Ex 32, 1-6 This is your God, O Israel

Exodus 32 (chosen pages)

(Ex 32, 1-6) This is your God, O Israel

[1] When the people became aware of Moses' delay in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said to him, "Come, make us a god who will be our leader; as for the man Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him." [2] Aaron replied, "Have your wives and sons and daughters take off the golden earrings they are wearing, and bring them to me." [3] So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron, [4] who accepted their offering, and fashioning this gold with a graving tool, made a molten calf. Then they cried out, "This is your God, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt." [5] On seeing this, Aaron built an altar before the calf and proclaimed, "Tomorrow is a feast of the LORD." [6] Early the next day the people offered holocausts and brought peace offerings. Then they sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to revel.

(CCC 2114) Human life finds its unity in the adoration of the one God. The commandment to worship the Lord alone integrates man and saves him from an endless disintegration. Idolatry is a perversion of man's innate religious sense. An idolater is someone who "transfers his indestructible notion of God to anything other than God" (Origen, Contra Celsum 2, 40: PG 11, 861). (CCC 2113) Idolatry not only refers to false pagan worship. It remains a constant temptation to faith. Idolatry consists in divinizing what is not God. Man commits idolatry whenever he honors and reveres a creature in place of God, whether this be gods or demons (for example, satanism), power, pleasure, race, ancestors, the state, money, etc. Jesus says, "You cannot serve God and mammon" (Mt 6:24). Many martyrs died for not adoring "the Beast" (Cf. Rev 13-14) refusing even to simulate such worship. Idolatry rejects the unique Lordship of God; it is therefore incompatible with communion with God (Cf. Gal 5:20; Eph 5:5).