The Vatican (Wednesday, August 8, 2018, Gaudium Press) Here is the Vatican-provided English-language summary of the Pope’s address at the General Audience this morning:

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.

I greet all the English-speaking pilgrims taking part in today’s Audience, particularly the groups from Malta and Indonesia. Upon all of you, and your families, I invoke the joy and peace of Our Lord Jesus Christ. God bless you all!

© Libreria Editrice Vaticana