Gospel Reflections for February 28 2016
It was an accident!
No one likes to be blamed for something that is not their fault.
Things happen every day for all kinds of good and bad reasons but we should discern what events are truly our fault and which ones are not. Fortunately today, most people are fair minded and do not jump to conclusions. Not so in the ancient world.
People then considered almost everything that happened as “willed by God” and for a definite purpose. If good things happened, that indicated God was pleased with you. Bad things indicated God was displeased and the bad event was His punishment on you.
Fortunately, Jesus dispels that idea in today’s Gospel. He references events that apparently were well known among the people then. One was the collapse of a tower that killed eighteen people. He knew the crowd would assume the eighteen were guilty of some sin. Jesus simply responds, “By no means!”
The tower collapsed for any number of normal physical reasons, e.g. it was not built well, or there were too many people on it, or it was a very old building. What we know for sure is that it was not God’s fault! In short, it was an accident arising from people’s mistaken and perhaps even sinful judgment.
Lent is our time to especially focus on the will of God for us. We listen for His words of wisdom that will guide our life toward true and lasting happiness. Let us make sure we are looking and listening in the right places. We should not look at tragic events like a tower collapse and draw the wrong conclusions by blaming God.
Much of what happens in the world is not God’s will! God never intends for us to sinful or neglectful actions, like building faulty towers, or designing cars with mechanical defects, or terrorists causing so much destruction. When people ask, “Why did God allow the Galilean tower to collapse,” God could also ask “Why did they build such a tower!” When we ask why God allowed the 9-11 towers to collapse, God could also ask “Why did we allow terrorists to do it?”
God created a wonderful garden for Adam and Eve and placed them there to care for it. God can rightfully ask why we are not sufficiently caring for our world today.
We still have that responsibility for the care of our world that Adam and Eve did not accomplish well. Let us not fall as they did, but instead use every talent we have to instill love and compassion into “our world” of family, friends, co-workers, and neighbors, and always do the right thing.
In today’s First Reading, God tells Moses that “I have heard your people’s cry for help.” We can trust that God will help us in our efforts to care for our world. Far from a punishing God, He is on our side!
God Bless!
Fr. Dave
Thank you, Father Dave, for your inspired association of the Tower of Pisa and the Twin Towers with the Gospel.. I guess we have to avoid saying “It was God’s will” as much as avoiding to say “The Devil made me do it.”
As an RCIA person I note that this Sunday is also the time of the First Scrutiny for catechumens. At their Mass the Cycle C readings will be replaced by the Cycle A readings in which the Gospel is the Lady at the Well (Jn 4: 5-42). I find this reading to also be very inspiring.
Yes, the Cycle A readings are awesome, which is why they are used for the RCIA sessions. One of my favorite short books is “The Woman at the Well” by Adrian Van Kaam.
Love your words Father Dave that we instill love and compassion into our world!!! Our precious, loving God gave us free will and with that beautiful gift, it is up to us to make the world a loving, compassionate place by our actions!!!Our precious Jesus and our loving Mary taught us the meaning of LOVE and now it is up to us to live it and become the persons God created us to be!!!! To Love, To Care, To Share!!!!Those words were the center of our lives when I taught the children in our St.Judes Kindergarten and they are still now and forever a beautiful way to live life!!!!
With much love,
Franca and Dick
Thank you!
Thank you for giving me the right words to say. So many people blame God for everything and I try to defend. From now on, I will forward your beautiful reflection.
I am so glad you found the article helpful! Yes, please forward to anyone you like.
Thank you for clarifying how God’s will works in our world!
God’s will is a way to be, and a way to behave. When we consciously acknowledge
His Presence and depend upon Him in making decisions, the choices that are made are both
ours and His. God’s will then. is in knowing Him better and becoming more like Him.
Yes, well said!
Boy this isn’t an easy one, especially for us black and whiters.
I was giving a reflection on the Parshah readings for this week and it was about those good ole people wanting a golden calf. Now God wanted to destroy all of them and Moses talaked him out of it. I beleive that was a test for Moses. However, he went down and boy did they get into trouble. They also saw the glory of God on his face and new he had been with God.
Then he asked who was with God and who was on the other side and they split up. (These are in my words). Then the Levi’s were instructed to Kill all that were not following God.
What was interesting was that Moses brother lied about the whole thing but yet still repented and said he would follow God and was given the position of high Priest.
With the tower of Babel I think that it was kind of the same as hey wanted to reach the heavens and be like God. They could have said no we can’t do that but didn’t.
On God View or one of those programs there was a young man taping his crazy driving of a motorcycle on the freeway weaving inside of many cars. I was waiting for the crash. Will he die, yes some day if he doesn’t stop that foolishness. It is a choice for him to repent or not and I pray for that as he is an accident waiting to happen.
This message shows how importance repentance is. However, with the example of the fig tree there must be a time of trying to teach and nurture the body of Christ and hope for repentance, not give up on anyone.. It does show God’s mercy in this as well.
About the University… I am praying and have others praying for God’s will on your behalf. I have heard rumors as usual and really hope that the Church see the value of what you are doing and I think that someone with the vision (YOU) would be spreading this to California and beyond. It is a great work of God and it should not be stopped. The biggest reason for leaving in our church is that “We Perish for a lack of knowledge” and this program offers it as a beginning to educate Catholics in our faith.
I hope you don’t mind my rambling…
Hello!
I like your “musings” and especially the example of the crazy motorcyclist. He will one day reap the consequences of his crazy driving. I hope he will blame himself, and not God!
I have not seen it yet, but certainly plan to do so, perhaps this week. I know that many Bishops have stated that it is not “anti-Catholic” and that it serves a good and important purpose.
Fr. Dave,
Thank you for making everything so clear and it certainly makes it a lot easier to share it with others.
Now that I hear you are going to see Spotlight , then we will too, I was a little concerned that is was anti Catholic .
I saw it today and can say that while it describes the church as it was twenty or thirty years ago, it does not describe the church today, which is probably the most vigilant institution in the world today that protects children. I wish the film would have shown what has happened since the events portrayed in the fil from so long ago.