Time to End the Protestant Myth that Catholics Are Idol Worshippers
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When we congregate at mass we look to the figure of Jesus on the crucifix for salvation and the promise of eternal life. Jesus is close to us physically in his representation on the altar, statues, paintings, holy images and stained glass windows. God the Father is not and neither is the Holy Spirit. It is impossible to imagine either of them despite the traditional portrayals of God the Father as an elderly man with a long white beard. We feel close to Jesus because he was one of us for 33 years and knew what it was like to be a human. Like all of us, he had a real mother, Mary. He also had a father on earth, Joseph the carpenter.
Although he embodies all that is good and is idealized Jesus was all too human. He is hungry at times. He feels pain at times. He is depressed at times. Behind the laid back approach, full of peace and love and tolerance, he betrayed his human emotions many times. He became angry on several occasions – with the money changers in the temple, for example, or when he rebuked his disciples for trying to prevent parents present their children to him. He is even harsh with his mother on one occasion. Yet he is also hurt when his disciples do not have enough faith in him or fall asleep in the Garden of Gethsemane when he is praying on the eve of his crucifixion.
At other times he is contradictory as when he says “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. A man’s enemies will be those of his own household.”
He often expressed his message in parables because he knew that his fellow humans of that time – mainly illiterate peasants - needed simple explanations.
He makes an impossible demand on us when he calls on us to be “perfect, like our Father”. He knows perfectly well that, as humans, we cannot be perfect just as he himself was not perfect and shared our human foibles and weaknesses.
By setting such an impossible task he is challenging us to go the extra mile and make the supreme effort as he himself did when he willingly went to his death. It is up to us to live up to his expectations and the trust God has put in us.
© John Brander Fitzpatrick
John Brander Fitzpatrick is a Scotsman who lives in São Paulo, Brazil. He spent many years as a journalist and translator and has published three books of fiction - two collections of short stories and a novel - and a collection of articles that have appeared on Catholic365.com called "Mystery of Faith". John Brander Fitzpatrick can be contacted at: johnfitz668@gmail.com
