2022-01

Television and the Internet are filled with ads for online gambling.  We see a man dressed up as Caesar, with thousands of people essentially worshipping him as he proclaims in a loud voice that we should all get on our phones right now, install his gambling app – and start placing bets.  I was raised to believe that gambling was evil, and I compare the modern do-it-from-anywhere gambling world to the father of a friend of mine who, when I was a boy, had to drive all the way to Las Vegas to feed his gambling addiction.

Under the Old Covenant there was an agreement between God and an entire people.  Under the New Covenant, each of us has an individual relationship with God.  We look at the most famous Old Testament blessing: the blessing that Jacob stole from his brother.  We compare this to the blessing that each of us gets from God.

When I was a boy, I met my mother's father for the first and only time - and besides him buying me coffee ice cream, which I found disgusting - I learned that he was very anti-Semitic.  We look at 2nd Corinthians, where Paul tells us that each of us has an opportunity to leave our old life behind and being a new life.  I gently challenged my grandfather on his behavior.  Will my grandfather choose to begin a new life?

The New Testament uses the Old Testament heavily, as a way of legitimizing Jesus' role as the Messiah and the last prophet.  We look at Moses' statement that a prophet from among the Israelites will rise up - and that we should listen to him.  We see that passage echoed in both Acts and the Gospel of Matthew.  I take a humorous look at a sister at my Catholic grammar school who caught me not paying attention in class, and yelled at me to listen to her.  But the sober truth is that there is only one person to whom we must ALWAYS listen.

When I was a very young teenager I got a job installing a sprinkler system in the desert in the summer. I proceeded to have a massive asthma attack.  The reaction of the woman who hired me - and the trust she had in her faith - reminds me of the widow with a young son who gives the last of their food to the prophet Elijah.