Thursday of the Fourth Week of Lent
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March 26, 2020This first reading today about the Israelites in the wilderness building the golden calf, always amazed me. Although I think it amazes me in a different way than it might make most people think.
What amazes me is not so much that they built the calf. Obviously building the calf to worship was wrong. Honestly, I do not understand it, nor do I think most of us understand how they can build that calf after they saw the miracles firsthand. They saw the parting of the sea, the cloud that led them during the day and the fire during the night, miracles occurring against nature and logic.
The thing that amazes me the most is the sentence we hear Aaron say, This is your God, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt!’ How can they say this? They built the calf.
How is it possible that what they built with their own hands, after they left Egypt, be responsible for bringing them out of Egypt.?
If we dig deeper, it makes sense. When God told them to leave Egypt after the last plague, He told them to ask the Egyptian women for their jewelry, gold and silver. This was to show them that now the Israelites are having the upper hand. They now have taken that symbol of what was precious to the Egyptians and made that into their god. Now the phrase, this is your god, makes sense. It represents the god of power, domination and selfishness.
We think this false god is terrible, but what do we give credit to in our lives falsely, instead of God?
Think about our abilities, our talents in our career, our success, do we give credit to ourselves for the ability or do we give credit to God. What about our material blessings, our houses, our cars, do we give credit to God for the blessings that allowed us to have them or to our self for providing for our self?
We can make a long list of things we have, or are able to do, or enjoy. Do we give credit to God for any or all Blessings in our life or do we see them as something separate from God, as our own accomplishments, that depended solely on ourself?
God fills us with many many blessings all the time. Do we recognize Him in them and give him thanks and honor for our gifts? Or do we make those blessings into idols and forget the God who gave them to us?
