Jesus tells us today in the gospel, "As it was...so it will be...where the body is so the vultures will gather."
What does this saying have to do with Friday the thirteenth and superstition.
Superstition has to do with unjustifiable or unreasonable beliefs in associating one event with the consequences of another.
For instances equating bad luck to breaking a mirror, or walking under a ladder, a black cat crossing, opening an umbrella in doors; or equating good luck to rabbit's foot, four leaf clover, rally caps, or wishbones.
Jesus wants us to let go of our superstition and focus on reality.
My favorite superstition is associated with weddings. Often times I will have a bride who refuses to walk down the aisle on the night of the rehearsal our fear it may cause bad luck, yet she will live with her fiance prior to getting married.
She will cling to superstition but not avoid sin. It boggles the mind.
Jesus wants us to unboggle the mind. He wants us to keep it real. He wants us to be attentive to our behavior and focus on the things we do have control over like our decision, our life of devotion, our life of faith. Only then do we truly begin to embrace the freedom he gave us and let go of the shackles of superstition.
This is what the Catechism of the Church teaches in regards to superstition:
#2111 "Superstition is the deviation of religious feeling and of the practices this feeling imposes. It can even affect the worship we offer the true God, e.g. where one attributes an importance in some way magical to certain practices otherwise lawful or necessary. To attribute the efficacy of prayer or the sacramental signs to their mere external performance apart from the interior dispositions that they demand is to fall into superstition."
Keep it real for as it was so it shall be and where the vultures gather there the body shall be.
Only in reality do we truly come to belief and life to its full.
I would like to quote Ron Sterling the writer of Twilight Zone, "There is a fifth dimension, beyond that which is known by man; It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition."
Ron Sterling, I am not sure whether he was a believer or not, but he could have been talking about that dimension we call a life of faith, where it is no longer we who live but Christ who lives with us; surely this dimension, this reality, is as vast as space and timeless as infinity, for it leads to eternity; it isn't between science and superstition, rather it underlies both endeavors and sustains us on our journey; this dimension of faith is where we meet reality.
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