Object of Worship

 I wanted to reflect on something interesting today, as I was reading our parish bulletin I got yesterday at Mass and it inspired something.  I often get these little sparks of inspiration by bulletins or homilies at Mass, and this one is no exception.  If your parish is like the one I attend, it is standard that the parish priest does a short reflection at the beginning of the bulletin for parishioners to sort of ruminate on.  Many parishioners won't read it of course, and in many cases bulletins end up in the trash can after Mass, but I have kept every bulletin since I first became a Christian in 1986, and that is almost 40 years worth of bulletins I have in several GBC-bound volumes.  I consider church bulletins a documentation of personal history, and like calendars, my journal books, and other things, I save them because they may come in handy one day.   And, unlike many parishioners in a typical parish, I do read mine and glean what I can.  The reason Fr. Michael's reflection got my attention this week though is that he confirmed something I have said many times over the years, and that is why I want to expand on his thoughts and add some of my own. 

Fr. Michael noted the writings of a major figure of American Catholic history, Archbishop Charles Chaput, the former Archbishop of Philadelphia.  Archbishop Chaput was a very orthodox and insightful writer whose material I am quite familiar with, and the fact our parish priest utilized him in this reflection also reaffirms the fact that we are going to a sound, orthodox parish too.  There are two points Fr. Michael summarized from his reading of Archbishop Chaput, and they are this:

1. Idolatry is the oldest and most persistent sin of humanity

2. There is no such thing as an actual "unbeliever," in that the person who claims this is a particular kind of believer in something.

A third point made is this:

3. Despite man's many futile attempts over the centuries, man is not a god, and no window-dressing of ideology will make him one.

The reason this is important has to do with an assertion I made some time back, and that is that there is no such thing as a true atheist.  Man has a capacity to worship, and something has to be the object of that worship, even if it self.  It is a desire God has placed into mankind to draw him closer to him, but sin and concupiscence have corrupted that to the degree that man denies the true God and wants to find a substitute, which is always inferior.  A substitute object of worship, even if it is the self, is idolatry, which is why it is the oldest and most persistent sin.  That was what the lie of the serpent in the Garden was about in Genesis 3 - trying to usurp the rightful place of a true God with an inferior substitution.  So, what does this look like then?  Let me give a short illustration.

When many people think of idolatry, they think of a statue of some grotesque deity that sits prominently in a temple that you pray and sacrifice to.  But, is it though?  The focus of idolatry doesn't have to be a literal idol, but it can be something else that grabs one's attention.  For some, it is mind-altering addictions, for others it is money and success.  For still others, it is their own reflection in the mirror.  For others still, it is a misguided passion for something - a sport, a hobby, or anything else that a person devotes a huge portion of their money, attention, and other resources to.  In Fr. Michael's reflection, he deals with another more insidious type of idolatry, one that is not seen as much, and based on his reading of Archbishop Chaput's writings, he identifies this as the heresy of gnosticism.  

Gnosticism is perhaps the world's oldest heresy, and it is also one of the most insidious ones too.  There are even instances when it gets intermingled with Christian theology.  At the core of this doctrine is the idea that there is a special, privileged "knowledge" that promises to create a new man, a utopian society, and self-sustaining, self-redemptive humankind.  It is the oldest lie in the book in all honesty, as it goes back to the serpent's lie in Genesis 3 - "Oh, just eat this and you will become God!"  Gnosticism can be religious in nature, or it can be window-dressed in secularism, but it is still what it is at its core - a deception.  Manifestations of it range from strains of it being wrapped in religious language all the way to commercial jingles, but it is all about the same thing.  Let me take a couple of religious examples that have infected Christianity for centuries, and then I want to briefly address their secular equivalents. 

There are two polarizing forms of gnosticism that manifest in Christianity at times, and both of them are equally bad.   One comes from Fundamentalism, and it is one I dealt with a couple of weeks back.  This says that we are the "chosen people," and only through reciting our formulae, believing our way, and doing what we say will you get true salvation.  It excludes anyone who doesn't follow the script, and as I said earlier, the end result for someone who holds this view is complete isolation in a hell of their own making that God allows them to have.  This type of Christianized gnosticism entails a language - annoying phrases like "in the natural" and a denial of the created order as God's gift to mankind, usually wrapped in some sanctimonious Elizabethan English phraseology, characterize such gnosticism.  It is in contradiction to what God said himself about creation, and it also violates what God was trying to teach Peter in Acts 10 with the descending sheet - "do not call unclean what I have cleansed."  People who hold to such convictions are generally wrapped up in a form of "humble pride," in that they think they are the "spiritual elite" and that everyone else is lost and hellbound because they don't believe exactly the same thing.  They have made themselves a god in their own eyes and in doing so, they slap the true God in the face.  This type of Fundamentalist gnosticism is an egregious sin and should be soundly rejected by any orthodox Christian, because it is not truly Christian.  

A second type of Christianized gnosticism comes from your typical televangelist who teaches this whole "word of faith" nonsense, also called "name it and claim it."  They too claim some "special revelation" and use the trappings of wealth to embody it as evidence that it is true.  In reality though, what this does is deny that there was a Fall, and the reality of sin and death after that fall.  It says that if someone is poor, has an illness (I have even heard people who have just a cold condemned as a matter of fact), or if any other challenge in life happens, then that person must not be a "true believer" and therefore lacks faith.  This is a cruel and narcissistic spirituality that denies reality, shatters empathy, and strikes at the core of Jesus's own teachings.  And, what is sad is that it is not just outright "word of faith" proponents that talk like this, but it has infected Evangelicalism on a wider scale.  To give an example, let me tell you about what happened to me once.  As you all may know, I faced a serious set of challenges last year that really almost caused me to lose everything.  At the time, I worked as a freelance paralegal for a guy who professed Christianity, but his true colors came out when someone was faced with a challenge.  Although this guy did end up lending me some funds that helped, he did so in a condescending, cold manner that did not reflect true Christianity - he mocked my doctoral degree (which I had just earned) and said that I didn't need to rely on anyone because a "real man" deals with things themselves and doesn't seek help.  Honestly, I never saw anything about that in the Gospels, but this is where unfortunately Evangelicalism meets an extreme form of "Christian nationalism" and the result is not pretty. Although a person like this prays and "acts spiritual," at their core they are secularist and view the world through a quasi-gnostic lens that strips them of any compassion and empathy.  Fact is, sometimes we face challenges in life, and while it is good to have a fighting spirit to overcome those, at the same time it is not a bad thing to ask for help when we need to, because we are still limited in our capacity as human beings and none of us has all the answers to everything.  In all honesty, because this particular employer chose to kick me while I was down, I no longer work with or associate with him, and I am hoping he is somehow dealt with by the Holy Spirit to change his attitude because based on his own story he should know better.  This guy was in prison, and he forgets if it wasn't for the compassion and encouragement of others, he may not be where he is today either.  Attitudes like this are one reason I am not an Evangelical Protestant myself anymore, as the glaring inconsistencies of a lot of so-called Christians were just a little much to deal with.  It is also one reason why over the years I have stressed the importance of the personal testimony and to never forget where one comes from, because it gives true humility and always reminds us that had it not been for the grace of God working in us, our lives may have ended up a lot different.  And, that is also the message we should witness to the struggling, and unless we do, we miss a vital part of our Christianity. 

The late Orthodox theologian Fr. Alexander Schmemann once said that "secularism is the absence of man as a worshipping being."  I understand what he said, but that isn't the full picture - I would say that secularism is the misplacing of true worship, as it makes something inferior and subject to decay the focus of worship instead of God.  And, it does so in that quasi-gnostic way that Fr. Michael points out - it often entails some "secrets to success" and "privileged information" that the one who possesses it thinks they have special status for possessing.  There are no true "secrets to success," but rather success is based on two things - commitment and perseverance.  The third factor - total submission to God - is what makes both of these possible.  As the late Catholic theologian Romano Guardini notes, the whole "gateway petition" to the prayer Jesus taught us, the Our Father, is four words "Thy will be done."  There is no secret here and no magic elixir - rely on God, and use what abilities he gave us, and success happens.  What will this success look like?  It is different for everyone.  It may not entail great wealth, or an exalted position of power - as a matter of fact, success for some may be just coming to terms with something that makes their life fuller.  Again, there is no mystery, no secret, and no formula - it is spelled out plainly and given freely in the words of Holy Scripture.  God created us all as unique individuals, and following his will for our lives is what is key.  And, our destiny and objectives are not going to be identical to others, nor should be try to measure up to a bar set for someone else.  Rather, we use some of their stories to maybe inspire us to reach the place God wants us to be in.  

Looking at it from that perspective, let's go back to "object of worship."  It is so easy in our own lives to get so caught up in agendas and the demands of life that we become slaves to routine and often do so at the expense of our devotion to God.  Being successful in life is not a bad thing at all, and it is something worthy to strive for.  But, when the object of our success is not God and is focused on something else, it becomes an object of worship, an idol.  It is this we need to guard against, because in the pursuit of worldly success we need to remember that this is not our "forever home," and once we die that success will have completed its cycle.  It won't mean a lot once we are lying in a casket or a cremation urn somewhere, and although in itself this type of success is not necessarily a bad thing, it is how we prioritize it that makes the difference. We are not God - God is God, and like Fr. Michael says, no secret knowledge will change that.  Man was created as a worshipping being, but it is the focus of our worship that matters, not the fact we do worship.  A true atheist, as noted earlier, doesn't exist - an atheist is ultimately a worshipper of self if anything, because they become the ultimate authority they answer to.  So, despite how much someone who claims to be atheist says they don't believe in God, our question is "what god don't you believe in?"  The person calling themselves atheist therefore is either by definition non-Christian or possibly even passionately anti-Christian, but they don't deny a "god" per se - they just worship either one of their own making, or themselves.  For a self-proclaimed atheist to claim otherwise would be fooling themselves. 

Thank you for allowing me to share today, and looking forward to sharing more with you again soon.