Thursday of the Fourth Week of Lent
In his encyclical letter Lumen Fidei, Pope Francis wrote, "The history of Israel also shows us the temptation of unbelief to which the people yielded more than once. Here the opposite of faith is shown to be idolatry. While Moses is speaking to God on Sinai, the people cannot bear the mystery of God's hiddenness; they cannot endure the time of waiting to see his face.” Indeed, people often are not aware that the opposite of faith is idolatry. Like the Israelites who were at the foot of Sinai and unable to endure waiting and the absence of their mediator, so they turned to Aaron to make them new gods. Weary of the journey with an invisible God, now Moses, their mediator, had disappeared, the people longing for an actual presence of the Lord, so they made the golden calf.
In the remainder of the Lenten season, perhaps we can reflect on the way we have turned into our own Golden Calf. How many excuses do we employ for not following God's commandments? Or we sacrifice our family or decision to have a bigger family for our career or money. Is the new technology or gadget becoming our golden calf as those things become the center of our lives? Or our desire to eat goes beyond our natural hunger and takes over the direction of our lives. Where do we turn when we are impatient with God, especially when we feel God does not listen to us or does not give us what we want and demand from him. As Moses implored God to spare the Israelites from their idol worship, perhaps we should also pray to God to forgive us and help us to have the strength to reject our Golden calf and return to God.