Solomon and 'inculturation'.

Priest and prophet forage in a land they know not.

Today's first reading at Mass is about how Solomon turned to idols - goddess worship - he built a temple to Astarte.  In fact he built temples to other gods for his foreign wives to offer sacrifice and perform their rituals and devotions to honor their gods.  God was not pleased.

What is so significant about this is that Solomon was a wise and holy man - the wisest of men.  God had actually appeared to him twice.  We know Solomon was a learned, holy man, a mystic, with great power, yet he was duped and turned to idols.  If that can happen to a man as great as Solomon, how easily can we be misled by dubious mystical experience and spiritual novelties.

'They served their idols, which became a snare for them.' - Psalm 106

Delusion doesn't simply affect the pseudo nuns who have fallen for goddess worship, nor the formation directors and retreat masters who employ the Enneagram and such things to discern and train:  Even the 'holy' ones (contemplatives) amongst us can be deceived and led astray by their personal visions and voices.  Others do so with their novel interpretations of theology and efforts at 'inculturation'.  Always in need of 'financial support', they will take your money - and your soul if you let them.  As one writer puts it:  "Stop anointing Folk Heros as alternative magisteria."  Works for me.

"In the last days terrible times will come.  For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding the form of religion, but denying its power." - 1 Tim. 3:1-5

Art:  Solomon and His Wives.