Reading Francis

They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons.

-Psalm 106:37

When I can, I try to sneak off to daily Mass during my lunch break. Unlike the liturgy on Sundays, these are quiet, simple and quick: it’s usually at most a few dozen people in a mostly empty church, with no music (unless your priest likes to sing) and a (hopefully) short homily. They also have one fewer Scripture reading: one non-Gospel reading, a call-and-response Psalm, and the Gospel. Usually, you’re in and out in about half an hour.

I’ve said before that I tend to overlook the Psalms, both at Mass and in general, but this past Thursday, there was a section at the end of the Psalm that stopped me cold:

They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons.

-Psalm 106:37

Now, this is a reference back to the day’s first reading, from I Kings, where it’s established that, in his old age, Solomon lost his way, straying from fidelity to Yahweh and instead supporting the worship of other gods by his non-Jewish wives. I Kings doesn’t mention anything about child sacrifice, though.

The Gospel that day is from Mark 7, in which Jesus travels into Gentile territory, is sought out by the locals, and has a back-and-forth with a Gentile woman before healing her daughter. The lectionary for daily Mass doesn’t try to align the readings, really: we’re motoring through the Old Testament and through Mark until Lent starts, and the chips mostly fall wherever they may.

These two passages do have a connection though, and, were there another reading (as on Sundays), Romans 12:2 would have been perfect:

Do not conform yourselves to this age, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect.

Solomon conforms himself to the non-Jewish multitheistic culture around him; Jesus transforms the non-Jewish Gentile culture by embodying Yahweh beyond the tribes of Israel. Where Solomon invites pagan worship among the tribes of Israel, Jesus carries the God of Israel to the pagans.

But I am stuck on the Psalm verse, not because of its relevance to the I Kings passage, but to its relevance today.

To what demons are we sacrificing our children today?

Maybe it’s technology, smartphones, and AI.

Maybe it’s a consumerist culture that values consumption for its own sake.

Maybe it’s unrealistic standards of beauty, achievement, and status.

Maybe it’s a relativism that leaves young people without a worthwhile sense of purpose and meaning.

Maybe it’s a hyperindividualism that engenders isolation and loneliness and erodes a sense of the common good.

Maybe it’s a utilitarianism that boils down not only ethics but the value of human life to usefulness alone.

Maybe it’s the cult of busyness, overscheduling the lives of children to match the overscheduled lives of adults.

Maybe it’s gender identities that are either too rigidly defined or rejected altogether.

Maybe it’s a partisan dualism so strong that it drives you to dehumanize your opponents.

Maybe it’s an addiction to comfort, to constant entertainment, to dopamine hits, to distraction.

You can probably add your own.

I have probably heard that Psalm verse before, but it never really connected until this week.

Christians are called to be more like Jesus and less like Solomon in the Romans 12 verse. In our secular age, it may feel strange to call our cultural dysfunctions demonic, but every day there seems to be new data pointing out that they are eating the spirits and souls of our children nonetheless. We are challenged, by Paul in his letter to the Romans and by Jesus in the Gospels to offer an alternative.

While I appreciate that the “He Gets Us” campaign has its share of detractors, I’m struck by the fact that their current campaign, “Loaded Words”, offers a Christian counterpoint to these demons. You may have seen their Super Bowl ad this year, “Is More Better?”

Lent is almost upon us; Ash Wednesday is this week. Maybe a discipline this Lent could be to pray for guidance on how to be a transforming presence in a culture that wants our children (and ourselves) as sacrifice.