February 7, 2020
Thought
for Today
“Hate is too great a
burden to bear. It injures the hater more than it injures the hated.”
Coretta Scott King
Friday, February 7, 2020
Thursday, February 6, 2020
February 6, 2020
TWO BY TWO
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily for
this 4th Thursday in Ordinary Time is, “Two By
Two.”
I take that theme from the
opening sentence in today’s gospel, where Mark has Jesus summoning the twelve
and then began to send them out two by two …. [Cf. Mark 6: 7—13.]
Looking at our lives as
religious, was it your experience that trips with one other guy were much
better than trips alone?
That’s the simple thought
of this short homily – if it’s even a homily.
It’s more a few observations about going it with others being better
than going it alone.
MY EXPERIENCE
Looking at my life I did a
lot of driving alone – but I don’t remember those trips compared to great
conversations I’ve had with one other guy.
I worked for 8 ½ years on
the road preaching with a guy named Tom Barrett. We mainly preached in small towns in the mid-west – working out of
Lima, Ohio. We preached parish missions and it was much better with another
guy. We could compare notes – get the
other guys take on pastors – and talk about the parish mission we just gave on
the way home.
One February we did a
parish mission in Paulding, Ohio, population around 3,500 people and we went in separate cars. It was a
snowy Saturday afternoon. It was less than an hour away from Lima. Tom didn’t arrive for the Saturday night Mass
– getting hit by an 18-wheeler milk tanker on the way there – ending up almost
dying. He was in a coma for 3 weeks – and in the hospital in Fort Wayne,
Indiana for 75 days.
It showed me loud and
clear that I didn’t want to be what we call a Lone Ranger.
I was novice Master for 9
years - serving 9 different classes. The
first year I did it, we had 22 novices and 2 novice masters. It was out in
Oconomowoc, Wisconsin. It made life much
easier working with another guy. Then we got a new provincial –who ended that bringing me back east. He had a complaint about our St. Louis
Province for pulling out of our major seminary.
Some of you might be as
old as I am – 80 – so maybe you had some crazy religious life stuff in your
formation experiences. Being in charge, I avoided the crazy stuff we had before the Second Vatican Council. If a guy’s parent got sick or what have you,
guys couldn’t go home. I had the chance
to change all that, so I pushed a guy who was going home to see a sick parent, to
take another guy with him if he was driving.
I have found car
conversations a significant part of my life. How about you?
Last year in May and June when
I was recovering from triple heart bypass, I was in a place like this. Many evenings
after supper I would take my walker down to see my classmate Tony who doesn’t
have much more time to live. He has
cancer in his throat. Looking back now, I’m realizing it was a blessing
connecting with Tony on. We had a chance
to ask each other, “How was it?” as in, “How was your life?”
Tom the guy I worked for 8
½ years in Lima, Ohio giving parish missions is also there – cancer as well.
I’d see him one to one in the afternoons – but
Not enough.
CONCLUSION
My major learning – God
said it first – it’s not good to go it alone.
Go two by two.
Wednesday, February 5, 2020
HOW
GOD WORKS
The title of my homily for
this 4th Wednesday in Ordinary Time is, “How God Works.”
That’s one of life’s most
basic questions.
And it takes a lifetime to
get some answers to that basic question: “How does God work.”
And hopefully the question
becomes relational – as we say to every person: “How do you work? How do you
think?”
A MOMENT IN THE 2ND
BOOK OF SAMUEL
I came up with that
question especially from today’s first reading from the Second Book of Samuel –
24; 2, 9-17
People think God operates
the way they hear God operating in today’s first reading.
God doesn’t.
We hear the Lord giving
David 3 choices as a penalty for taking a census.
It’s a strange story – and
commentators give various comments about why God gets angry – and says to
David: “You have 3 choices as a penalty.”
It’s like the old idea of
the 3 men on a desert island finding a bottle on the beach. They open it up and
a genie says, “You freed me! Each of you has a wish.”
The first guy says, “I
want to be in Paris!” and poof he’s in Paris at the Eiffel Tower.”
The second guy says, “I
want to be in New York City at Radio City Hall with the Rockettes” and poof
he’s in Radio City Hall with the dancing Rockettes.
The third guy is now all
alone and feeling it, says, “I wish my
two buddies were right here with me once again” and poof three guys are back
together on a desert island.
That’s an old literary
format for jokes and stories.
Well today’s first reading
has the 3 horror choices that God gives to David.
He gives the choices to
David through a seer – named Gad. I was
wondering if “Yee gads comes from that.”
Sending a messenger often
happens in these kinds of stories. He gives David the choice of a 3-year famine,
or you David will be chased by an enemy for 3 months or you can have a 3 day’s
pestilence.
3 seems to be the number ….
David chooses the 3 days’
pestilence and 70,000 people die.
The angel of the Lord is
about to destroy Jerusalem and the Lord regrets what he has done and stops the
killings.
Some people think God
thinks this way. Anyone who thinks God operates this way has many scripture
texts to back up this way of thinking.
There are plenty other
texts that say God does not zap us or maim us or send us cancer or diabetes or
what have you.
For example, when you have
time read the story in John 9 about the blind man and how people try to figure
out God and why people are born blind.
EACH OF US
Each of us in a given
lifetime has to do our homework on how God operates - how God thinks and talks.
We’ve got to talk to God and each other about all this.
From time to time we get
learnings – like there are consequences for smoking and ruining our health by
not walking or exercising or watching what we put into our minds and our mouths
and our lungs.
Today’s gospel and all of
Mark tells us to get to know Jesus, so we can get his wisdom.
From today’s gospel we
hear that God can’t cure us without our having faith.
At times it seems we’re in
on consequences that come along with our choices. At other times we have nothing to do with what
happens to us or our loved ones. We didn’t know there just happened to be a
drunken driver on the road at this time.
And if we read the
scriptures enough and hang with Jesus we’ll discover that much of life is sheer
silence from God – sheer being with God – and life is mystery and we are in
that mystery.
And sometimes it’s awful
like it was for Saint Agatha whose feast it is today and sometimes life is awesome as it was for Saint Agatha as well.
Amen.
Uh oh!
February 5, 2020
FAMILY REUNIONS
They happen. We
need them.
Thanksgiving might be the best –
because for some families they
are every year at the same time.
Then there are the haphazard
and sometimes bittersweet
moments: funerals. We die.
Easy - joyful –
wonderful - are
the weddings – new
babies –
grandparent’s 50th anniversaries ….
Hugs, story telling, food, drink,
reconnecting, sitting with each
other – realizing who we are.
Thanksgiving whenever we ....
© Andy Costello, Reflections 2020
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