31/07/2023

I have never noticed before that the "golden calf" was certainly not an elegant work of art as were the idols that were worshiped as gods and goddesses in Egypt and other nations amongst which the Israelites were to live for the next thousand years. Moses was certainly vexed. Throwing things about along with stamping the foot is still a characteristic of a human who is committed to a certainty that is defied by others. Three notable examples of this tendency in my lifetime are Mussolini, Hitler and Stalin and the millions of other petty tyrants that still fill the world today.

Even allowing for the low melting point of Gold, Aaron would have had to construct a primitive furnace to melt the gold that he collected from the people but the result of "the throwing of the gold into the fire" would have been a misshapen lump of gold that he chose to call a "calf".

The descendants of Adam and Eve who were not blessed by God's direct providence filled the world from East to West. They all tried to make sense of their being and of the vastness of the Cosmos they witnessed in the daily round governed by sun and moon. They created myths to provide an intelligible structure for their awareness of being alone in time and space.

God chose to help one nation to understand "awareness of being". The record of this, the Old Testament, is the history of one people amongst millions. I try to understand the history as as factual as any other written text from the beginning of time. But I try not to judge harshly and where there is a difficulty use the example of Jesus to help me.

Jesus at no time criticised the Scriptures that he read in the Synagogue. He came to complete them. His words are filled with references and direct quotations from the earliest to the latest scrolls He himself speaks to us in parables and we too can use a similar technique to allegorise "Moses and the Prophets".We must not, however, come to believe our own interpretations to the extent that a different interpretation than ours fills us with rage against someone else.. 

We must never forget that in obeying  the first Commandment we have to obey all the others and that Jesus' dying words were a direct quotation from the psalms. God's complete revelation is the Bible. He also promises to be for all time in the Church that has preserved the physical books and the message of the Holy Spirit which informs them with the Love that is Father Son and Holy Spirit.

Dear Lord, help us all whose being is filled with media nonsense that captures our senses and fills our memory excluding the prayer with which we should fill our beings. St Ignatius knew the problem of how to beat the "world" but his first as it were "worker priests" were soon lost to the World they were to tackle head on. May Mary lead all your Saints to the greater glory of God and may this sinful servant know the benefit of their prayers and the grace that you pour out from your side. What a horror, terror, must have filled your humanity for you to cry out; "Eli, Eli Lama Sabachthani" with your dying breath.