One
day of prayin', and six nights of fun.
Odds
against goin' to Heaven, six to one.
A
rather depressing thought,
From
the title song of the old movie Walk on the Wild Side.
So, Happy Mardi Gras!
Fat Tuesday, a last fling before Ash
Wednesday,
And forty days of Lenten prayer,
fasting, and almsgiving.
Then, maybe tomorrow we can start
doing more to improve those six to one odds.
Our Scripture readings today start off
with another depressing hope-crushing story.
The story of the Great Flood.
God sees the wickedness of man and
decides to start over again.
Wipe out all the multitudes.
Start over with the one tiny group of
good people available.
Just Noah and his household.
And so he does.
But before many years have passed, man
has again alienated himself from God.
Wickedness and evil rule again.
Then,
a few thousand years later, things start looking up.
Jesus
comes with his Good News.
In today's Gospel installment the
disciples are worried about not having enough bread.
Even though they just saw Jesus
miraculously feed thousands with a few loaves.
And it was the second time they'd seen
him do it!
Jesus points them to the things they
really should worry about.
Their lack of faith and understanding.
Avoiding the mistakes and corruption
of the Pharisees.
Not falling into the evil and
wickedness of Herod.
They should understand that Jesus has
come to execute a better plan for starting over.
To rescue God's people—to save us.
To reconcile us with the Father.
To teach us, show us by example, how
to love God and neighbor.
To turn those Heavenly odds around.
To stack them heavily in our favor.
And so he does.
What shall we offer in return?
That's something we can reassess today
with one more day of prayin'.
And we can start delivering our
greater return tomorrow.
Not that elusive Tomorrow, Tomorrow,
that's always a day away.
But that definite tomorrow that begins
at midnight tonight.
This Ash Wednesday, this Lent.
6th Tuesday Ordinary Time
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