KARMA

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 11^th Tuesday in Ordinary Time is, “Karma.”

When was the last time you heard someone use the term, “KARMA”?  Sometimes it just slipped its way into a conversation - like various other foreign phrases slip their way into our talking with each other - like “Déjà vu” or  “Hasta luego”.

The word “karma” - whatever karma is - hit me when I read today’s readings - as well as something from Sunday’s first reading that I didn’t preach about.

Let me first mention a few comments about the Sunday comment. It’s relevant to today’s readings. Nathan the prophet shows up at David’s house and says to him, “The sword shall never depart from your house….”

It’s like saying a deadly virus is in your computer and you’re not going to be able to get rid of it.

Here’s the context for Nathan’s comment to David, “You have cut down Uriah the Hittite with the sword; you took his wife as your own, and him you killed with the sword of the Ammonites. Now, therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah to be your wife.”

Eastern religions - Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism - along with their different branches and groups would say to David: “Expect bad karma to continue because you have done some bad things here.”

We’re very familiar with Jesus’ words from Matthew 26:52, “Those who live by the sword die by the sword.”

We’ve also heard, “What goes around comes around.”

We’ve also heard Paul’s words from Galatians 6: 7, “We reap what we sow.”

Way before Paul, the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad from way back in the 7^th Century BC, has someone saying what Paul said,

Now as someone is like this or like that,
according as he acts and according as he behaves, so will he be;
a person of good acts will become good, a person of bad acts, bad;
he becomes pure by pure deeds, bad by bad deeds;

And here they say that a person consists of desires,
and as is his desire, so is his will;
and as is his will, so is his deed;
and whatever deed he does, that he will reap.

In other words, if you plant watermelon seeds, you get watermelons. Plant good deeds, you’ll  get good results.

We become what we plant.

We become where we stay.

We become what we think.
We become what we desire.
We become what we do.

We become what we eat.
We become what TV channel we watch for news.

If you doubt that last one, you have listened to others lately.

KARMA

We are who we are - because of the atmosphere and attitudes in the air where we are staying and breathing in.

For me, this is the basic meaning of karma - for starters.

But I’m more than me, so I spent about 2 hours of time last night reading up on what karma means,  so as to have a basic thought for the day in this homily.

Let me also say it’s quite simple and quite complicated as well.

As I thought about it, when people who are not Buddhists or Hindu or Jainists, use the word “karma”, I think they are simply saying, “When we feel everything is going right, that’s good karma.  When you feel everything is going wrong, that’s bad karma.”

Eastern religions - like all religions -  have thought forever about why people are doing well and why some people are all messed up.

Why do good things happen to good people and why do bad things happen to bad people?

But also: why do bad things happen to good people and why do good things happened to bad people?

Sound familiar?

Didn’t Jesus say in today’s gospel, “… your heavenly Father makes the sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust”?

Jesus saw homes where violence bred violence - but the sun and the rain fall on their roofs like every house on the street.

So how does this good stuff and bad stuff happen anyhow?

Answer: some Eastern teachers say it could be from someone else’s life and we inherited it - in our reincarnation.

But if that’s true, what about free will and free choice - and how do we know if that’s coming from us or from some life we inherited?

We know we can’t tell the judge, “The Devil made me do it.”

Nor can we tell the judge, “It wasn’t me, it was something the last person I was, did and I am simply stuck in their bad karma.”

As I said, “This can get complicated.”

Christianity won’t accept this reincarnation idea that we were someone else in an earlier life. Christianity won’t accept that we die and then become someone else in our next life.

Yet - apart from the reincarnation teaching - I sense that  there is something about family sins - as well as goodness hanging around in people - into the next generation.

Bad example - good example - goodness - evil - continues - echoes in us.

Did you notice the subtle comment in today’s first reading? Jezebel and her husband Ahab the King lived by the sword  - but only Jezebel dies a violent death. Dogs bit into her dying body and licked her blood as it spread on the stone street where her body landed after being pushed out the window.[Cf. 2 Kings 9:33.] But Ahab - like David - humbled himself  and admitted his crime. However, the next generation had to pay for their father’s sins. [Cf. 1 Kings 21: 27-29.]

Tragedy leaped a generation for Ahab - but is this simply historians rewriting history - or making commentaries on history after the fact?

CONCLUSION

I need to conclude somehow. This is just a weekday homily - and it’s gotten too long already.

Jesus thought and taught a lot about this issue of karma. Different religions and different cultures might not use the word “karma” - but we can spot the questions that are imbedded in it.

In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus talks about breaking evil cycles. He talks about forgiveness, turning the other cheek, going the extra mile.  In today’s gospel he explicitly says, “You have been told to love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you…..”