We generally equate false idols with the pleasant things we put before the one true God. Indeed, the word “worship” is generally a synonym for “love,” the experience of which is understood to be inherently pleasant. However, we must also consider that things or people that cause strong negative emotions can also become idols. What we fear the most, what causes us to experience strong anxiety, can also be considered an idol. In today’s readings, we see how God wants to liberate us from becoming slaves to fear. One of the reasons God allows us to suffer in our bodies – even the looming fate of death itself – is so that we progressively discover our true freedom, the freedom of our soul. When we bend and submit to things or people out of fear of suffering or punishment they become an idol and we become their slave. Joseph understood from his time imprisoned in Egypt how God was liberating him from slavery to fear. He understood this so well, that he wanted his brothers to experience the same freedom and not turn their fear into an idol.
Tuesday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time
CHRYSOSTOM:
Whatever they may do, do not cease doing them good. Your reward will be greater. When you are vilified, if you quit doing good, you signify that you are seeking the praise of others, not the praise of God.
For this reason Christ was sent to teach us that he came simply to do good. He did not wait for the sick to come to him. He himself hurried to them, bearing them a twofold blessing: the gospel of the reign of God and the healing of their diseases. And for this he went everywhere, not overlooking the slightest village.
Monday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time
PETER CHRYSOLOGUS:
With God, indeed, death is sleep, for God can bring a dead person back to life sooner than a sleeping person can be wakened from sleep by humans; and God can sooner restore life-giving warmth to limbs frozen in death than humans can infuse vigor in bodies immersed in sleep. Hear the words of the apostle: “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye the dead shall rise.” Because the blessed apostle was unable to refer to the speed of the resurrection in words, he opted for examples. How could he touch upon rapidity when divine power anticipates rapidity itself? And how does time enter the picture when something eternal is given outside of time? Even as time applies to temporality, so does eternity exclude time.