Post-feast of the Encounter; Our Venerable Father Isidore of Pelusium (408-50)
1 John 4:20-5:21; Mark 15:1-15
Read 1 John 4:20-5:21
Today’s reading is the very end of the first letter of St. John. It is important that it ends with the reminder, ‘little children, guard yourselves from idols.’
In a sense, we are children. We are children of God, yes. However, this is referring to being a child in the sense of someone not having reached maturity. Children need regular reminders about the basics of how to be a decent person—to be kind and patient, to display proper manners, to say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’, to not hit or be rude to a sibling or classmate.
As children often need reminders in these areas in life, so do we spiritual children need reminders in the basics of the spiritual life. For instance, that unrighteousness is sinful and damaging to our relationships with God and others, that we are of God while the world is in the power of the evil one, that we need to love God and to keep His commandments, and, of course, that God has already won the final victory over death.
John finishes this discourse with the reminder to guard ourselves from idols. This is important. Idolatry often leads us to forget these ‘basics’ of life in Christ.
How is this so?
Idolatry occurs whenever someone gives the honour, glory, or worship due to God to something else. In its most blatant form, this occurs when a person offers worship to statues or false gods when such worship is due to God alone. Consider how many martyrs have chosen to die rather than offer incense in worship to an emperor or false god. They refused this idolatry in order to honour the true God and received the martyr’s crown of victory.
While this kind of idolatry continues in our present day, it is not usually what many Christians have to deal with, at least not in the western world. The idolatry that Christians in the western world tend to face is much more subtle.
When a person professes to be a Christian but seldom prays or attends the Divine Services, while at the same time sets up a shrine to their favourite sports team and attends all of their games, that team might be becoming an idol. That team has become more important than God.
When a person professes to be a Christian but can only think about how their investment portfolio is doing when the stock market is volatile and despises the homeless person they walk by, money might be becoming an idol. Earthly things have become more important than God’s suffering child—a Christ among us.
When a priest is excessively worried about performing the services according to the rubrics and forgets to pray during the services, the proper liturgical form might be becoming an idol. Making sure that the service is done right has become more important than uniting to God in prayer.
None of these things is bad—following your favourite sports team, being concerned about your family’s finances, or performing the services well—they are all positive things. However, if they, or anything else, become more important than God, they might become idols.
Little children, guard yourselves from idols, whatever they are. Always keep your gaze on the Lord in all that you do, and everything else will fall into place.