The New Paganism

Pope Benedict XVI has condemned the world's love of power, possessions and money to a plague, to a modern-day form of idolatry.  And what honest person could argue with such an assessment?  The Holy Father has asked, "Has not our modern world created its own idols?  Has it not imitated, perhaps inadvertently, the pagans of antiquity, by diverting man from his true end, from the joy of living eternally with God?  This is a question that all people, if they are honest with themselves, cannot help but ask."

While crowds of shoppers are able to get so excited over material things that they often stampede into stores injuring and, at times, even killing others, the same people seldom find the time to frequent the sacraments.  Where is the excitement over Holy Mass?  Where are the stampedes to the confessional?  Just recently, shoppers had to be maced by police over a sneaker sale. 

The world has once again become pagan.  The things of the flesh have become more important than the things of the Spirit for most people today.  What to eat, what to drink, what to buy and what to sell.  And we are beginning to reap the fruit of this new paganism.