Pope Francis’ first encyclical, Lumen Fidei, was released today and can be downloaded and read from the website of the Holy See (www.vatican.va). I am pouring over it this morning during an hour’s unexpected patient cancellation.
On page 16 there is a piece on faith and idolatry. I present it as today’s “Quote for the Day.”
“Idols exist, we begin to see, as a pretext for setting ourselves at the centre of reality and worshiping the work of our own hands. Once man has lost the fundamental orientation which unifies his existence, he breaks down into the multiplicity of his desires; in refusing to await the time of promise, his life-story disintegrates into a myriad of unconnected instants. Idolatry, then, is always polytheism, an aimless passing from one lord to another. Idolatry does not offer a journey but rather a plethora of paths leading nowhere and forming a vast labyrinth. Those who choose not to put their trust in God must hear the din of countless idols crying out: “Put your trust in me!” Faith, tied as it is to conversion, is the opposite of idolatry; it breaks with idols to turn to the living God in a personal encounter.”
