Wednesday, August 12, 2020

August 12,    2020


GENOCIDE OR MASS  MURDERS:
ONE OF MY 5 QUESTIONS FOR GOD


The title of my thoughts for this Wednesday in the 19th Week in Ordinary Time is: “Genocide Or Mass Murders: One of My 5 Questions for God.”

Every once and a while I hear someone say, “This is one of my questions I have for God after I die.”

I have that thought at times.  How about you. I also have  the question: “Does everyone have a list of questions they want to ask God when they die?”

TODAY’S FIRST READING

Today’s first reading – Ezechiel 9: 1 to 7 – then 10: 18-22 - has the story of people being marked with an X. That’s the last letter in the Hebrew alphabeth – called a Tau or Thau.

Here in Ezechiel those who are to be saved are to be marked on the forehead with an X.

The rest are to be slaughtered.  Well, those are the ones I'm thinking and asking about this morning.

GENOCIDE

As soon as I hear about these Biblical wipeouts I find myself  thinking about all the people who have been slaughtered down through the centuries.

My guess is that the numbers slaughtered in the Bible are nothing in comparison to the killings in the last century.

In the two big wars – World War I and II - millions died.

Last night I decided to finally jot down my list of genocides in the 20th century.   I don’t know how one brings a list to the other side of their own death. And how to make up my list is tricky. I find the numbers numbered rather differently.

What I want to talk to God about is Mao Zedong. From 1949 to 1976, he is responsible for the deaths of 40 to 80 million people.

Stalin has high numbers as well: 20 million plus.

Hitler had 6 million Jews killed – plus a lot more people killed.

I saw the movie – The Killing Fields [1984]. It talked about Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge – who killed some 1.5 million people between 1975-1979 in Cambodia.


In 1994 – in Rwanda some 800,000 people were slaughtered in 100 days. Hutus killed the minority Tutsi people and others.  I read Immaculee Ilibagiza’s book, Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwanda Holocaust.  It made me wonder about whether the degree to which Christianity and Catholicism had an impact on stopping such murder sprees.


God what about all this? I’m serious about this. I’ve heard people say: “Well, what about all the abortions?”

Yes – down through the ages – millions and millions and millions and millions and millions of babies have been aborted.  And millions and millions and millions of babies have died still born.

I want to ask God about them too. To me they are also part of my belief that there is an afterlife – and that means a lot of healing needs to take place – but in this homily I’m choosing to ask  about the lives of those folks who have been murdered, killed, atrocitified – cut short after living some life? 

I’m 80 and have been blessed with lots of life – and have been in sweet situations.  What about those killed in genocides?

Down in Guatemala 45,000 to 60,000 were killed in the so called silent holocaust – 1980-85.  Then there other numbers – like 166,000 Mayans killed. I read that that tribal people were described as subhumans. Did that make it easier to kill them?

In Kurdistan - between 1986-1989 - some 50,000 to 182,000 Kurds were killed plus Assyians.

That’s some of the history of the world, God. What about all these people?  Will their voices ever be heard – like in eternity?

So once more, people make a big scream about aborted babies in the millions and millions and millions – but I don't hear them asking, "What about the voice and vote of all these wiped out - having lived some of  their existence – and then their story was cut short - because  of race and religion and look - or what have you?"

God what about them?

LAST NIGHT IN LOOKING ALL THIS UP

Last night in looking this up, I read about something I never heard of before.

Mao Zedong in China decided to kill all the sparrows. It’s estimated that 800,000 sparrows were killed.  People would bang pots and pans and tire the birds out and then kill them on the ground. He held that they were eating all the grain and people were starving.  Yes, the birds ate grain – yes people were starving. What Mao Zedong learned was that the sparrows also ate bugs – like locusts. No sparrows, the locusts multiplied and  killed a lot more of the wheat crop. As a result some 16 million people starved to death.

I know Jesus told us to look at the birds of the air.  I know Jesus said in Luke 12: 22: “Think of the ravens.  They do not sow or reap;  they have no storehouses and no barns;  yet God feeds them.  And how much more are you worth than the birds.”

CONCLUSION

So God when I die I want to ask you about all these birds – but most especially I want to ask you about all these people who were killed - too, too soon. You want us to be aware of the birds and the people, why didn’t you do something about them?

I know you had a horrible death on the cross – so too millions and millions and millions and millions of people.

God, one of my 5 questions is about  genocide. Prepare your homework, I'm coming one of these days.  And don't hand me a copy of the book of Job. Read it. I've also read, When Bad Things Happen to Good People by Kushner.  I also know a bit about Free Will and Prayer.  So that's one of my 5 questions. Be prepared.


August  12,  2020




Thought   for   Today

"It was a sly trick of God's to give a man work to do - it kept him from asking questions that God couldn't answer."

Martha Ostenso [1900-1963]
Norwegian-American Novelist

August  11,   2020



8  MORE  BEATITUDES


Blessed are our plastic pill boxes
because they tell us what day it is.

Blessed are the words on our T-shirts because
they get us talking to one another.

Blessed are our young people  because
they remind us that there is a future to work for.

Blessed are the old timers because they tell us
we have a past with its stories and its learnings.

Blessed are our wheels because they make
it easier to get us to where we’re going.

Blessed are cats and dogs because they tell us
“Feed us”  along with all of creation.

Blessed are our sins and mistakes  because they
can teach and  bring us to humility and understanding.

Blessed are the weather reports because they give us
something else to talk about besides those we don’t like.



© Andy Costello, Reflections 2020

Tuesday, August 11, 2020

August  11, 2020


Thought   for   Today

"Religion is passionate,  reckless,  destructive,  idol-smashing.  It's a  martyr burning at the stake.  It's a crown of thorns and a  cross."


Martha Ostenso [1900-1963]
Norwegian-American Novelist

Monday, August 10, 2020

August 10, 2020



GETTING TO SCHOOL

Getting to school,
getting an education,
can be the one thing
most of us can have
in common: whether
it’s by yellow bus,
by foot, by zoom,
giving us stories
for the rest of our lives.

Getting an education,
how to do math,
how to dream,
how to know the rest
of the planet, how
to hope – as we hope
you’ll be the one, the
many who will make life
better for the rest of us.


                                                                                             © Andy Costello, Reflections 2020

P.S. Can't get out of the house to get  to school - because of the Corona Virus - check out these documentaries. Here are 5 more 48 minute documentaries - which are great for comments and getting beyond ourselves. 











August  10,  2020

Thought  for  Today




“It  was  a  good  time 
It  was  the  best  time.
It  was  a  party 
Just  to  be  near  you. 

It  was  a  good  time 
It  was  the  best  time 
And  we  believed 
That  it  would  last  forever.’

Maurice Jaffe

Sunday, August 9, 2020

August  9,  2020



CONNECTIONS

Tell me whom you’re talking to
at various times – inside your mind –
those people who left you with
questions – those people whom
you’re trying to figure out their
motives and ways of doing life?

We all have people who might
have dismissed or avoided us
and  we still have not forgiven 
them – or those people who 
helped us in life and we still 
have not said, “Thank you” to?  

Then there are the folks we’ve 
found interesting – but we really 
never connected with them.  

So I’m talking here about our 
inside conversations – which I
consider the real conversations.

Okay, outside connections and
conversations are also tricky –
but not like these inner ones.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2020

Painting, Verandah by
Alex Colville