WITH thousands across the country hoarding essentials and not following advice, Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge has told the faithful to steer clear of the “cult of the golden calf”.
“The story of the golden calf is a very old story but in fact the cult of the golden calf is always and everywhere, because in the end you see the cult of the golden calf is the cult of me, the cult of self, and it’s that cult that seems to be a liberation,” Archbishop Coleridge said at the live streamed Mass this morning when referring to the readings from Exodus 32:7-14 and later John 5:31-47.
“But in fact it’s not.
“It is the exact opposite because the cult of the golden calf, the cult of self, always creates a world of locked churches and closed doors.
“It’s a world that becomes a tomb and works a dark destruction.
“What it does, in fact, is it sews in us the destruction of the virus of selfishness – and that’s the most destructive virus of all.
“By contrast we have Jesus who speaks to us of faith, speaks to us in fact of the vaccine of faith.
“So here today in this dark and difficult moment and on this day of Lent, we stand before the virus of selfishness and the vaccine of faith – and that’s the choice that we face.
“The vaccine of faith listens to what Jesus says.
“To the Jewish leaders He says My Word or the Word of God finds no home in you but in fact through faith the Word of God does find a home in us.
“It doesn’t matter whether the churches are closed or even if we enter shut-down and the doors of our homes are closed.
“Nothing can change the truth that the Word of God finds a home with you.
“So wherever you are right now the Word of God, God’s presence and power, is at home with you.
“That’s the promise that faith makes and that’s why we speak of faith as the vaccine that God provides.
“So here today, standing before the mystery with all our distress, we say no to the virus of selfishness and all that it brings – as if there’s only me, hoarding and all that stuff – we say no to that.
“But we say yes to the virus of faith that opens the door to Jesus and allows God to make a home with us.”
