March 19, 2022
Thought for Today
“He that will learn to pray, let him go to sea.”
George Herbert,
Jacula Prudentium
Sunday, March 20, 2022
Friday, March 18, 2022
A THOUSAND
THINGS HAPPENTO MAKE THIS THING HAPPEN
The title of my homily is, “A Thousand Things Happen To
Make This Thing Happen.”
When things happen – especially things we are not happy
that they happen - we tend to see just
one or two of the causes.
For example - a 310
pound guy sits in a chair and it caves
in. And we blame big boy for the big
break in the chair. We don’t think of the seventeen 250 pound people who sat in
that chair that weekend – or that glue and wood can slowly deteriorate.
It takes a lot of whacks with an ax to cut down a big oak
tree – but sometimes we just see that last whack.
Today’s first reading is a classic. It’s loaded with
details. It’s loaded with a whole family of motivations and motivators who want
Joseph out of the picture. Was it
jealousy? Was it the father – the father
playing favorites? Was it Joseph’s place in the birth order? Was it Joseph.
Where’s the mom?
A thousand things had to happen to make this thing
happen.
Was it the tunic – the coat of many colors? Was it the aging of the aging father? Was it
his comments about Joseph being his favorite? Was it stupid for Joseph to tell
his brothers his dreams – especially because they made Joseph the hero – in
each dream?
The story tells us Reuben might have been the one who
prevented his brother from being murdered. Lucky when we have a Reuben. Luckily
a cistern was nearby. Luckily, the
cistern was empty and dry. Who was the first to notice there were wild beasts
nearby? Lucky for Joseph, a caravan of Ishmaelites
were coming down the road from Gilead.
A thousand things had to happen to make this thing
happen.
In today’s gospel we have a parable from Jesus. It too is loaded with details and lots and
lots of happenings.
An engineer type guy with money plants a vineyard. He’s
also enterprising. He sets it up with a hedge and a wine press as well as a
tower. He leases it out. He goes on a journey. At vintage time he sends his
servants to obtain his produce.
The renters figure
this is the opportunity to go for the gold – beat – get rid of – kill the
tenants – and the vineyard is theirs.
The owner sends his people to try again to get some
produce. Once more he gets horrible results. More murders. More beatings. They
want the inheritance.
After setting up this great situation, this great story,
this Rorschach Blot test, Jesus asks his
listeners what they thought would happen next.
Obvious answer: a wipeout of all those who did these
nasty deeds.
Jesus gave that warning – yet the story like the story in
the first reading – turns out differently.
Life: Redemption and surprise happen. Life happens – with
so many surprises happening.
Who would believe that a condemned man – who dies as a
criminal – on a cross – would end up being our God and our savior – our
redeemer and our resurrection? God is a God of surprises every time
In the meanwhile, a lot of things have to happen –
surprising things – to get us to get us to learn – maybe slowly and
surprisingly – that God and life works in funny ways – and thousands of
different things have to happen before we get a clue about the mysteries of
God’s ways.
Conclusion: A salesman knocks on the door of the house a
possible customer on a country road in Western Tennessee. The customer is
Jewish. He asks, “How did you a Jew get here?”
The Jewish man
answers: I was heading for California, but my horse died.
You never know what happened to get us where we are.
March 18, 2022
THOUGHT FOR TODAY
"... and catch the heart
of God, and blow it open."
of God, and blow it open."
Postscript
Seamus Heaney
And some time make the time to drive out westInto County Clare, along the Flaggy Shore,In September or October, when the windAnd the light are working off each otherSo that the ocean on one side is wildWith foam and glitter, and inland among stonesThe surface of a slate-grey lake is litBy the earthed lightning of a flock of swans,Their feathers roughed and ruffling, white on white,Their fully grown headstrong-looking headsTucked or cresting or busy underwater.Useless to think you’ll park and capture itMore thoroughly. You are neither here nor there,A hurry through which known and strange things passAs big soft buffetings come at the car sidewaysAnd catch the heart off guard and blow it open.
Feature Date
- July 21, 2019
Share This Poem
Print This Poem
Copyright © 2019 by Seamus Heaney; Farrar, Straus and Giroux
All rights reserved.
Reproduced by Poetry Daily with permission
Thursday, March 17, 2022
March 17, 2022
LEAPS OF FAITHAND LOST LEADERS
To get people into the store, supermarkets and department
stores use “lost leaders”.
The store owners and managers are willing to take a loss on one thing, knowing that you’ll
hopefully buy something else when you come into the store for the bargain.
There’s a parable, a message, a lesson, in this
somewhere.
Sexuality works pretty much the same way. Sometimes it gets us to stop getting to really know the other person. Sometimes
people get lost and the other becomes our leader.
God “works” the same way, I suppose.
The feelings get us to pray – or to at least go “Wow!”
Sunrise … sunset … a mountain … the ocean … and we stop
the car to walk to a scenic overview – and we see an overwhelming view.
Rainbows, autumn leaves, all get us to say, “Wow!”
Beauty stops us – yet we also know there’s always more…. Life – time – being a human being – and we
always know there’s more.
The color, the splash, the music of morning birds, seeing
children playing soccer – all can be awe moments – and all can be grabbers.
Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote, “Awe precedes faith; it is
the root of faith. Awe must grow in awe
in order to reach faith.”
We marry in awe. We honeymoon in awe. We take vows in
awe.
Surprise! Autumn leaves crumble …. Skin wrinkles … There
is the second year of marriage … as well as the 26th year. We stop
growing. We stop getting to know the
other – or ourselves for that matter.
We can say, “I was suckered, tricked, caught by a lost
leader.”
We can also wake up to a new day – a new phase – the new
adventures life provides.
Go for the ride.
Laugh go out further with the tide.
© Andy Costello, Reflections 2022
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)