A THOUSAND THINGS HAPPEN

TO 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

Reflection

 March 18, 2022

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

"... and catch the heart
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

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Copyright © 2019 by Seamus Heaney; Farrar, Straus and Giroux
All rights reserved.
Reproduced by Poetry Daily with permission

 March 17, 2022

HAPPY  SAINT  PATRICK'S  DAY 

AND  MANY MORE!

 March 17,  2022

LEAPS  OF  FAITH

AND 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 26^th 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

 

 

March 17, 2022

MAY THE ROAD RISE UP

TO MEET YOU

 

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind always be at your back.
May the sun shine warm on your face;
The rains fall soft upon your fields
and until we meet gain,
May God hold you
in the palm of His hand.

March 16, 2022

 

ABUNDANCE

 
“I felt so empty these past 5 years.”
 
She paused after saying that.
 
I paused as well – as I was listening.
 
Then I said to myself, “She’s about to tell me about a conversion moment.”
 
I was there just to chat, just to have a cup of tea, just to be there, and then to move on.
 
I was visiting shut-ins.
 
Shut-ins. Terrible words – horrible thought.
 
She continued: “First it was the kids that left – one by one. Off to college…. Into marriages….  Jackie went off to the marines.  This house – which always seemed so small – got larger and larger – with every kid – going away for good.”
 
I asked where each kid was now – how many grandkids.  Grandkids?  She didn’t want to go into them.  Enough.
 
She continued: “Then Jack died. We were married 38 years.  I didn’t expect that one. I thought he would beat the cancer. He was always such a strong man.”
 
Silence.
 
I had experience doing this.  No more wrong questions. No more small talk.
 
Then more silence.
 
Then she continued, “Then one night I had Billy, my middle son, over here for supper. His wife and their kids went down to see her parents.  Billy couldn’t skip work. Tax season. He’s an accountant.   I figured he’d enjoy his mom’s home cooking once again. His wife Kathy ain’t that great a cook.”
 
“It hit me – at that supper.  Billy isn’t much of a talker. Maybe when there isn’t much talking going around, there’s more inner talk going on. 

Quiet.  

Then she told me - as if she was telling me one of life's secrets: "Then I opened up the cabinet over the sink. It was full. I opened up the fridge. It was filled.”
 
Silence.

She said, “I said to myself: ‘Abundance.’”
 

She continued, “I began to notice that I had pictures – pictures, pictures, everywhere.”

I was listening. I was looking.
 
She repeated herself, “Abundance. I had abundance everywhere. The abundance of abundance was everywhere. This house is full – full of memories and life.  My life is full. God has certainly given us an abundance of abundance everywhere.”

An abundance of tears ran down her face.

Billy said, “Mom – are you okay?”
 
“Yes,” she said. “Everything is perfect. You’re here.”
 
She told me, "Inwardly I said, 'Billy you won’t be understanding this for another 30 years.'”
 
 

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2022