People who fly frequently have all had the experience of hearing the dreaded announcement that their flight will be delayed for two hours or more.

How do they cope with such unhappy information? Some people just endure the delay while others find a creative way to spend the two hours. One of my coping mechanisms is to head for the bookstores in the airport to browse.

Recently, I had such an experience. Thank God, the airport bookstore was excellent. As I browsed, the title of a lead article in a magazine caught my attention. The title was: The Many Gods of Our Times. As I continued to browse through the bookstore, my mind kept returning to the article’s title.

Since the Advent Season was about to begin and since one of the purposes of Advent is to prepare for Christmas – the time when the one true God became man – I began to contrast the two themes: the coming of the one true God and the many gods of our times. So I left the bookstore, found a quiet corner in the airport and began to draft this column.

The concept of God

If asked, most people who are believers would accept the definition of God as the Supreme Being who is creator and ruler of the universe who is to be worshipped, obeyed and served.

For believers, Christmas began a period in salvation history which clarified our understanding of God considerably. We learned that God is a personal, loving and forgiving God who wishes to live in relationship with all people.

The theologians call this period of clarification the self revelation of God in Christ. Believers rejoice in knowing their God and are grateful for God’s self-revelation.

If asked, most people who are not believers would probably have great difficulty in articulating their understanding of what is meant by God. Logically, they would have significant difficulty accepting any obligation to worship, obey and serve God. 

The many gods of our time

Oddly enough, people who do not consider themselves believers in any sense still have to find meaning in their primary vocations, professional lives and relationships so they must turn to something.

Notice I did not state to “someone” because for them a personal God does not exist. They turn to reason which is compatible with the Catholic Faith as one way to find truth. Unfortunately not many people complete the rational journey to truth because it is so long, complicated and demanding. 

Others seek to find relevance in the traditional “isms” or in New Age philosophy which describes finding meaning in life through a perfecting of self, through absolute freedom and in what they call authenticity.

What would be the names of some of the many gods of our times? There are of course the traditional false gods of pleasure, power and wealth. Then there are the false gods of pursuing alleged self-perfecting experiences through mind-altering drugs and entering into union with the gods of the cosmos through the stars.

To prove to self that one is absolutely free people choose to follow the false gods of modern culture: alcohol, sex, casual drugs, financial success at all costs, controlling others through violence and oppression and finding comfort in independence and opulence.

Finally, there is the false god of trying to be an authentic human being without a value system of belief and ethics to judge what being authentic really means.

A key concept

False gods are subjective places where people try to find themselves and make sense out of life. However, these false places represent deep yearnings in the lives of many intelligent and very nice people.

 It is important to accept that analysis for pastoral reasons. Recognising the yearning can be an opening for the Church to dialogue with those who are searching and, in the process, to share the truth of the faith about the coming of the one true God that we celebrate at Christmas.

Christmas and responsibility

The Commandments make clear that we must worship the Lord our God and him only shall we serve. Worshipping false gods means divinising what is not God.

Because of the anti-truth atmosphere of society in which the many gods of our times flourish, the believer has the responsibility to protect and nourish her/his faith.

Let us examine some ways to protect and nourish our faith in the one true God. Let us use the Catechism of the Catholic Church as a guide. The Catechism considers both negative and positive elements.

The Catechism lists and explains what the first commandment forbids: Superstition, idolatry, divination, magic and irreligion. It reminds us that atheism and agnosticism are common in contemporary culture and must be considered as two of the very serious problems of our time (cf CCC, #2110-2128).

Since the first commandment embraces the virtues of faith, hope and charity, it follows that the dangers to these virtues must also be avoided.

Voluntary doubt, even involuntary doubt that is not addressed can undermine the faith and lead to spiritual blindness. Hope can be weakened by presumption or despair.

The virtue of charity can become ineffective due to indifference, ingratitude, luke-warmness, lax ascetical practice and carelessness of heart (cf CCC, # 2087-2094).

The Catechism also addresses what the first commandment encourages, namely, giving to God what we owe God in justice. The attitudes and actions that are encouraged by the first commandment are adoration, prayer and sacrifice.  To adore God is to acknowledge God as God, as Creator and Saviour, as the Lord of everything that exists.

To adore God means we praise him and at the same time humble ourselves as Mary did. The various forms of prayer are the indispensable conditions for being able to live the commandments. Sacrifice, personal or Eucharistic, must be lived in the heart and be coupled with love of neighbour (cf CCC, #2095-2100).

Conclusion
In the Advent journey there are two basic questions for the believer to reflect on:
1) Have any of the many false gods of our times begun to take root in our lives? Have they caused compromises in our attitudes and behaviour?
2) Are we protecting, nourishing and facilitating growth in our faith so we can identify the false gods of our times easily and reject them promptly.

Christmas is about the coming of the one true God. There is no other. The many false gods of our times are precisely that: false.