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The General Audience on 8 August 2018 The General Audience on 8 August 2018 

Pope at General Audience: English Summary

At Wednesday's General Audience, Pope Francis continued his meditation on the Ten Commandments, going deeper into the theme of idolatry. Here is the official English-language summary of the Pope's catechesis.

Dear brothers and sisters: In  our  continuing  catechesis  on  the  Ten  Commandments,  we  now  consider  the  question  of  idolatry.   When  the  people  of  Israel  turned  away  from  God  to  worship  a  golden  calf,  they  did  so  in  the  desert.   This  is  significant,  for  the  desert  symbolizes  our  human  frailty,  weakness  and  uncertainty.   How  often  we  seek  to  avoid  the  fears  of  our  own  desert  experience  by  creating  idols  and  artificial  answers  in  a  kind  of  “do-it-yourself”  religion.  

Like  the  people  instructed  by  Aaron  to  use  flashy  golden  ornaments  to  make  a  false  god,  we  too  can  be  tempted  to seek  our  identity  in  illusions  and  idols.   Yet  God,  revealed  in  Jesus  Christ,  announces  the  authentic  way  to  respond  to  the  challenges  of  the  desert.   It  is  only  the  Lord  who  can  answer  and fulfil  the  deepest  yearnings  of  our  hearts.   He  teaches  us  this  most  powerfully  from  the  cross,  where  Jesus  shows  that  our  fragility  is  no  longer  to  be  seen  as  a  curse,  but  a  place  to  encounter  our  heavenly  Father,  who  strengthens  us  for  the  journey.

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08 August 2018, 09:52