It is very tempting for us to have our idols in life, you know, those things or activities or ideas or people we consider perfect and worthy of our all. We would want to think of them as without blemish or possibility of corruption or limitation. So we defend them with all our vigor and we invest a great deal of emotional energy in doing so.
The danger is always that all these idols will fail us in some way, and we find our faith shaken and we become unanchored and drift about, tossed by the ups and downs of our emotional reactions. We will seek someone to blame.
I am thinking of this because of recent events in Church news and the deep emotions many are experiencing because of it. No one deserves to be put on a pedestal so high that the only option for him or her is down. Such pedestals are always unsteady because the base on which they stand is limited by its very nature, and the platform on which we put these individuals is far too high up to be sturdy and solid. It tips and sways, and dumps its contents off to a long fall downwards. It also makes them easy targets for ne’er-do-wells.
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