The Price of Ignoring God
Posted On August 18, 2009
Today’s Mass readings tell such a story! The tragic story of a people who strayed from God.
“Abandoning the Lord, the God of their fathers, … they followed the other gods of the various nations around them. … They were quick to stray from the way their fathers had taken, and did not follow their example of obedience to the commandments of the Lord (Judges 2: 12, 17).
The result? They mingled with unbelievers and, imitating their ways, turned to idolatry and “sacrificed their sons and daughters to demons” (Psalm 106: 35-37).
It speaks to me of today. I have often wondered how people who are basically good, basically rational (including many Christians), can tolerate and even support such an evil and irrational action as abortion. I believe it’s because we, as a society, are living as if God doesn’t exist. We may occasionally give lip service to God, but essentially we just ignore Him. We have mingled with non-believers and adopted their ways, indifferent to God’s presence and living in disobedience to His teachings. The human being is created with a need to worship. If we abandon the right worship of God, we will inevitably worship someone or something else – idolatry. And we always become like what we worship. When we de-throne God and give our hearts over to anything that doesn’t include God, our perception of truth is clouded, our hearts are hardened, and we can even find reasons to justify the destruction of life, “sacrificing our sons and daughters to demons.” It is vitally important that we have people who can argue against the culture of death in the public forum. Not all of us are called or gifted to do that. But we are all called to recognize the ways we ignore God, to identify and cast out our idols, and to put God back on the throne in our hearts.
I firmly believe that no one in right relationship to God could ever accept abortion, could ever swallow the lie of pro-choice. The more each of us can grow in our own relationship with God and encourage others to do likewise, the more hearts and minds will be freed to recognize truth and serve to build a culture of life. As the words of an old hymn express it, “Cast out each idol from its throne. The Lord is God and He alone.”