The idols we serve

Last Saturday, Pope Leo XIV warned against the “delusion of omnipotence” that is fueling the conflict in the Middle East. “Enough of the idolatry of self and money,” he said. “Enough of the display of power. Enough of war.” These words were mainly directed at world leaders, but they also invite a more personal reflection on how our disordered pursuits could have harmful consequences that extend far beyond ourselves.

A good education seeks to form the whole person. In recent years, schools have placed a stronger focus on social-emotional skills to help young people navigate their emotions, practice self-regulation, and build healthy relationships. A deeper and more difficult task, however, is not just to understand how to manage our feelings, but also to unpack the desires that drive and shape them.

Arthur Brooks, Harvard professor, author, and a leading researcher on happiness, offers a helpful framework. In “The Summa Theologica,” Saint Thomas Aquinas described four common substitutes for God: wealth/money, pleasure, power, and honor/fame. Brooks reframes them in contemporary terms as the four “idols” that people often pursue in the hope of achieving happiness. Each offers something real and, in many ways, necessary. Wealth promises security. Pleasure gives delight or comfort. Power offers access and control. Honor reflects the acceptance of others.

Aquinas and Brooks both emphasize that these pursuits are not wrong in themselves, but become problematic when we treat them as ends in themselves rather than as part of a larger good. They draw us into an endless chase, where there is always more to earn, more to enjoy, more power to secure, or more approval to gain. Over time, they can become our default settings, quietly dictating our choices and our sense of worth. While it’s natural to desire these things, we need to be able to recognize them clearly so that we are not subsumed or unconsciously ruled by them.

The challenge is that much of the modern world glorifies these four idols. For instance, consumer culture often ties happiness to acquisition, suggesting that it can be purchased, upgraded, and accumulated. Social media has trained us to believe that worth is based on how many people approve of us, trapping us into an endless need for self-promotion and external validation. Pleasurable and convenient have become the markers for what is good, weakening our capacity to endure difficulties or find meaning in sacrifice. And lastly, we find ourselves drawn, sometimes uncritically, to those who show forceful displays of power. We mistake their dominance for strength, even if their actions come at the expense of justice and human dignity.

For many people, clarity comes after a loss. Brooks calls this “post-traumatic growth,” the sudden reordering of priorities that follows grief or profound disruption. But instead of waiting for a crisis to happen, we should find the courage to examine our lives closely. Brooks proposes using a simple process of elimination to help people identify their primary idol. Start by taking out which of the four you find the least appealing. Next, consider which of the remaining three you are attracted to but can still easily temper. And then, as a final step, reflect on the remaining two idols and rank which one stands out as a main driver of your past actions and decisions. Brooks said it is also helpful to analyze how our unhealthy attachment to this particular idol may have led to some of our biggest mistakes in life.

My own reckoning comes from an experience in my late 20s, when the validation I was getting from having a “purposeful career” began to take a toll on my health, my relationships, and my interior life. I remember missing several family gatherings because I chose a work engagement instead. My mom reminded me, “Your worth is not your work. Your awards cannot hug you at night.” It was true. Despite all the success I had achieved at a young age, I felt more restless and unfulfilled than ever. I had lost sight of the real mission.

It reminded me of a line from Fr. Pedro Arrupe that I first encountered in university, but only fully appreciated much later: “Nothing is more practical than finding God, than falling in love in a quite absolute, final way. What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination, will affect everything…”

To recognize one’s idol is not to reject what we desire, but to reorder love. Left unchecked, our pursuits can turn inward, reduced to self-aggrandizement rather than oriented toward a higher good. Education, at its best, does not impose on us what to think, but forms our capacity to discern between what is fleeting and what endures over a lifetime. In the end, the question is what we’ll choose and commit to love most. What we love, more than anything, will shape the lives we build and the people we become.

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eleanor@shetalksasia.com