The Saturday Morning Post: This One's About Me

February 6, 2021

 Good Morning, God and All...

A couple of weeks ago, I abandoned the format I've used for years in compiling these posts. I had come to the realization that what I was doing was stuffing something inside a trivia sandwich. I had begun to borrow reflections from the past and repost them as they still have relevancy. Of course they would, since at that time I was writing from a perspective of the Catholic Church's three-year cycle of Bible readings. What was relevant then is still relevant today, but I had a recent reality check.

Many of my reflections are based on my experiences in homiletics, which are supposed to be generic in nature, so as not to preach errantly on the teachings of the Church, or suggest personal experience that could be questioned by others. They should not be too short, but should avoid being too long lest we stretch ourselves beyond the attention span of the intended audience.

Lately I have observed that I'm developing a negative attitude in my interpersonal conversations. Basically, I have been caught up in what others also do: bark about having to restrict myself, having to wear a face mask whenever I am out of the house and trying to observe those 'one way' aisles at Walmart when it seems nobody else is doing so, not having much else to be able to do, the sorry state of our country and its politics. I'm the one who is supposed to stay hopeful, because God is in charge and will deliver me (and you) from all this evil. That's one of the things we pray for, isn't it? Yet doesn't it seem that things just keep getting worse and not better? Is anyone else being tempted to say 'why bother' because on the surface it would appear God has turned a deaf ear on the prayer Jesus gave posterity to pray?

Add to this that my body does not want to work the way it used to. I am having neuropathy issues in my old age. It's hard to move with the ease I once took for granted. My fingers are tingling as I type. If I have to sit on the floor to do a minor repair or clean-up, I have to stop and think over how to get up. It would take me a long time to shovel snow. It takes long enough as is to clear it from my car.

See that negative attitude creeping in? I apologize for burdening you with it, even as it's the tip of a Titanic-wrecking iceberg if I were to continue down that path. Let me concentrate on what should be my mantra:

• Thankful that I rise each morning as a gift from God
• Thankful that I have family, friends, and colleagues who are generally concerned for my well being - and thankful that I am concerned for them. That is 'love' in its most basic form.
• Thankful that I am still able to share my abilities, and the occasional knowledge that it does make a difference
• Thankful that while dodging several 'bullets' I have not contracted Covid-19!
• That after many years, I have started and ended each day with the Lord. Each morning I look for words of divine wisdom to share. Each evening I acknowledge the blessings of the day, and the grace to meet its many challenges.

I firmly believe that hearts can be changed. Otherwise, the Ninevites would have totally ignored Jonah, and Ebenezer Scrooge would have died the miserly curmudgeon Charles Dickens sought to write about in one of his greatest short stories. Saul would not have his conversion experience on the Damascus road, and Paul would not have established the many Christian communities outside Judea.

Despite what happens in the world on a daily basis, I remind myself that eternal life is not going to resemble anything I've brought up. It will be either profound joy in the presence of God, or everlasting abandonment, grief, and regret. That fate is up to me. I must pray for redemption and mercy over my own sense of justice and judgement which belong to God alone.

With Lent only ten days away (did it ever really end from last year?) maybe it's time to put some of that thought into action. Just making things in the space and time God gives me a bit brighter will be a good start. 

Until we meet again, may God be with us...and may God have mercy on us all...

+the Phoenix