“COMPLETE THIS SENTENCE:
I REGRET….”

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 6 Tuesday in Ordinary time is, “Complete This Sentence: I Regret….”

Those are words found in a book, How To Survive the Loss of a Love, by Melba Colgrove, Harold H. Bloomfield, and Peter McWilliams.

Would everyone give us an answer to that request?

Regrets can be like lobsters; they can bite us; they can really hold onto us.

We’ve all heard people being asked that question: “Any regrets?”

And we’ve all heard people in public say, “Nope. No regrets.”

But would that person – some night years later – with scotch or bourbon or wine in hand say, “Okay I have one regret.”

Does every person who has lost a loved one – have at least one thing they wished they said or did?

Haven’t we all put our foot – maybe even both feet – into our mouth – and said the wrong thing at the wrong time – and then – we made it worse – by repeating what we were really trying to say but even "worser" and there is no eraser for some "worser" words?

Did Jesus ever regret picking Judas or even Peter? How about Thomas? I’m sure he had no regrets about Andrew. But how about James and John?

DE-ENERGIZING THE BUNNY AND IT ISN’T FUNNY

Might-have-beens can be mighty draining.

Katherine Mansfield said regrets are “An appalling waste of energy; you can’t build on it; it’s only good for wallowing in.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in The Way to Freedom, wrote, “If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction.”

So do you have any regrets? Have you gotten on any wrong trains? Have you made any mistakes? How about sins of omission? How did it go with your marriage? How did it go with your family? How did it go with go with schooling, money, jobs? How about you and God?

AT LEAST 5 A DAY

At the end of the day, I have at least 5 regrets for that day.

But it’s the big ones that count – the lifetime regrets.

I regret that I didn’t ask my dad all the questions that I thought of after he died June 26, 1970 – but I’m happy I sat down with yellow pad and pen 5 or so months before he died and asked him questions that gave me about 40 pages of info and stories on paper – in hand.

I had some good conversations with my mom – and I’m glad I taped her before she died – April 7, 1987.

But there are still so many more questions.

There have been lots of insipid or stupid sermons. There are 3 books that I haven’t finished. There are also 2 books on my shelf that I could not get a publisher for.

There are lots of people I didn’t visit – because of laziness – selfishness - and lots of excuses, excuses, excuses - all of which are sources for a lot of regrets.

CONCLUSION

What triggered this topic is the comment about God in today’s first reading from Genesis 6: 6: “God regretted that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was grieved.”

How about regrets about women? Smile.

Of course, that’s a projection by the writer onto God. It’s what they call an "anthropomorphism".

Hopefully we have no regrets that a writer put this story of the big flood into the Bible – because it certainly has helped people who have been flooded out and drowned in stupidity – or what have you - to have hope after the big loss, after the big regret, to start again – and doing this life over.

And P.S.: going two by two or more, certainly makes life easier than going it alone - except for those two mosquitoes God let on Noah's boat. I regret them and a few other bugs. I know. Everything has a reason. But ....