I stand before hundreds to give a homily. I hang a medal around my neck and tell them it is from one of the two marathons I have run. The medal represents how we bow down before sports, winning and being number one. Does not what we give our money to show where our heart belongs, what we bow down before? Consider professional sports or the size of our athletic budget and fields verses the size of our chapel and spiritual budget in our schools. In the long run, i.e. eternity, what is a medal and all it represents going to do for us?

I pull out a dollar bill to represent money and material possessions. How do we bow down before money and things and amassing more of the same? Maybe we are seeking surety, security, esteem or worth from this type of bowing down. Well, the sure thing is that we are going to die and there is only one eternal life insurance policy available for us. In the big picture, this policy is the only security we have in life. In terms deriving our worth and esteem from money and possessions, they did not make us, they do not love us and they cannot save us. The one we get our worth and esteem from is the one who brought the Egyptians out of slavery.

Next, I bring a child of God up in front of the congregation. We know our inexhaustible value in God. However, I ask what would happen if we bow down before this person in adoration? What will this child of God do for us when our heart beats for the last time? Can they save us? Isn't that what the culture is so much about - bowing before the stars and athletes who cannot save?

We are given the church to uphold the commandments. We are commanded not to have other Gods, i.e. false idols, than God himself. False idols cannot save. False idols are anything that we look to bring us unending happiness and life other than the God of Jesus Christ. They are things like medals, money and even other human beings.

What are the false idols in your life that you expect unending happiness and life from? The purpose of the church is to make each of us confront any false idols we might be bowing down before. And the Good News is that the church is only in it for our good!

The only one in existence who gives unending happiness and life, The Living God, says to each of us, "I, the Lord, am your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery. You shall not have other Gods besides me."

Blessed by the BEST,

+Fr. John