Modern Idolity

God created me. He made me a white male with blonde hair and blue eyes. I am of above average stature and efficient at storing excess energy around my waist. He made me who I am. He fashioned me to be pleasing to him. I am to be a good steward of my body, soul, and spirit. I am not to be a good steward to please myself, but to give glory to the one who created me.

Idolatry is placing something or someone in the place reserved only for the one who created us. Idolatry comes in many different forms. The original idolatry was committed by Adam and Eve. When the devil offered them the forbidden fruit, he told them that it would make them like God. They could become gods themselves. That was their desire when they ate of the fruit.

It does not matter how close a people are to God. Idolatry is always present whether the people are aware of it or not. After God had freed the Jewish people from pharaoh they made a golden calf to worship. Idolatry is alive and well and taking on new forms today. God made me with blonde hair and blue eyes, but I can change both of those if I am not happy with what he gave me. Today, a person can even change the appearance of their gender through hormone therapy and reassignment surgery. We no longer give the glory of creation to God but put ourselves first by choosing that which appeals to us instead.

Sometimes idolatry comes in forms so common we never even notice it. On Sundays during football season, there will always be people showing off their pride for their favorite team by proudly wearing their jerseys to Mass. Seems innocent enough, but we gather at Mass to worship God, not our favorite teams. We are not dressing to please God but to show our support for a sports team. Many of us plan our entire Sunday around, not our worship of God, rest, or communion with our families, but a sporting event. The purpose for which the Sabbath was created is put second to our love for a game, a team, or one of its members. It may not be Idolatry with a capital I, but it is idolatry just the same.

There is a painting I have seen called, The First Moment in Heaven. It is meant to evoke a powerful feeling of pure joy and reunion, symbolizing the ultimate embrace of love and peace in a transcendent, heavenly realm. It shows parents reuniting with their children and other people reuniting with their loved ones who had gone before them.

Similarly, Josh Noem became known as the walk-off homerun guy on social media for the pictures he takes of walk-off homeruns. He said that he believes this is what it is like to enter heaven. His pictures show a base runner who had just hit a game-winning homerun rounding third base and headed for home where his entire team waited to congratulate him. Everyone in the stands are on their feet and cheering.

Both of these pictures are great ideas, but both completely miss the point of heaven. Both place the importance on entering heaven on the individual and not on God. When we enter heaven, we are not immediately met by all of our loved ones who have gone before us. When we enter heaven, we come into the presence of God. Heaven is about being in the presence of God, what Catholics call the Beatific Vision.

In a homily a priest asked the congregation to close their eyes and imagine what it would be like when they entered heaven. He asked if they were in a beautiful place surrounded by all of their loved ones. He asked if they were in good health, looking the best they ever had. He asked if they were at a great banquet with all of their favorite foods and drinks. Then he asked them to open their eyes and look around in what they had seen. He asked how many of them had seen Jesus in their vision of heaven.

No matter how beautiful you envision heaven to be, if you did not see Jesus, you are not in heaven. Without Christ, you are in hell. I once had a person in OCIA ask if they will be with their wife in heaven. When I told him that he would be with her but she would not be his wife, he said that heaven would not be heaven unless he were still married to the love of his life. In that statement he demonstrated exactly what idolatry truly is. He loved something more than he loved God.

We cannot enter heaven when we die unless we are in proper relationship with God. Purgatory is a place of purging, a place of perfecting, where we learn to let go of all our earthy attachments and loves to come to love God first over every other thing. What do you place before God in your life? Where do you put your desires over his? What reasons do you use to miss attending Mass? What idols do you worship?