JESUS AS THERAPIST

INTRODUCTION

Sometimes people are looking for a therapist.

Someone is depressed – or they feel their life has gone blank for them. They are looking for meaning - so they want someone to turn to - for help – for healing – for a cure – for meaning.

JESUS AS THERAPIST

The title of my homily for this Saturday after Ash Wednesday  is, “Jesus as Therapist.”

The word “therapy” comes from a Latin word, “therapia” and the Greek word, which is identical -  but with a tiny spelling difference: “therapeia” -  meaning the remedy, the treatment, the method of curing someone.

I’m grabbing the word, “therapeia,” for my title. I want to point out that the Greek has several other words for healing in the New Testament – and you know that the New Testament’s original language was Greek.  It has “IAOMAI”– meaning “made whole,” or “healed”. That word is  used more than “THERAPEIA”. It also has “SOZO” meaning “saved” or “healed”. “SOZO” is a very familiar New Testament word.

Those of us who come to Daily Mass and hear the gospels over and over again, we know everyone wants Jesus over and over again – for what?  To be healed – to be cured.

People are always trying to find out where Jesus is. They want to catch him – in the desert – on the road – on a mountain – in a garden – back behind a house – on the other side of the lake.

And what do they want him for?  It’s healing?

So, the title of my homily is, “Jesus as Therapist.”

DS FS Q

Jesus’  Number 1 method of healing consists of an action step. “Do something for the good of another.”

His Number 1 method was to do something for the other quickly.   And he would touch people and they would be healed.

They would say, “Jesus just touch me!” “If I could only touch the hem of  his garment.”

His prescription was simple and direct.  It was a simple prescription: “DSFSQ”. 

And he might add, “30 or 90 doses of DS  FS   Q.”

Which stands for: “Do Something for Someone, Quickly.”

I love those scenes in the gospels where someone who has been healed – then wants to follow Jesus – but he says, “Go back home to your family and be there for them.”

DOCTOR  PATCH  ADAMS

A lady once told me that her  oldest son had dropped out of college and was floundering.  Someone told her to attend a talk in New Orleans given by Doctor Patch Adams.

So, she  went to hear him speak. You might have seen the movie about him: Patch Adams.

Doctor Patch Adams was a depressive at time.  He was suicidal there for a while.

But he got an idea or how to help people around the world. He had a dream to build a 40-bed hospital  - so he went around the world giving his talk – his lecture – sometimes 10 a day – on the road 300 days a year – speaking everywhere – Russia, Cuba, Bosnia, Afghanistan.  He preached humor, wholistic approaches, visiting the sick, doing for others.

He was considered a kook by many.

Well, this lady said she went to hear Patch – who said the following. “If you have a young adult who is lost, floundering, milking you, get him to volunteer with the local rescue squad.”

Well this lady went home and looked up “Local Rescue Squad”, checked it out – and then got her son to try it.  Surprise he loved it. Surprise he was good at it. Surprise he’s becoming a male nurse – with the idea of maybe becoming a PA – a Physician’s assistant and loves it.

THIS IDEA

When I read the first reading for today, there was the same idea.

Isaiah say “If you remove from your midst - oppression, false accusation and malicious speech;  if you bestow your bread on the hungry and satisfy the afflicted; then light shall rise for you in the darkness and the gloom shall become for you like midday.

Isaiah says if you do for others, your strength will be renewed. You’ll be like a watered garden.  You’ll be like a spring that never fails.  The ancient ruins will be restored.  You’ll be called “Restorer of ruined homesteads..

Read Isaiah’s first reading for today again and you’ll find a there is a lot more in the text.

CONCLUSION

Too many people are like the folks in today’s gospel. They spend their lives complaining about others who are taxing them – instead of being like Levi – who dropped everything and followed     Jesus.

February  29,  2020

IS GOD?

Is God the God

we’re looking for

in the mix

of rain or mist, 

or breeze or sunshine

or snow or storm?

Is God the God

we’re looking for

in the mix

of pain or cancer,

sickness or hurt

of hospital or nursing home?

Is God the God

we’re looking for

in the nothingness

or loneliness or the

empty hole of rejection,

or death or despair.

Is God?

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2020

February  29,  2020

Thought  for  Today

"Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek."

President Barack Obama

February 28, 2020

 MOTHS

What are they doing 

and where are they - 

all day long and  - and 

all winter long – these 

moths - that silently 

show up searching 

for the light at night? 

Are there moth like
people in every class, 
church, library, and group – 

hoping for light – 

hoping for answers 

to their deep dark 

unanswered questions?

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2020

February  28,  2020

Thought  for  Today

“I  prayed for twenty  years  but received no answer until I prayed with my legs”

Frederick Douglass

CHOOSE  LIFE

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this Thursday after Ash Wednesday is, “Choose Life.”

In Hebrew it’s  “Bacharta Ba’Chayim”.  Choose Life!

It’s a key command from Moses to his people – at a key moment in their lives.

They are standing there ready to cross the Jordan River and finally move  into the Promised Land.

Today’s first reading – from Deuteronomy 30 - is one of the most important Old Testament writings.

Today’s first reading begins this way, “Moses said to the people: ‘Today I have set before you:   life and prosperity, death and doom.’”

Then he spells out what he wants to say,  “If you obey the commandments of the Lord, your God, which I enjoin on you today, loving him, and walking in his ways, and keeping his commandments, statues and   decrees, you will live and grow numerous, and the Lord, your God, will  bless you in the land you are entering to occupy.”

Then he gives the if, the but, the catch, “If you don’t, you won’t have life!”

Then he gives the great statement. “I call heaven and earth today to witness against you: I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life!”

GEORGE  WALD – HARVARD BIOLOGIST  - 1906-1997

Years ago, I was driving along by myself, listening to NPR Radio. George Wald, a famous Harvard biologist was being interviewed.

He was asked one of those questions people sometimes are asked. “If you were all alone, stuck on an abandoned island, in the middle of ocean, and you could have one book, and one book only, what would that book be.”

The New York Times Book Review asks the same question this way, “What books are you reading right now – the ones on your  lamp stand, that little table next to your bed?”

George Wald answered the one book on the abandoned island question with a 2-word answer, “The Bible.”

The interviewer asked back, “Why?”

“Well,”  he answered. “I’m sort of cheating with my answer. The Bible is a whole library of a people – a portable library – with many books, many scrolls – from a long period of time – that contains thoughts that have been written and re-written to help a people with life.”

Then George Wald, I still remember his said, “Just take Deuteronomy 30. There’s a great text, where Moses calls the people together and gives them 2 choices. The stuff that gives you life and the stuff that will kill you. Choose life.”

MARY  OLIVER

A rabbi - in a sermon on Deuteronomy 30 - said  Mary Oliver in her poem, The Summer Day, said the same thing so powerfully.  He says he has a hand written note on his refrigerator door with Mary Oliver’s question which is used every May in hundreds of commencement  addresses: “Tell me, What is it  / you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

IGNATUS OF LOYOLA

All this is the basic message of Ignatius of Loyola. I once took a summer program at Wernersville PA – the Jesuit Retreat house – on Ignatius. The Jesuit Exercises help people make a serious retreat and look at their lives.  They look at what’s giving them life; more. They look at what’s killing them; less.

JESUS CHRIST

Jesus is saying the same thing in today’s gospel – but he says it in paradox and in contradiction.  It’s the message of the cross.  If you want to follow me, you have die to self and rise to new life.

CONCLUSION

This Lent there is the great question.

What are you doing with your one wild and precious life?

What’s killing you? Less.

What’s giving you life? More.

Choose the cross – it looks like a killed – it looks like death – but it brings new life and resurrection.

Choose life.

February 27,  2020

RED LIGHT

Sometimes when I’m driving

and it’s raining and I come to

a red light – I like to give the

windshield wipers a break

and watch the rain for a few

moments – rolling down my

windshield –pausing - just

enjoying the present moment.

There’s something about rain

on a rainy day – the sprinkle

of Holy Water – the whole of

the city being baptized – the

black macadam – washed –

then the lights turn green –

windshield wipers waving,

“Hello!” “Wake up!’ “Move it!”

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2020