Apologies for not posting for the weekend or Monday: computer challenges. Operational again.
Today there is a very short line in the Responsorial Psalm Psalm 115, v 8 for today's liturgy that provides anyone serious about his/her spiritual journey food for thought or reflection: "their makers shall be like them." How does this relate to us and our lives today? What's it about? What is being made?
Today there is a very short line in the Responsorial Psalm Psalm 115, v 8 for today's liturgy that provides anyone serious about his/her spiritual journey food for thought or reflection: "their makers shall be like them." How does this relate to us and our lives today? What's it about? What is being made?
The 115th Psalm directs its readers to consider the impotence of idols, as the Revised Standard Bible "titles" the theme of the psalm. So when's the last time you have heard the word "idol" if you have not watched "American Idol"? It is not a word we bring to the fore too often. The Psalmist is writing for his times about those who were abandoning their Yahweh belief for idols of silver and gold, the works of human hands. It is these "idols" that " were crafted by the departed faithful. It is these idols that "have mouths but speak not; ... have eyes buy see not; ... have noses but smell not" (verses 5-6).
The psalm challenges us to look inward, to discover what idols we might have made for ourselves in our own times. We are challenged to look at what "things" or "relationships" that we place on pedestals for our adoration. It is these idols that can easily make us like themselves.
It can happen at times that deep within our hearts we feel the searching call brought about frustration, loneliness or depression. Why am I not happy? Why am I not at peace? Why does God not answer me? Why has he abandoned me?
Our contemporary culture and lifestyles so easily lead us to idols that seemingly satisfy our needs ... at least temporarily. Hosea, in the first reading today, speaks a warning: "When the sow the wind, they shall reap the whirlwind ...."
Some of our contemporary idols might just be our own jobs which seem to be almost 24/7 for so many people. The "job" becomes one's total life or at least most of it. Likewise many have placed the beloved "computer" on the idol altar, spending so much time with the machine that was designed to afford us so much free time!!! Again, another idol, one often related to the computer is pornography ... which is like fish hook well baited and floating past a lonely or disturbed heart.
Concluding, recall again the words above, "their makers shall be like them." Each can ask "Am I someone who has created an idol or two in my life ... an idol that separates me from my God and so often from my family and true friends?
"I am the good shepherd, says the Lord;
I know my sheep, and mine know me."
John 10:14
