Sept. 21, 2006

‘Thou shalt not have other gods besides me’

Part Two

In giving us the first of the Ten Commandments, God actually begins with a bold statement before He declares: “Thou shalt not have other gods besides me.” God’s bold statement that precedes this command is the following (Ex 20:2f): “I, the Lord, am your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery.” With these words, the Lord reminds His people of His identity and of the loving power by which He rescued them from slavery and gave them the gift of freedom. He supplies, in other words, motivation for obedience and faith.

In the previous edition of The Catholic Sun, we looked at how this commandment is for our good, not God’s, and how it lays a basis for a relationship of loving trust with God as Father, which is the essence of religion. On the other hand, to place one’s trust in false gods is the greatest of human tragedies. At this time, let us consider some of the sins against the First Commandment that lead to such a tragic end: sins such as superstition, idolatry and magic. Then, in the following edition we shall look at the theological virtues that underpin obedience to this commandment: faith, hope and love.

Superstition: playing a power game with God

When people resort to superstitious practices, they are mimicking true worship of God. This often happens because they are seeking unfair advantage, fame or fortune by offering homage to forces of nature or to personal powers other than God. This is what the devil tempts Jesus to do in his infamous third temptation. According to St. Matthew (Mt 4:8-10), “The devil took Him up to a very high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in their magnificence, and he said to Him, ‘All these I shall give to you, if you will prostrate yourself and worship me.’ At this, Jesus said to him, ‘Get away, Satan! It is written: The Lord, your God, shall you worship and Him alone shall you serve.’”

Worship belongs to God alone. To pay homage to any one else is the height of folly and the result of pride or unchecked hunger for power. It is the opposite of childlike trust in God’s love. Sadly, the temptation to superstitious activity has not disappeared in the 21st century. The thirst for power still holds its allure for fallen human nature, especially in highly secularized cultures such as those of North America and Western Europe.

Magic: Not just a Harry Potter gimmick

Interest in magic (not slight-of-hand tricks that deceive our eyes, but actual consorting with dark forces of power) is not just a Harry Potter phenomenon. In fact, its sordid practice was prevalent in New Testament times. Notice, for example, in Acts 13:6-11, that Paul and Barnabas had to contend with a magician named Bar-Jesus who opposed their efforts to bring the gift of faith to the proconsul Sergius Paulus. Relying confidently on the Holy Spirit, Paul confronted the magician in these strong words: “You son of the devil, you enemy of all that is right, full of every sort of deceit and fraud. Will you not stop twisting the straight paths of the Lord? Even now the hand of the Lord is upon you. You will be blind, and unable to see the sun for a time.” St. Luke tells us that, at those words of faith, the magician Bar-Jesus was blinded while Sergius Paulus received the gift of faith in Christ, helped in part by Paul’s sharp rebuke of the art of magic.

In Ephesus (Acts 19:13-20), Paul had a somewhat similar confrontation with magicians and evils spirits. In this case, the Holy Spirit brought about even more dramatic results. St. Luke tells us (Acts 19:19-20), “Moreover, a large number of those who had practiced magic collected their books and burned them in public. They calculated their value and found it to be fifty-thousand silver pieces. Thus did the word of the Lord continue to spread with influence and power.”

Magicians resort to occult practices in order to influence the course of human events or to gain something wrongfully. They may seek the assistance of false gods or some secret forces of nature. What magicians refuse to do is to recognize the living and true God and give Him the worship that is due. Some people may resort to magic out of fear or ignorance, in which case their sin would be less grave. But others may deliberately intend to foster a twisted notion of God and to oppose His will and plan.

On the other hand, the opposite of magic is found in the wondrous example of the Magi (Mt 2:1-10). These men traveled from afar in order to kneel and to pay homage to Christ, the newborn King. They were seeking the truth by all the means available to them, and when they found that it led them to Christ, they did not hesitate for a moment to adore and offer Him precious gifts.

At a time when interest in magic is on the rise, and when practice of the Catholic faith in America seems on the decline, how important to learn from the Magi the precious value of adoration and worship. As the beautiful Latin Christmas hymn declares, “Venite! Adoremus Dominum!” “O Come! Let us adore the Lord.”

Idolatry: Blindness to the grandeur of God

In one of her insightful poems, Elizabeth Barrett Browning writes: “Earth’s crammed with heaven, and every common bush afire with God; but only he who sees, takes off his shoes, the rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.”

The wonder of creation seems so obvious to persons alive in faith. But to non-believers and for those engaged in idolatry, the created world loses its grandeur. St. Paul considers this problem in his Letter to the Romans (1:18-32). On the one hand he states, “Ever since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes of eternal power and divinity have been able to be understood and perceived in what He has made.” Then, on the other hand, the Apostle to the Gentiles writes, “While claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for the likeness of an image of mortal man or of birds or of four-legged animals or of snakes… They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and revered and worshiped the creature rather than the Creator.”

Idolatry’s attraction increases as people separate themselves from God. When they fail to worship their Creator who made them, they are strongly tempted to fashion a god of their own, an idol they can manipulate for their own purposes. While this may seem momentarily to benefit them here on earth, it can never lead to lasting joy. Worst of all, it closes their eyes to the beauty of God, revealed to us in Christ.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church describes idolatry in this way (#2113), “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.”

Genuine faith that rejects all idols and that bows in sincere worship of God leads to a vision like that of the Irish poet Joseph Mary Plunkett: “I see His blood upon the rose and in the stars the glory of His eyes. His body gleams amid eternal snows, His tears fall from the skies… All pathways by His feet are worn, His strong heart stirs the ever-beating sea, His crown of thorns is twined with every thorn, His cross is every tree.”

Copyright 2006 The Catholic Sun.