COULD HAVE,

SHOULD HAVE,

BUT DIDN’T

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 2nd Friday in Ordinary Time is, “Could Have, Should Have, But Didn’t.”

The Scriptures are filled with all kinds of stories and examples - that have all kinds of interpretations - and implications - and thought provokers.

Today’s first reading, from First Samuel 24: 3-21 - has a fascinating story about David and Saul - the young man and the old man - the struggle for power between these two.

The thought that hit me after reading today’s first reading was all those times in life that we didn’t do what we could have done.

So I entitled my homily, “Could Have, Should Have, But Didn’t.”

THE STORY

There’s David and his men hiding in a cave and Saul is chasing after him with an army of 3,000 hand picked soldiers. They are in the mountains and Saul has to go. So he goes into a cave to go.

This is a great movie scene. You can picture it. It’s the same cave that David and his men are hiding in.

Saul takes off his shoulders his cloak and I picture him moving away a distance to relieve himself. David sees his chance. He could kill Saul who is trying to kill him right then and there.

I can’t read Hebrew - but I did spot an obvious nuance - that is in today’s reading. David could not only have killed him, but he could have cut it off.

Saul relieves himself - and then leaves the cave to get back to his army. David’s men are angry at him - for not killing Saul then and there. David says to his men that Saul has been anointed king by the Lord and therefore he couldn’t do it.

Then David comes out of the cave and yells to Saul. He shows him the piece of his cloak or mantle that he had cut off in the cave - and tells Saul - I could have killed you in the cave - but I didn’t.

Saul realizes that David didn’t and turns to tears. He then realizes that David is the man to follow him as king.

ONE MESSAGE

The message that hit me can be summed up with the title of this homily, “Could Have, Should Have, But Didn’t.”

Father Joe Krastel and I have been watching the Republican debates on TV. What struck me is that in a political debate, a speaker can say this or that. Moreover, a debater has to choose his words well.

How many times does a politician beat himself later on - on stupid things he or she said - or things that they could have said - but didn’t.

Years later or months later or the next morning, when they are thinking about questions they were asked in the debate, I’m sure they think about what could have said and chose not to say at a specific moment.

If they are wise and if they are experienced, I’m sure it hits them that what they didn’t say - unspoken words - are much better than words spoken that were real dumb - and could be used in the future by one’s opposition in a sound bite. Hopefully, everyone knows words are like the feathers in a pillow. Once a pillow is ripped apart, if it’s windy, the feathers inside are like spoken words and you don’t know where they are going to fly.

Don’t we all find ourselves in situations where we are angry or frustrated with another - and we know what we want to say, and we’re glad we kept our mouth shut.

CONCLUSION

The title of my homily is, “Could Have, Should Have, But Didn’t.”

Today’s first reading says to me, sometimes the smarter thing to do is what David did - not to stick the sword in another to cut them down.

Hey he won the election - okay - he fought his way to become the king and got it. Amen.

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