See the Attachments
Summary of a Fr. Gerry Creedon homily from March 19, 2006
"You
shall not have other gods besides me." Exod. 20:2
I ASKED THE CONGREGATION, "Who are these
false gods in our lives today? Where are our idols?" There were many answers:
money, TV, status, computers, the self, drugs, sex, alcohol, power..."
Computers caught me off guard. In 1995, when I returned from the Dominican
Republic where the nearest phone was 20 miles away, I found myself in the middle
of a high tech revolution. I vowed I would buy a fountain pen and a bottle of
ink! When my computer crashed last week I was surprised at how depressed I was
at all my years' work going down the drain, or the hard drive, or whatever is
the correct expression these days. A friend visiting from Ireland was the last
to use my computer, so I had to work on being civil as I treated my guest to
supper. Our attachments rob us of our peace.
The fasts and abstinence of Lent are a way of liberating ourselves from the
"the idols we carve for yourselves in the shape of anything in the sky
above or on the earth below". The Gospel presents a strange idol: the church
itself. "Destroy this temple and in three days I will build it up".
He spoke about the temple of his own body. The people had become overly involved
in all of the needs for worship. They marveled that he could restore what it
took them 46 years to build. It is clear in our time that religion itself can
become a source of violence. Fundamentalism can deify the scriptures, the tenets
of Islam, or the rights of Israel. A neo-orthodoxy can fossilize our Catholicism
and produce intransigence. The institutions of our church and the sacraments
themselves can become our object of worship. I the Lord am a jealous God. Zeal
for His father's house consumed him. Jesus still needs to cleanse our temples.
He wishes to purify our religion.
May the Lenten season free us from self and the divination of things sacred
and profane, even computers, so that we may be free to rejoice at Easter in
the triumph of the living God.
P.S. Come to our Trialogue with Jewish and Muslim leaders on the evening of
April 2: "In the light of the cartoons"
