The first thought that comes to mind when I think of idolatry is of the Israelites wandering the desert after being freed from Egyptian slavery. When they no longer seemed to need God (and Moses was otherwise occupied), they forgot Him. They looked for comfort in other things. Aaron crafted a nifty golden calf and like an Egyptian god, many rather quickly came to also accept it as one. Believing it had delivered them from captivity, they soon worshiped this god of their own making.

We can recall this story and see how foolish the Israelites were. How ungrateful they were to God who freed them! They rejected God who created and loved them. They should have known better. They did know better. Yet, they placed this golden calf above the one, the only true God. We shake our head, pity them and maybe feel smug comfort in knowing better. Yet, many of us do the same thing.

In our modern society, many false gods are worshiped. Not only worshiped, but raised above or even replace God. What are their characteristics? We:

• study them fervently, learning much about their dogmas
• align our will with theirs
• spend our time in the pursuit of their goals
• spend our treasure in their support
• evangelize in their name
• often place them first above all else with uncritical rationalizations
• can be addicted, they consume us

Examples are varied and numerous: pursuit of money, drugs (including alcohol), spectator sports, participant sports, crafts, unions, political parties, jobs, sex and many more.

These are not necessarily evil when kept in their proper place. In fact, they can be necessary and even good. We need our jobs and the money we earn to support our families, a glass of wine with dinner may be healthy, no harm is done enjoying a ball game, social justice supports unions and demands political involvement, sex in the context of marriage is beautiful.

Yet often, we go too far. People will give priority to the golf course or tennis court over going to church. Santa and all the secular traditions may receive far more family attention then Jesus and Christian traditions. Drugs and alcohol can cloud our minds, obscuring God’s will and blocking the Holy Spirit.

Think of some “sports nuts” you may know (or yourself, if the shoe fits!). They know schedules, players, standings, gossip, draft picks, odds, injuries, coaching changes, plays, strategies, history and so much more. They commit significant time to television, season tickets, sports magazines, buying apparel and memorabilia. They are fully immersed and fully committed.

Looking over at the other side of the ledger, how committed are these people to their faith? Do they know it, study it, attend and/or teach classes, put going to church ahead of games, participate in ministries and put God’s will first? ANSWER: some do and some do not.

Our passions need not be at odds with our faith. They need not consume us to the exclusion of God. When our interests are always subordinated to our faith we are safe. Always means always however. When we only sometimes place these interests first, we are fashioning our own golden calf and denying God just as the Israelites did.

Sometimes we are literally given a choice to follow God’s will or to turn away from him. No other place is as black-and-white as the voting booth. This trial is played out every two years or so. The labels for our choices may read “John Jones” and “Suzy Smith.” One truly opposes abortion while the other supports the choice to kill our innocent brothers and sisters. Unfortunately, the later may be in the political party that generally fits our view. The real choice we have is not in voting for John or Suzy. The ballot may as well be labeled “God’s Will” and “Deny God.” Most Catholics pull the “God’s Will” leaver, but not all and that is truly sad.

Do you idolize false gods? If so, rethink this while you still have time.

“I, the LORD, am your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery. You shall not have other gods besides me. You shall not carve idols for yourselves in the shape of anything in the sky above or on the earth below or in the waters beneath the earth; you shall not bow down before them or worship them. For I, the LORD, your God, am a jealous God, inflicting punishment for their fathers’ wickedness on the children of those who hate me, down to the third and fourth generation; but bestowing mercy down to the thousandth generation, on the children of those who love me and keep my commandments.

Exodus 20:2-6

While Catholics are sometimes less able to quote “chapter and verse,” they often know more of the Biblical stories than many non-Catholics. This seems particularly true of the Old Testament. We believe that the Old Testament foretells the New Testament and the New Testament fulfills the Old Testament.

One really good example of this is the Last Supper and Passion of Our Lord. There are actually several applicable Biblical stories, but one especially stands out for me. That is, the story of Passover.

First, the “backstory.” The time is around 1441 BC. The Israelites, God’s chosen people, had fallen on hard times and been enslaved in Egypt. Moses, an Israelite by birth, has been raised since infancy by an Egyptian Princess (long story).

Moses will be successful in winning freedom for the Israelites. When he does, they will leave Egypt. The pharaoh will have a change of heart, ordering his army to pursue and kill them. God, working through Moses, will part the Red Sea and they will escape. The Egyptian army will have a bad day. The Jews will wander in the desert for 40 difficult years before coming to the promised land.

Before all of that, the Israelites must be freed. Moses witnesses the beating of a Israelite slave and kills the attacker. This did not sit well with the pharaoh and Moses leaves. The Lord remembers His promise to His people and called upon Moses (through the burning bush) to free them. Moses approaches the pharaoh but he refuses. God worked through Moses to pressure the pharaoh in a series of plagues (water turned to blood, frogs, lice, hordes of wild animals, diseased animals, boils, violent hailstorm, swarms of locusts and blanket of darkness).

Okay, we are finally up to a plague that will finally convince the pharaoh. An angel of death will visit every house and every first-born will die. No exceptions, other than those who know the only means of protection that God tells Moses as explained in Exodus 12:1.

To protect themselves, the Israelites are to select a lamb for sacrifice. It must be a male without defect. No bones were to be broken in its slaughter. They must eat the flesh that night with unleavened bread. They are to also take hyssop branches, dip them in the blood of the lamb and mark the lintel and doorposts of their homes with it.

That evening, the angel passed throughout Egypt taking the firstborn. However, the Israelites were spared by following God’s word through the marks on their homes and receipt of the passover meal.

In the morning, there was a great cry in Egypt as every home except the Israelites’ was touched by death. With the death of his own son, the pharaoh was finally convinced and the Israelites were freed after 400 years.

The Passover foretells the crucifixion of the Lamb of God in many ways:

• in the Jewish Passover celebration, the lamb is selected 5 days before slaughter – Jesus entered Jerusalem 5 days before His crucifixion
• the Passover lamb was a “male without defect” – the same description applies to Jesus
• the Passover lamb is faultless as is Jesus
• for the previous 1,200 years a priest would blow a horn at 3:00pm when the lamb was to be slaughtered – Jesus died at 3:00pm
• the lamb must have no bones broken – Jesus bones were not broken at His crucifixion
• Passover consumes unleavened bread and a lamb – at the Last Supper, the unleavened bread becomes the body of Christ
• the Passover meal must be consumed as must the Eucharist
• Passover gave victory over the bondage of slavery – the crucifixion gave victory over the bondage of sin
• Passover freed people to the promised land – the crucifixion freed people to eternal life
• the Passover lamb’s blood was shed to avoid death – Jesus’ blood was shed to spare us from death (the consequence of sin)

There are other striking similarities too. Additionally, many find meaning in other aspects of the Seder (Passover) meal – particularly the 3rd and 4th cups. That will be a good topic for another post.

One final thought…   many ask if we could substitute grape juice for wine or crackers for unleavened bread. If that had been done at the Passover, the family would have awoken to find their oldest son dead. No substitutions!

Father Leonard Feeney, S.J. knew there is no salvation outside the Church. He knew and taught that only members of the Catholic Church could be saved. Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus – “outside The Church there is no salvation.” That is Catholic doctrine and that is what he quiet literally taught.

There was one problem. Father Feeney interpreted the doctrine incorrectly. The Magisterium does not teach that only Catholics can go to heaven. Ironically, the good Father made the Protestant error of making a personal interpretation. He meant well, but his insistent disobedience to the authority of the Church unfortunately resulted in his excommunication. By God’s mercy he was reconciled many years later before his death in 1978.

Catholics do NOT believe that formal membership in the Catholic Church is an absolute requirement for salvation. If you are Protestant (for example), we do NOT believe that you are necessarily condemned to hell.

I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. These also I must lead, and they will hear my voice, and there will be one flock, one shepherd.

John 10:16

That said, we DO believe that there is no salvation outside the one and only Church instituted directly by Christ. Jesus is the universal Savior, working through his Church and indivisible from it. The living and historical Church works in a wider sphere than its direct members. I can say with complete confidence that while non-Catholics can go to heaven, there are only Catholics in it! At that point we are all fully united in the Body of Christ.

It is a sad fact that there are Christian communities separated from the Church. In their memberships are large numbers of people who seek God with a sincere heart and truly desire to follow His will. Through no fault of their own, they do not know or accept Christ’s Church. They may be aware of the Catholic Church, but through misinformation, conditioning and circumstance, are closed to it. While they know Christ, if not His Church, they are not cut off from God’s mercy.

Since Christ died for all, and since all men are in fact called to one and the same destiny, which is divine, we must hold that the Holy Spirit offers to all the possibility of being made partakers, in a way known to God, of the Paschal mystery.

Gaudium et Spes 22

Even non-Christians may be saved. The Catechism explains it as follows:

Every man who is ignorant of the gospel of Christ and of his Church but seeks the truth and does the will of God in accordance with his understanding of it can be saved. It may be supposed that such persons would have desired baptism explicitly if they had known its necessity.

CCC 1260

Brothers and sisters please take heed, this is not a “get out of jail free card” to simply find a church that fits your lifestyle. One is not free to ignore God’s will. To the degree that you or your denomination pervert God’s will to that of your own, you are at grave risk. If you are Catholic, being fully aware of the teaching of the Church and rejecting it – you are especially at risk.

None of us on earth today definitively knows our own fate. Our final judgment has not yet been determined. Through His Son Jesus Christ, God has given us His Church to feed and tend us. There are many independent churches that operate in His name with sincere and faithful members. Their hope is not unfounded, but their path is precarious. The surest path to salvation is through the Church Christ Himself created – the Catholic Church.