Man should worship only God,
because there where God disappears, man becomes the slave of idolatry,
as shown by the totalitarian regimes in our time, the slave of idolatry
and various forms of nihilism that make man an addict to idols and
enslave him”.
This was Benedict XVI’s warning drawn from the biblical
story of Elijah the prophet, "moved by God to bring people to
conversion”, to thousands of people who attended the general audience
today.
Continuing in his catechesis on prayer the Pope focused on the passage from the Bible that recounts the
prophet's prayer on Mount Caramel, where "all of his power as an
intercessor is revealed, when before all his people, he prayed to the
Lord to manifest Himself".
In the ninth century BC, Israel was living in "open syncretism"
and the people "alongside the Lord worshiped Baal, the reassuring idol
who was believed to bestow the gift of rain, life to the fields, and
fertility to the cattle: people sought safety in the god in the
comprehensible and predictable from whom they expected prosperity in
exchange for sacrifices”.
Idolatry - said Benedict XVI - is the constant temptation of
the believer, who fools himself into believing that he can serve two
masters, who tries to serve the Almighty placing his trust in impotent
man-made gods”.
"Elijah challenged the priests of Baal: two altars are prepared
and prayers are said: "the true God manifests Himself consuming the
offerings with fire".
They are "two completely different ways of
praying" to "provoke God's answer the idolaters of Baal, dance, shout",
they "rely on themselves," and "in an illusory attempt to bend him to
their own will, they inflict wounds on themselves with spears, to the
point of covering themselves in blood, a dramatically ironic gesture,
because in seeking a sign of life from their god they cover themselves
with blood, which is a sign of death".
But the idol, "conceived by man
as something to be used and managed by his won strength remains silent."
"The worship of idols instead of opening the hearts to otherness that
allows us to go out from the narrow horizons of selfishness, closes the
person into the exclusive and desperate circle of the search for self."
Elijah, who has "the purpose of bringing the lost people back
to God", built another altar using 12 stones, one for each of the tribes
of Israel. "These stones represent all of Israel and the memory of the
entire history which the people have witnessed."
"The altar is the
sacred place that indicates the presence of the Lord, but those stones
represent the people."
"But the symbol needs to become reality, the
people need to recognize their God, so Elijah asks God to manifest
Himself."
The stones are also a reminder of God's faithfulness. Hence
the prayer "O Lord, answer me, that this people may know that You, O
Lord, are God, and convert their hearts”.
"Elijah asks God what God what He wants to do, to manifest
Himself in all his mercy and that is what happens”: the fire descends
burning all of the offerings and the altar too. The fire, this element
which is both necessary and terrible, now serves to indicate the love of
God made manifest. The Lord answered unequivocally, even drying all the
water that had been poured around. "
The episode, explained the Pope, points to " the priority of
the first commandment: to worship only God", and then conversion, "the
fire of God that transforms our hearts."
Finally, there is "the shadow
of the future", "a step toward Christ, here we see the real fire, love
unto the Cross."