.
Action
It seems like the sole
purpose of commercial marketing is to get us to put something before God. Do you have the top ten fitness apps on your
device? Do you have a device glued to
your eyeballs right now? Are you trying
to determine if you can buy a newer car, a bigger house or protect and grow your
retirement or investing account?
Recently, four American
cities all prepared (multi-million dollar public relations campaigns) proposals
to be the US entry in the competition to host the 2024 Summer Olympics. The city selected to put forth the United
States bid is Boston. According to the
New York Times, “Lofty talk about the Olympics as an opportunity to transform
Boston must be balanced against history. And it suggests that Boston’s
preliminary $4.5 billion budget would trampoline. And any residual benefit from
hosting the Games would likely be as ephemeral as a rhythmic gymnastics
routine. Studies suggest only scattered evidence of long-term growth and
economic benefit. During the 2012 Summer Games, tourism in London decreased
instead of increased.”
FOUR POINT FIVE BILLION
DOLLARS. To host a two-week-long sports
festival. Boston’s budget was right in
line with the costs projected by the other three finalists – Washington, Los
Angeles and San Francisco. Purely as a
commercial enterprise, there is no guarantee that the bid will succeed and if
it does that the city will make a profit on the experience. Think back to Atlanta 1996 and bombings and
traffic and other nightmares.
Will hosting the Summer
Games really be a good use of that amount of money? What if the civic committees put together a
plan to end homelessness by building an Olympic Village for everyone who has no
place to sleep at night? Cities have
decided that investing such obscene amounts of money in this is good for
what? Civic pride? Personal ego?
World-class status?
Children, be on your guard against idols.
He must increase; I must decrease.
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