March 18/Fourth Thursday of Lent
Our fathers made a calf in Horeb and adored a molten image;
They exchanged the glory of God for the image of an ox that eats grass. ~ Ps 106.19-20
We may not regard ourselves as susceptible to bowing down before a molten image (the literal meaning of the Hebrew word translated “adored” is an infrequently-used verb form, yīštáḥăvu, “they bowed down”). But we humans are adept at fashioning our own idols. We pursue certain personal ambitions and plans, oblivious to the will of God, and before we know it, we have chiseled a drive for professional success into the false god of workaholism. We strive to maintain a youthful appearance, and soon sculpt it into the twin idols of obsessive exercise and diet. And when we feel that what God asks of us is inconvenient or difficult, whether that is enduring a career or health setback or simply going to church every week, we spurn him for the less demanding gods of the yoga mat, the hiking trail, the golf course, or even, as the novelist Leigh Stein noted in a recent New York Times op-ed, Instagram. But any gods that we create in our own image, no matter how shiny, alluring, or easy their promises, will fail us; there is nothing transcendent, or mysterious, or salvific, about perfectly toned abs. As C. S. Lewis observed in The Weight of Glory, “We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea.” Only God, whose mystery and might are far beyond human telling, deserves our adoration. Let us pray for the ability to recognize and dismantle our false gods and to bow down before the one who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
God, Keep my heart open to receive your word, and my knee bent to worship you in your glory, today and forevermore. Amen.
For today’s readings, click here: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031821.cfm
To hear Bishop Paul S. Morton Sr. sing “Bow Down and Worship Him,” click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ii6a5PW04w
