Here’s a list of things that are actual idols:
- Icons of Mary and the Saints
- Supposed holy relics
- Dead people, when you pray to them
- Rosary beads and holy water
Those are idols; physical objects or created beings who are worshiped, prayed to, or ascribed with spiritual power. You know, stuff like this…
Idols are created things being elevated above the creator. While philosophies, abstract thoughts, or ideas can be idols, they can only be idols if they are manufactured or “graven” by men. That’s idolatry 101.
But, according to Pope Francis (who is under extreme pressure from within the Romanist church by traditional papists who have accused him of numerous heresies and outside the Romanist church by critics of his coddling of sexual predators in Chile), the real threat of idolatry is from the truth. Specifically, the Pope argues that if you care too much about truth, you’re idolizing it.
Speaking at St. Peter’s Basilica at the Chrism Mass on Thursday, the Pope encouraged priests to be “street priests,” or priests that got out among the people and got involved in the lives of their communities. The Pope’s message was essentially designed to compel Romanist clergy to be close to their parishioners, by which they can best show mercy and compassion. But then, the message from the Pope took an odd turn.
We must be careful not to fall into the temptation of making idols of certain abstract truths. They can be comfortable idols, always within easy reach; they offer a certain prestige and power and are difficult to discern. Because the “truth-idol” imitates, it dresses itself up in the words of the Gospel, but does not let those words touch the heart. Much worse, it distances ordinary people from the healing closeness of the word and of the sacraments of Jesus [transcript and translation provided the Libreria Editrice Vaticana].
Jesus said that he was the truth in John 14:6. It is through Jesus that truth comes (John 1:17). That which is true comes directly from God, so much so, that it is only barely indistinguishable from God Himself; truth is the emanation of God’s glory.
Ironically, the next words out of the Pope’s mouth encourage people to turn from idolizing truth an instead turn to Mary…
Here, let us turn to Mary, Mother of priests. We can call upon her as “Our Lady of Closeness”. “As a true mother, she walks at our side, she shares our struggles and she constantly surrounds us with God’s love”, in such a way that no one feels left out. Our Mother is not only close when she sets out “with haste” to serve, which is one means of closeness, but also by her way of expressing herself.
Turn away from truth, because it’s an idol. Instead turn to Mary. Got it.
[Editor’s Note: HT Lifesite News]
