Unknown Gods

Seeing how we worship known and unknown gods

05/22/2023

Acts 1:1-11 In the first book, Theophilus, I dealt with all that Jesus did and taught until the day he was taken up, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. He presented himself alive to them by many proofs after he had suffered, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. He answered them, “It is not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has established by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” When he had said this, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight.

Do you mind if I make this homily a commentary about culture and its effects on our faith? Don’t worry I am not going to get into the culture wars that are raging on all fronts today. That is, I am not interested in talking about abortion or climate change or racism, or white supremacy or not kneeling during the national anthem. Now, some of you may be disappointed thinking: those hot topics would have made a really spicy sermon. Sorry, this will be a very boring sermon, so you can go back to sleep.

Instead, I would like to look at culture like Josef Pieper did in his amazing little book called “Leisure, the Basis of Culture.” Pieper begins his book with this insightful statement: “Culture depends for its very existence on leisure, and leisure, in turn, is not possible unless it has a durable and consequently living link with the cultus, with divine worship” (p. 15).

Did you catch that? Pieper insists that there can be no culture without a cult. Indeed, if you look closely, you can see that the word “cult” is even hidden within the word “culture” like its beating heart. And just like removing a heart kills the human person, so removing the cult (or divine worship) from a culture will kill the body politic. Why is that? Why is cult or worship such an integral part of political and social life?

Well, that depends on how we understand the human person. Sometimes we define a human person as a homo sapiens, meaning a rational animal. Others, like Aristotle, called human beings “the laughing animal” because we humans get the gist of jokes but other animals do not get jokes. Although, I have to admit that every now and then I can almost hear my dog Apollo snickering at me from the back of his crate.

But I think the best definition of a human is “a worshipping animal.” Why? Well, because we are created to worship something or Someone, or perhaps even ourselves. Even atheists who say they do not believe in God worship someone or something. They just don’t know their deity’s name. That is, they worship an anonymous god, an unknown god.

Now, how do you figure out what someone worships? That is very easy to do: just look where people make the greatest sacrifices, that is, where people spend most of their money. In medieval Christendom, the tallest, most elaborate, and costly buildings were always the cathedral churches. That is where people spent most of their money because inside those walls we worshipped our God.

What are the tallest, most elaborate, and costly buildings in our cities today? In most American towns these days it is usually the sports complex: football, basketball, or soccer stadiums. There happily we hold hands with people we have never met before, and hug perfect strangers, and sing until we are hoarse: “Ole, ole, ole!”

And people say Catholics do not sing in church. And in those secular churches a collection is also taken up and we gladly give to the gods our sacrifices and tithes. There is no culture without a cult. We just don’t know the name of the gods we worship; we worship unknown gods.

Let me repeat again Pieper’s tight definition of culture, and see if it makes a little more sense now: “Culture depends for its very existence on leisure, and leisure, in turn, is not possible unless it has a durable and consequently living link with the cultus, with divine worship.” In other words, there never has been and there never will be a culture that does not worship their gods. That is the very meaning of culture.

Now, you might be asking yourself: what on earth does any of this culture commentary have to do with today’s feast of the Ascension? I am so glad you asked! In our first reading today from Acts, St. Luke explains that it was precisely “forty days” after his Resurrection that Jesus ascended into heaven. If you count forty days after Easter, you do not land on this Sunday; instead, you land on last Thursday.

That is why we used to call this feast “Ascension Thursday.” In other words, that timeframe of 40 days was our “living link” with the Bible, and with our Christian roots. But some dioceses have transferred the feast and its obligation to the following Sunday (today), and it is for a very good reason. That good reason is so that lots of Catholics would not miss Mass on a holy day of obligation if we had kept it on Thursday. And not missing Mass is a good thing.

Please do not misunderstand my point: I am not suggesting it is wrong to move Ascension Thursday to the following Sunday. The bishops of a province are well within their rights to do that, and they are far wiser men than me. Nonetheless, we cannot help but be creatures who worship the gods.

And if we did not go to Mass last Thursday to worship the living God whom we know by name, where did we go? And I am not talking about going to a Protestant church, or a Hindu temple, or a Jewish synagogue. There, they worship their God by name. And it’s easy to tell in what church we worship because that is where we gladly offer our sacrifices.

By the way, every month I get a summary statement from my credit card company that itemizes all my expenses. It shows me where I spent most of my money. Maybe you get one from your credit card company, too. And do you know where I spend most of my money every month? It is on Apollo, a Greek god. But, hey, at least I know his name.

Praised be Jesus Christ!