“WHO COULD EVER KNOW THE   MIND OF THE LORD?”

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this Second Sunday in Lent, Year B, is a question, “Who Could Ever Know The Mind Of The Lord?”

Today’s readings trigger that question for me. Like everyone, at times I wonder about  the what,  the why and the how of the mind of God.

And as I thought about this yesterday, I realized it’s easy to ask the question - but very difficult to come up with answers on reading the mind of God. Hey, we often can’t even understand each other. Moreover, after I finished this homily, I found out that my homily is  more of a question than an answer. How’s that for covering oneself?

IT’S   PAUL’S  QUESTION

Paul near the end of his letter to the Romans - which we have an earlier part today as our second reading [Romans 8: 31b-34] - quotes an Early Church prayer and hymn, “How rich are the depths of God - how deep his wisdom and knowledge - and how impossible to penetrate his motives or understand his methods! Who could ever know the mind of the Lord?” [Romans 11: 33-34]

That last sentence - that's where I got the title for this homily. “Who Could Ever Know The Mind Of The Lord?”

Yet we hear people talking about God, how God works, what God’s will is - on a regular basis. Just listen - especially when tough things are happening.

Next, just listen to our own inner conversations when it comes to God.  We ask the question:  what does God want of me? We ask: what is God’s will? People lose their jobs and they wonder: maybe God has other plans - and maybe that's why I lost my job.

Fortunately, we haven’t heard anyone shoot off their mouth telling us that God is angry with the United States by sending these recent tornados. But we’ve heard things like that from time to time.

We also hear people voicing to others statements like these:  “This is God’s will.” “This is God’s plan.” “This is what God wants.”

I don’t know about you, but some people need to have some doubts before making these statements.

Francis B. Sayre said, “Religion isn’t yours firsthand until you doubt it right down to the ground.” [Life, April 2, 1965.]

Hesitation is part of humility. Not being so sure of everything is part of humility.

I love to quote the following from the Talmud: “Teach thy tongue to say, ‘I do not know.’”

TODAY’S FIRST READING

Today’s first reading  places us up on a mountain - where Abraham takes his son Isaac - to holocaust him - to kill him -to sacrifice him - because he hears a voice from God to do just that. [Genesis 22: 1-2, 9a, 10-13, 15-18]

It’s crazy - to kill one’s own son - as a sacrifice - because someone heard  a voice from God to do that. Was God really putting Abraham to a test? Check Chapter 11 of Hebrews which highlights this theme. 

There’s a half-dozen attempted explanations on what’s going on here in this story in Genesis. I don’t know what the true story or the motive why this story was put into the sacred Jewish scriptures. It's difficult to read the minds of those who got scriptures in the Scriptures.  Abraham is dated to have existed between 2000 to 1500 B.C.  These writings are a combination of several writers - the most primitive being from roughly around 1000 B.C. Some see this story as a "come back" at Abraham - because of his behavior towards his other son, Ishmael - by another woman , Hagar - whom he sent out into the wilderness. The theory that many scholars of today say is underneath this old, old story is that it’s addressing infant sacrifice - the killing of one’s first born in sacrifice to God. There is evidence that this was part of some people’s thinking in the Middle East around 1000 years before Christ. Then they say that this story was an insight - a breakthrough - that God wouldn’t want that. Put an end to this  practice. There is evidence that this was what happened in the Middle East around that time. A switch was made to sacrifice animals instead.

One of my questions is this: if God made an intervention in this story, why doesn’t He make interventions in our times?

Maybe God does. Maybe the story is an attempt by story to tell us how life works. Maybe God’s  interventions take place in human brains. Someone starts to think and says, “I just realized that the way I'm  thinking might not be right.” Realizing that they  might be wrong might be the first step towards a new way of thinking and they change. Is that the plan? Is that the way God works life?  Even that is tricky. “Who Could Ever Know The Mind Of The Lord?”

Listening to how people think, I have heard some people think God wanted their child to die. Then they find scripture texts to back that way of thinking. I would add that the Bible, our Scriptures, give lots of ways to think about lots of things.

What’s your take on the mind of  God? Which Scripture text do you gravitate towards to support your thoughts? Are there other texts you might want to check?

Once more I say that I have taught my tongue to say, “I do not know.”

However, I still ask the question: “God, why can’t you intervene and not let children die?”

Or I ask why didn’t God zap Hitler with a heart attack in the night or let those who were trying to assassinate him be successful? Why didn’t God intervene in the death of all those people killed in the holocaust? With the slaughters going on in several cities in Syria right now, why doesn’t God just let  Bashar Assad die in his sleep? Those being slaughtered scream out to the West to help? And I’m sure when they see mortar shells and bombs coming flying out of the sky towards them, they scream to God for help.  Why doesn’t God help? Why doesn’t God take on the role of Good Samaritan? He tells us to be one. Why doesn’t he stop everything to help those who need help?

Based on the evidence, God’s mind doesn’t work this way. Based on Scripture texts, God does help at times. Other times it seems like a great silence comes from God. In the meanwhile, the history of the world is War and Peace and then déjà vu all over again - again and again - and then again.

Soren Kierkeggard was fascinated by this story of Abraham - and writes about it big time in his book, Fear and Trembling. Israel was fascinated by this story - called the Akeda - or the binding or tying Isaac down for the slaughter. Why would God ask anyone to kill their child? Kierkegaard’s thought brings people to the reality that many times in life we face what Abraham faced: the death of a child or a parent or a spouse - and today we’d add that they are tied down by tubes and cords in a hospital bed.

Kierkegaard gives 4 variations on this story of Abraham and Isaac on that mountain. Rabbis in their sermons give lots of possibilities on the story. Once more it triggers the reality that sometimes we just don’t know. We don’t know what’s in God’s mind. We don’t know God’s motives and methods -  we don’t know the “why” of the here and the now as well as the next life - and so we cry.  And it seems God is asleep in the boat of life.[Cf. Mark 4:38]

Once more the title of my homily is, “Who Could Ever Know The Mind Of The Lord?”

TODAY’S GOSPEL

Today’s gospel brings us to another mountain. And Jesus goes up that mountain with his 3 favorites, Peter, James and John, and Jesus is transfigured before them - and they get to see a new side of Jesus.

Peter, James and John hear a voice from the heavens - God the Father - says, This is my Beloved Son. Listen to him.”

Then we have Mark’s take on the scene: Jesus talks about his death and rising from the dead.

Compared to Matthew and Luke, Mark stresses the cross - the heading for that reality - much more than the others.

And that leads us back to the Abraham and Isaac story. Christians have to ask whether God the Father wanted his own son killed so as to save the world. Why would God want such a thing? Why wouldn’t he be satisfied with the sacrifice of a lamb or the offering of the first fruits of grapes and wheat?

As Christians we hold that Jesus lets us in the door into the mind of God. That’s the great teaching of the New Testament.

Jesus said, “See me, you see the Father. Know me, you know the Father.”

Christianity holds that Jesus is the door that leads to the Father. Yet it’s Paul who says, “Who Could Ever Know The Mind Of The Lord?”

CONCLUSION

In this homily, I put on the table the question: “Who Could Ever Know The Mind Of The Lord?” I added that it’s easier to raise the question than to give answers to the question.

I don’t know the answer, other than to say, “I don’t know the answer.”

I don’t know the answer, other than to say, “Jesus Christ.”

Paul, when he was Saul, thought he knew what God wanted. He was sure that those who were following Jesus were in the wrong. He wanted to right them. So he want after them with the idea of closing them down. He fell on his face on the way to Damascus. He slowly saw that he was blind - and started to see that Jesus was the way to the Father. He saw that the followers of the Way were the Way to go.

Then Paul because of Christ started to enter into the mind of God.

Today’s second reading begins. “Brothers and sisters: If God is for us, who can be against us? He did not spare his own Son but handed him over for us all, how we he not also give us everything else along with him?”

So we come here to Church to look at the cross - and look for answers to why people crucify each other. We come here to church and listen to the scriptures and we hear questions and answers. We come here knowing that God has spoken - his Word - to us. And that Word became flesh and walked with us.

Christ walked and talked. Christ at the end was willing to be bound to a cross and to die - saying he was doing this for us.

Why?

Why did he go this way?

Was it that people will stop crucifying each other? If that’s true, then that stopping has got to start with me - with us.

Just as Abraham put down the knife - we have to put down the knife - sometimes it’s our tongue - and we have to realize we come here to church to be released  like Isaac - and then come down for the high place and then live life to the full like Isaac did.

Just as the disciples went up the mountain with Jesus and heard, “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him” - we come here to do the same thing - especially to hear God say to us, “You are my beloved Daughter - You are my beloved Son - Listen to me”

I would also think that we come here for listening prayer - listening to God’s mind and our own mind - and we’ll slowly put both together. 

******

Painting on top: The Sacrifice of Isaac by Caravaggio

CONVERSION TO GOD MOMENT

March  4,  2012

Quote for Today

"I gave in, 
and admitted 
that God was God."

C.S. Lewis [1898-1963] when giving up being an atheist at the age of 31 in 1929. The quote is from William Coffin, Clive Staples Lewis, Harper and Row, 1986

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Questions:

Have you ever had a moment like C.S. Lewis' moment as mentioned in the above quote?

Have you ever told another - about your God experiences? Why that person? Is there another you wouldn't talk to about your faith life? Why?

Have you ever talked one to one with someone about a conversion moment in your life?

OH, IT MEANS THAT?

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this Saturday in the First Week of Lent  is, “Oh, It Means That?”

PRIEST IN OHIO

Before I came to Annapolis I worked on the road in Ohio - and various other places - giving parish missions. Some priest in some parish told the following story at supper one evening. He was saying Mass and this baby was crying - and babies crying didn’t bother him. “In fact,” he added, “I liked it, because the parish I had just been in was all old people and no babies.”

“Well, after Mass,” he said, “this lady came up to me complaining about the lady with the baby - how she shouldn’t been there - and should have taken herself and the baby outside. Then the complainer added, ‘That Lady with the baby is obviously Spanish. What is she doing here?’”

The priest said, “I was surprised at all this - not angry - but surprised - so  I said to the lady after some silence, ‘Isn’t that what it means to love one another?’”

“Big pause.”  The he said, the lady said, “Oh, it means that?”

TODAY’S GOSPEL

In today’s gospel, Jesus says to love our enemies. In today’s gospel, Jesus says, “What’s so great about loving and greeting only your own?”

I don’t know about you, but I like to hear these gospels over and over again, because I need to be challenged by Jesus’ words over and over again.

There are two or three kinds of people: those we like and those we don’t understand or can’t stand.  Life is easy with those we like - but Jesus wants us to love the pains - the drainers - the different - the strange rangers.

“Oh, It Means That?”

I don’t know about you, but I could relate to the title of that book, “Up The Down Staircase.”

Thank goodness for fire codes - because that means  there are back doors - other stair cases - because sometimes some people wear us out.  I had a funny one recently. I snook out the back door, so as not to be caught by so and so - and surprise, he was waiting for me in the garden.

When we priests come down the aisle for Sunday Masses - sometimes we hear the words, “Oh no, not him!”

That hurts. That kills morale. That’s a wipe out.

And I’m a priest 46 ½ years now - and I know we priests say the same thing about some parishioners.

That’s the nitty gritty stuff of life. And this doesn’t just happen in churches,  it happens at family weddings and funerals and at the work place. And if I hear Jesus in today’s gospel and at various times, this is exactly where Jesus goes - when he says, “Turn the other cheek. Go the extra mile. Take up the cross.”

No wonder they killed him. A tiny whispered “Oh no!” when we come down the aisle is nothing compared to the whole crowd screaming, “Crucify him.”

“Oh, it means that?”

Yup, it means that - and a lot more.

“Oh no!”

CONCLUSION

Those who get this - and try to live this - who try to be like God who sends his sun [SUN] - and Son [SON] and rain [RAIN] and reign [REIGN] on the just as the unjust as we heard in today’s gospel - will be considered peculiar - as we heard in today’s first reading. God is peculiar and calls us to be peculiarly his own. God is also perfect - and calls us to be perfect. Tough act to follow. “Oh, it means that?”

++++++++

Picture on top: Cover of The New York Times Magazine, Sunday Nov. 13, 2011. Title: "The Human Swap - How a single Israeli came to be worth 1,027 Palestinians. Illustration by Tim Enthoven.

ABILITY  TO  LOVE 

March  3,  2012

Quote for Today

"It is sad not to be loved,
but it is much sadder
not to be able to be love."

Miguel de Unamuno [1864-1936],  To A Young Writer.

* * * *  *

Questions:

Who has loved you in your life?  Have you ever been rejected, dropped, disappointed in love?

Do you agree with Miguel de Unamuno's statement?

Have you ever met someone whom you thought was not able to love?

FAIR!

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this Friday of The First Week of Lent is, “Fair!”

In today’s first reading from  Ezekiel  there is a sentence that stopped me. It’s this: “You say, ‘The Lord’s way is not fair!’”

I said to myself, “Andrew, put together your own thoughts on the issue of fairness. Try to get a handle on the "It's Not Fair!" syndrome.

Then it struck me: everyone of us here has to deal with the issue of fairness.

So what’s your take on the question of fairness.  How many times in your life have you said to others, “It’s not fair”?  How many times have you said to God, “It’s not fair”? How many times have you screamed inwardly - perhaps even with a smile on your face, "It's not fair!"

Then I did some thinking about fairness. I have a solution - but before I get to it, let me give some examples.

EXAMPLES

Someone retires. They worked and worked and worked. They raised kids. Finally they had their last commute and are now off on their own. Their kids had  a good college education. Mom and dad paid a good bit of it. Mom by a job - a second career after momdom. Dad by hard work to move up on the job ladder. Both mom and dad retire and the house is paid for. There is money in the bank. Now they are going to travel. Ugh - cancer creeps into the story and one spouse is dead in 11 months. “It’s not fair!”

Mom and dad made sure their 5 kids went to Catholic School. Three went to Catholic Colleges. Two didn't. Only one out of 5 go to Mass on a regular basis - one who went to a State College. Two kids are divorced. Mom and dad still go to church and see young people there with their families. It becomes a weekly reminder of “What did we do wrong?” as well as, “It’s not fair!” “It’s not supposed to happen this way.”

As priest I hear those 2 scenarios many times.

UNDERNEATH

As I thought about fairness I have a big question.  It’s this: Is the question of fairness underneath much of our anger and frustration in life and all through life?

Is this sitting in every classroom - when it comes to marks?

Does everyone think that outside every school - church - home - place of work - the statue of Justice stands - blindfolded - with the scales of justice hanging  there - instead of the Cross?

Is this question and statement of, "It's not fair!" sitting in every football or basketball game: I practice my butt off and this other kid who never really practices ends up starting and staring every time? Or is it sitting in the stands in the bodies of parents when they watch kids who are doing much better than their kids?  You can almost hear parents and players saying, “The coach is putting that kid in because his father is always screaming or is a big donator or what have you.”  The referee or umpire is giving the home team break after break after break.

Is this issue of fairness sitting there every Christmas when it comes to kids and gifts? Is this the elephant in the room - the elephant called, “Comparisons”?

Is this question part of every time I look in the mirror?

Is this heart and soul in political advertisements and speeches?  It’s not fair what this politician is doing or pushing. Political  pro’s know what the buttons are - and the fairness issue is a major issue.

So is the fairness question underneath us all our lives?

SOLUTION

Here’s what hit me last night as I thought about all this. I think Jesus took the fairness issue off the table.  I think Jesus simply came along and said, “Stop saying, ‘It’s not fair!’ and just take it off the table.”

Just pick it up like a piece of paper - take it off the table - and rip it up and put it out of your life.

And the more I thought about this last night, I think Jesus had it with the fairness question. He was spotting it - he was hearing it over and over again. So he said, “Enough already. Put the fairness question out of your life.”

“Wait a minute!” You might say. “When did Jesus erase the fairness question?”

Good question.

He said it over and over again.

He said it, when he said, “The last shall be first and the first shall be last.”

He said it, when the Prodigal Son comes home - after ruining the family name and losing his part of the family inheritance - and the father takes him back into the loving embrace of his arms and family - unconditionally. And what’s the older brother’s complaint. “After all I’ve done around here. After all your son did out there. I won’t welcome him home.” Translation: “Not fair!”

He said it when he said to turn the other cheek, go the extra mile, give the shirt off your back.”

He said it loud and clear - with no need for translation - in his great parable of the workers in the vineyard. The last to get paid, after working the whole day, having seen those who just worked an hour, figured they are going to get more. They all get the same pay -and those who worked the whole day screamed. “It’s not fair!”

BOTTOM LINE: IT’S ME, ME AND ME.

If I have it correct, what’s happening down at the bottom of all this is that it’s all about me - and that’s the me that has to die. I have expectations. I have a vision. I have the plan. I have the way. I have the truth how things should happen. I know what’s fair!

Hello! There are others - and there are other ways of seeing, doing, planning, expecting how different situations should happen.

SOLUTIONS

So the solution is simply to remove the “It’s not fair!” comment from our vocabulary. Just take it off the table. Just rip it up. Put it out of one’s life.

One of my favorite quotes - and I love to quote it - especially because I heard it and made it my own by putting it into practice. It’s something Thornton Niven Wilder [1897-1975] said in his 1941 play, The Skin of Our Teeth:  “My advice to you is not to inquire why or whiter, but just enjoy your ice cream while it’s on your plate - that’s my philosophy.”

It’s when we start looking at other people’s plate that the fairness question pops up. They got more - or they got some cake - and it’s a corner piece which has more frosting - and I only got ice cream and it’s not as much on my plate as yours. Not fair.

Haven’t we all experiencing the following? Mom and dad take their 3 kids going to Storm Brothers or Kirwin Ice Cream in Annapolis. Each can have 2 scoops of whatever flavor they want. They get their cones. Two of the kids are standing there in Ego Alley enjoying every cold sugary lick. The other kid is not tasting his ice cream as he licks it. He’s angry or frustrated that he didn’t get what his sister gets. It looks so much better than what he got.

I’m diabetic. I have ice cream about 4 times a year - sugar free. But sugar free ice cream has some sugar in it - I’m sure - even though they use artificial sweetener. I loved ice cream all my life - but when I got diabetes, that was it. Now I can stand there and stew and feel sad for myself - or I can bring out the peanut butter jar and spread it and some butter on rye bread - preferably cold butter - but not too much bread. Carbs turn to sugar.

I’m not stupid enough to tell those who lost their spouse not to say, “It’s not fair.” I know it takes time and then some. I hope they can also  enjoy the memories - and to be grateful that your spouse didn’t have to go through the pain of loss they feel right now. Sure it will hit them when they see couples dancing, holding hands, being together at church and socials, etc. etc. etc. Hopefully, the day will come when they take the “It’s not fair!” comment off the table and enjoy the memories and what they are doing in the present moment, with great gratitude if possible.

Be who you is, because if you be who you ain’t, then you ain’t who you is.

Enjoy what you have, because if you think it’s unfair that you don’t have what you think you should have, you still don’t have what you haven’t got.

CONCLUSION

In the meanwhile I wonder if people can change and do just this - that is if they don’t do it now. Can they take the “It’s not fair!” game off the table?

I’ll close with a tiny story I wrote for the last issue of the Redemptorist magazine, Plentiful Redemption. It’s a totally made up story. The only thing true in it is the bumper sticker - that triggered my imagination and my hopes for people.  I hope these things can happen. The title of the story is, "At The Red Light."

AT THE RED LIGHT

 Sometimes a red light seems like it takes forever.

Sometimes she didn’t dare to play music in her car. A love song from the past would drive her to tears and to anger. So she just sat there in a silent car with nothing but her own thoughts.

Sometimes a red light seems like it takes forever.

She looked in the rear view mirror and the couple in the car behind her were laughing - laughing - laughing. She couldn’t hear them, but she could see they were laughing.

It was a life changing moment - that very moment at that red light.

She had heard about such moments. Just last week at Mass she even prayed for such a moment. She had been angry for 3 years and 3  months now - ever since he walked out on her - for another woman. Everyone said, “Get a good lawyer. Better: get the best lawyer. Soak him. Teach him a lesson!”

She did and she made him pay. “Hey,” she thought, “I have this brand new car. I never had one of these before - especially when the kids were still with us and hadn’t gone off to college with their bills. Then they drove off into their own lives.”

But a good car, a house that was paid for, money, helped, but nothing was a substitute for sitting in a car with another - your husband - laughing and traveling the roads or life together.

Sometimes a red light seems like it takes forever.

Just then she spotted a bumper sticker on the car in front of her. It had just 3 words, “Life is good!”

The light turned green. It was then and there  - in that split second - under that light that she decided, “Enough’s enough! From now on I’m going to enjoy life.”

And that she did for the rest of her life - and after that she never ever minded red lights - even if sometimes they seem like they take forever.

TALKING  BEHIND

YOUR  BACK 

March 2,  2012

Quote for Today

"What people
say behind your back 
is your standing in the community 
in which you live."

Edgar Watson Howe,  Sinner Sermons, 1926

^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Questions:

Have you ever accidentally overheard someone talking about you? What did they say?  Was it positive or negative stuff?

What will your eulogy sound like?  What will be the three key things someone will say about you?

1)

2)

3)  

ON  READING  SHAKESPEARE 

ON HIS WAY HOME FROM WORK

He struck out three times

in the State Championship game -

some 27 years ago….

He took up the harmonica at age 8,

the trombone at 10 and the guitar at

13  - and never lasted at any one of

them for more than a month ….

The first girl he really fell in love with

dropped him for another guy - and it

ruined the second half of his senior year

of high school even though every girl

in the school paused as he walked

into the cafeteria at lunchtime ….

He went to two different colleges and one

community college - but never finished

any one of them …. even though ….

He lost  two jobs. He was cut. They kept

others but didn’t keep him. So sometimes

bus rides home from a job he didn’t like were

tough - and he wasn’t getting any younger ….

He put on weight ….

Yet that dark night - in an aisle seat -

with a dim small light overhead - on a 
cold commuter bus - which was 
crawling along because of a winter 
accident just ahead on the road - 
he was picturing his wife and 
his four kids at home - waiting for him -

especially his youngest daughter - and he

laughed semi-out loud while others growled

out loud…. Now he knew first hand the

meaning of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 2 …. And 
he started reading his book again - thinking,
"Now let me see what Sonnet 3 is getting at ...."

© Andy Costello, Reflections, 2012