Gospel, Homily and Coffee

Remember the old motto from the Army: “Be all that you can be!” It was a good motto.  Often we have particular goals/dreams: get into a particular college/university; get a particular job( usually high paying); get into heaven.  On the surface, this sounds fine, but….is that all to this life? Isn’t there more? How do we want to be when we are in college? Who do we want to be when we get our “Dream” job” Who do we want to be in heaven? A wise person wrote that it is not the goal that matters, but the “who” we become. The journey of life is not to simply attain those particular goals, but to become who we truly are. Then who are we truly? In 1 John 3:2 “Beloved, we are God’s children now, what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him...Everyone who has this hope based on him makes himself pure, as he is pure.” We are God’s children. The very core of our being remains that we are a child of God. We signify this at Baptism.

“God will get you for that Walter” this is the spirituality of Maude. Maude was a show in the 70’s, a spinoff of “All in the Family.” That was Maude’s catch phrase to her husband when he displeased her, which was quite often. Ash Wednesday was a few days ago. Do people realllllly understand that in no way is it obligatory, necessary, mandated that we receive ashes. Yet, every year I receive phone calls, emails, messages from people asking that if they don’t get the ashes will God get angry. They think they commit a horrible sin. People in the sacrament of Reconciliation: they can be frightened that if they do not confess every minute offense, real or imagined, God will get them. People going through hardship can be scared that they have offended God and God is getting back at them. We even see this on the news: inevitably whenever some natural disaster some jerk equates it with God’s wrath; usually on so-called liberals. Interesting that we have not heard anything about Texas

Humans want to feel safe. We want to feel safe. It is natural for us.  What makes us feel safe, well….that is the question. I think quite a few people seek safety in certainties and absolutes. We like life clear and concise. It is this way nor not this way.  People are good or bad. You are either with me or against me; my friend or enemy. Catholics are only this way, not that way. Ok, but that really is not how the world operates. And, we wonder why there seems to be so many divisions among us. Scripture contains a lot of tension for us. Sacred Scripture does not deal with much that is clear, concise or absolute. Very few is clear throughout, such as that God will love us no matter what. This will never ever change.  Scripture contains conflicts and contradictions. Scripture contains a lot of gray; can be ambiguous in how we experience that divine love. It is within that ambiguity, that gray space, we find our path forward to engage in living.  The Hebrew people, as they for