People who are critical of religion may better understand
today’s Scripture readings (Exodus 32:7-14; John 5:31-47) better than those who
are stiff-necked and blind within their own religions and religious practices. Both
the First Reading (Exodus 32:7-14) and the Gospel Reading (John 5:31-47)
address a problem that many religious people slip into without even realizing
it. And it is figuratively addressed through the stiff-necked people, whom God
became angry at in the First Reading and those who “talk about God” but know
nothing about God in the Gospel reading. These are a kind of people, who think
they know what they are doing with their religions but what they are doing is
nothing but reinforcing their own misguided beliefs about religions. While a
religion is about a trust-based covenant relationship between an object of one’s
belief and oneself, those who slip into this kind of problem are, in essence,
acting all about themselves by objectifying the object of the religious belief,
such as God.
The First Reading shows that God was very unhappy about the Israelites, who
committed idolatry, which is a violation of a set of the commandments in Exodus
20:4-6 and in Leviticus 26:1. Why the Israelites had to drift to this sin of
idolatry? It was because they began to lose their faith in God as Moses was on
top of Mt. Sinai with God for 40 days, perhaps they began to lose a sense of
God’s presence with them. So they began
to do their own things, not even thinking of God. In a way, they made golden
calf idols as to kill time as they felt God was distant. They totally forgot God’s
promise of His constant presence through Isaac (Genesis 26:24) and Jacob
(Genesis 28:15). And, to Moses, God
expressed His anger at the Israelite’s lack of faith resulting in idolatry. In
response, Moses pleaded to God for His mercy on them, invoking God’s promise
for His providence (cf. Genesis 17:8, 22:17, 26:4), and God withdrew His anger.
In connection to this Exodus narrative on the
Israelites’ stiff-necked lack of faith, the Gospel Reading (John 5:31-47) shows
Jesus’ frustration with “religious” people who are stubbornly blind of their
meaningless religious belief and practice. Though liked to insist that they believe
in God, read the Word of God in the Scriptures, and practice the teaching of
God, observing His commandments, they were not able to realize that their
religious belief and practice found far from God and His troth. Why? Because
their reaction to Jesus, who is God, proved that their religious belief and
practice were based on the kind of God whom they had objectified to fit into
their own limited self-serving cognitive frame. Consequently, this made them
blind to God, who is with them, in Jesus. And, it is, in essence, just as
stupid as idolatry.
Today’s Scripture readings offer us critical
self-examining tools to make sure that our religious belief and practice are
genuine – not operating out of our misguided belief and practice of objectified
God and the truth. The readings also challenge us to ponder why we have a
disposition to objectify God and slip into masturbation-like religious
practice, without realizing it.
The bottom line is the quality of our faith. Do we
truly believe in God? Or is it just what we think we do?
Yes, Lent is a time of constant critical
examination, lasting 40 days and 40 nights – the same length of time that Moses
were up in the mountain with God, leaving the Israelites at the foot of the
mountain.
Are we drawn more closer to God during these 40 days
and nights of Lent? Or are we drifting away from God, feeling God is absent
during these 40 days and nights of Lent?
No comments:
Post a Comment