Thought for Today
“Once a word is let out, a swift horse can’t overtake it.”
Tzu Kung, an even older
quote and aphorism.
Tuesday, August 18, 2020
MEANING
The title of my homily – a short one – is meaning.
Meaning – understanding – figuring things out is one of
life’s biggest issues.
How many times do we ask, “What did she or he, mean by
that?”
Today’s first reading - for this 20th Monday in Ordinary time - has people asking Ezekiel, “Won't you tell us what all these things you are doing mean for us." [Cf. Ezechiel 24: 15-23]
Every time we preachers have to preach a homily, we read
the scriptures for the day and we try to figure out their meaning.
If there is any book in the Bible where this question
comes up the most, it’s the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel.
Down through the years I’ve heard commentators on Ezekiel
say he was deaf and did his preaching with short skits or plays – to get a
message across.
If we read the gospels, we meet people asking the
question over and over again, “What does this mean?”
At some time in life it’s worth reading Viktor Frankl’s
book, Man’s Search for Meaning [1946].
Here is a section of his book. Understand this moment in a concentration
camp, and then re-read the Prophet Ezechiel again. Both men lost their wives. I'm putting his long paragraph in poetic form to catch its power and beauty even more:
We were at work in a trench.
The dawn was grey around us;
grey was the sky above;
grey the snow in the pale light of dawn;
grey the rags in which my fellow prisoners were clad, and grey their faces.
I was again conversing silently with my wife,
or perhaps I was struggling to find the reason
for my sufferings, my slow dying.
In a last violent protest
against the hopelessness of imminent death,
I sensed my spirit piercing
through the enveloping gloom.
I felt it transcend that hopeless,
meaningless world,
and from somewhere I heard a victorious 'Yes'
in answer to my question of the existence
of an ultimate purpose.
At that moment
a light was lit in a distant farmhouse,
which stood on the horizon as if painted there,
in the midst of the miserable grey
of a dawning morning in Bavaria.
"Et lux in tenebris lucet" -
and the light shineth in the darkness.
For hours I stood hacking at the icy ground.
The guard passed by, insulting me,
and once again I communed with my beloved.
More and more
I felt that she was present,
that she was with me;
I had the feeling that I was able to touch her,
able to stretch out my hand and grasp hers.
The feeling was very strong: she was there.
Then, at that very moment,
a bird flew down silently
and perched just in front of me,
on a heap of soil
which I had dug up from the ditch,
and looked steadily at me."
We were at work in a trench.
The dawn was grey around us;
grey was the sky above;
grey the snow in the pale light of dawn;
grey the rags in which my fellow prisoners were clad, and grey their faces.
I was again conversing silently with my wife,
or perhaps I was struggling to find the reason
for my sufferings, my slow dying.
In a last violent protest
against the hopelessness of imminent death,
I sensed my spirit piercing
through the enveloping gloom.
I felt it transcend that hopeless,
meaningless world,
and from somewhere I heard a victorious 'Yes'
in answer to my question of the existence
of an ultimate purpose.
At that moment
a light was lit in a distant farmhouse,
which stood on the horizon as if painted there,
in the midst of the miserable grey
of a dawning morning in Bavaria.
"Et lux in tenebris lucet" -
and the light shineth in the darkness.
For hours I stood hacking at the icy ground.
The guard passed by, insulting me,
and once again I communed with my beloved.
More and more
I felt that she was present,
that she was with me;
I had the feeling that I was able to touch her,
able to stretch out my hand and grasp hers.
The feeling was very strong: she was there.
Then, at that very moment,
a bird flew down silently
and perched just in front of me,
on a heap of soil
which I had dug up from the ditch,
and looked steadily at me."
Let me close with a jumping off from Descartes famous principle and change it to: "I search for meaning, therefore I am."
Monday, August 17, 2020
August 17, 2020
FORGOTTEN PROMISES
Promises – forgotten -
are worse
than a lost sock or glove or where
did I leave my glasses or my wallet?
I told you I’d be there by 4 PM and
you’re waiting there in the mall for me
and it’s 6 PM and I’m taking a nap.
Not good …. And I don’t know that
you made a decision around 5 PM
to end this relationship and I’ll play
the “But you promised” card for the
next year – and I won’t know why
you’re doing what you’re doing.
©
Andy Costello, Reflections 2020
Sunday, August 16, 2020
400,000 HITS
Today, Sunday August
16, 2020 my blog had its 400,000 hit.
I want to just tag that piece of information for myself.
I started this blog
back on June 17, 2007.
On the 10th Anniversary, June 17th,
2017 there were 226,545 hits and 4879 blog entries.
Today I’m up to 7618 entries. Not all are mine. If you check out my blog –
you know I like putting in a quote for the day – and they are from others.
Once more I want to thank Norm Constantine for setting up my
blog for me.
I also want to thank those who have thanked me for providing
some food for thought – from others and from myself.
All the best as you navigate this pandemic. Wear a mask and may the Lord help you make it
through the nite. Amen.
August 16, 2020
MOVIES RE-RUNS
The power of some movies
is that they keep playing in
our mind and our memory.
When at the ocean – or when
we’re swimming trough life,
be careful, you never know
what Jaws could be underneath.
In life Rocky kept running
and kept getting back up.
The Natural figured out it’s
never too late. We still can be
the best there ever was - even
though we keep paying for the
mistakes we made in our past.
though we keep paying for the
mistakes we made in our past.
When we think life is not fair,
we can remember Doctor Zhivago.
He kept looking – kept hoping –
kept writing – especially his poetry.
Be careful what you wish for,
especially when you want to be Big.
Talk to people. Find out what are
the movies still playing in their
memory? What are the movies
still playing on our inner screens
movies that still moving us?
movies that still moving us?
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