February 13, 2015

TEMPORARY PERSON

“I feel like a temporary person.”

“What? What does that mean?”

“Well, when I walk into a room,
I feel nobody really knows me”

“Oooooh!”

“Then sometimes when I'm standing there
with a somebody,  I see them looking over my shoulder at others – for someone more interesting.”

“Interesting.”

“Then they make some faint get-a-way comment.”

“Wait, a minute, don’t run. Get back to what you’re feeling when you say to yourself, I’m a temporary person.”

“Well, yeah. People bolt away from me all the time.”

“Well, do you feel if any of this is your fault?”

“Of course…. I always think it’s my fault.”

“Bummer. That has to hurt – to think that way

about yourself. By the way do you agree

with yourself when you say it’s your fault?”

“No, of course not. I’m me, but I sense nobody

really knows me – or even cares to know me.”

“Well, I know you a bit.”

“You, no I don’t sense that you know me.”

“Well, you’re telling me you feel like nothing and 
that ticks you off – or you’d like more attention,

so I think I know that about you.”

“No, I’m not saying that. I’m simply saying I feel

like a temporary person – an in-between person –

a someone,  someone uses for the moment 

till someone better comes along.”

“Oh, sorry to hear you say that – about yourself.”

“I’m also sorry to hear that I said that about myself.”

“Well, that's a start....”

“And by the way, that last comment you made was

something  I needed to hear. I sense everyone is on the edge of everyone. We hesitate to enter into other people – because if we let go and become friendly or marry another, we have a chance to grow … to know … other people – and become less alone and less lonely.”

“I like that. I would sense that’s a healthy way of thinking and becoming a person who’s getting to know themselves.”

[PAUSE - ANOTHER LONG PAUSE]

“Thanks. Thanks for trying to listen to who I am." 

"You're welcome."

"Let me add: and if I listened to myself the way you’re listening to me, maybe then I’ll stop calling myself a temporary person.”

© Andy Costello, 

Reflections 

by the Bay, 2015

February 12, 2015

BULLIES

The bullies in the school yard sat on him,

then punched him, so too the other kids

from all the other schools he went to.

He hung in there in every school – as well as

on his way home from every school he went to –

as well as on all the teams he belonged to.

Then it was a boss and then a bunch of guys

at the office? Why is it that some people seem

to get bullied and picked on much of their lives?

Will a day come when he’ll be so angry with all these

bullies within and without – that he too will become a

bully, a dictator or just the opposite, a protector?

© Andy Costello, Reflections on the Bay, 2015

February 11, 2015

THE HEALTH OF A MARRIAGE

Is it that the worse

and not the better,

the poorer

and not the richer,

the sickness

and not the health, that

gets us to communicate

about the sickness

or the death of a marriage?

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2015

February 10, 2015

SNOW  IN  FEBRUARY 

Some nights slide in like falling snow,

so quietly – so silently – covering

the ground all around our house.

Later on while standing there looking out

into a white wonderland from my 11:55

P.M. window – I realize this is much of my life –

layer upon layer of falling moments, falling
memories… whatever color memories are: 
white, black, blue, red, bright yellow happenings. 
Life. The winter of my life. But there is Spring.

Then getting under the covers as I drift off

into the wonderland called sleep … moving
into images and dreams – into the mysteries 
of the long night - into the uncontrollable.

Then the realism of the morning alarm,

waking up and looking out my 6:45 A.M.

window – seeing, reading, looking at

poetry, poetry everywhere, a new day.

Then I have the morning rush - shower,

Cheerios, coffee, push some snow off my car, 

then wince my nose, then the pause while

driving,  wondering about the narrow schedule

called February – called getting to March.

© Andy Costello,

Reflections by the Bay, 2015

MADE  IN  THE  IMAGE 

AND  LIKENESS  OF  GOD 

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this Fifth Tuesday in Ordinary Time is, “Made in the Image and Likeness of God.”

That statement has been heard by all of us from time to time during our life.

Am I like God or is God like me?  Or am I totally different from God and is God is totally different from me?

That statement  - “Made in the image and likeness of God” - is in today’s first reading. It’s in the first chapter of the Genesis the first book of the Bible.

UNIVERSITY COURSE

Years ago I almost took a semester’s course at Princeton Theological Seminary on that one statement in the Bible, Genesis 1:26-27.

Once more it goes like this: “Then God said: ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and the cattle, and over all the wild animals and all the creatures that crawl on the ground.’  God created man in his image / in the divine image he created him; / male and female he created them.”

The professor said there were hundreds of takes on that text.

I should have taken that course, but didn’t  because another course grabbed me.

Through the years I have thought about that text – but I don’t know for sure just what the Priestly Author of Chapter One of Genesis means by this text.

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN GOD AND US

God created the world.  We can create nothing out of nothing.

God is all knowing, all loving, all forgiving.  We are not.

God doesn’t have a body; we do.

God is eternal. We are temporary – but we are hoping for eternal life.

SIMILARITIES BETWEEN GOD AND US

God can be lonely; we can be lonely.

God can communicate; we can communicate.

God can be one with others – as God is in the Trinity. We can be in communion with others – as well as enter into the Trinity through, with, and in Christ.

When God created the world, God was like a Father and a Mother – making Their  children’s room a Paradise. So too parents when they are going to have their first child – they make  their baby’s room and space – a paradise. Nothing can be missing for their new baby.

PARADOXES

God – the All Powerful God can be powerless and accept it. Human beings can be powerless and don’t want to  accept it. For example, Jesus gave up all his powers when he let go to let himself be arrested, beaten, killed on the cross. He said he could have his Father send legions of angels to save him.

We say to God, “Thy will be done.” Many times we don’t mean it. We’re actually saying and praying, “My will be done.” 

God is all forgiving.  We can be that way – but often we’re not.

CONCLUSION

I think a possible prayer could be:

God,

even though I am made

in your image and likeness,

thank You, God,

that I am not You,

because if I were You,

uh oh, O God.

February 9, 2015

CREATION ACCOUNT

In  the beginning

all was God.

In the beginning

all else was silence,

all else was darkness.

And God burst

through the dam

of silence and darkness

with his word,

“Let there be light!”

And God’s power,

and God’s spirit

exploded into creation.

Molten lava,

red rivers of fire,

huge stones and planets

rolled down the dark hills

of space, down the empty

halls of the universe,

crashing, splashing,

noise and sound.

Creation had begun ,

bursting, splattering seed

into the empty holes

of barren time.

“Let there be life!”

And the fertile egg

of earth began.

And in time

the naked baby

came forth

crawling towards

the Father,

standing, falling

rising, trying

again and again

to stand up to the Father.

And gradually

it too learned

the words,

“Let there be light!”

© Andy Costello, 

from page 168 -  

Cries .... but Silent, 

Thomas More 

Association, 1981

THE CREATION

A Negro Sermon 

by James Weldon Johnson 

1871 - 1928 

And God stepped out on space,

And he looked around and said:

I’m lonely—

I’ll make me a world.

And far as the eye of God could see

Darkness covered everything,

Blacker than a hundred midnights

Down in a cypress swamp.

Then God smiled,

And the light broke,

And the darkness rolled up on one side,

And the light stood shining on the other,

And God said: That’s good!

Then God reached out and took the light in his hands,

And God rolled the light around in his hands

Until he made the sun;

And he set that sun a-blazing in the heavens.

And the light that was left from making the sun

God gathered it up in a shining ball

And flung it against the darkness,

Spangling the night with the moon and stars.

Then down between

The darkness and the light

He hurled the world;

And God said: That’s good!

Then God himself stepped down—

And the sun was on his right hand,

And the moon was on his left;

The stars were clustered about his head,

And the earth was under his feet.

And God walked, and where he trod

His footsteps hollowed the valleys out

And bulged the mountains up.

Then he stopped and looked and saw

That the earth was hot and barren.

So God stepped over to the edge of the world

And he spat out the seven seas—

He batted his eyes, and the lightnings flashed—

He clapped his hands, and the thunders rolled—

And the waters above the earth came down,

The cooling waters came down.

Then the green grass sprouted,

And the little red flowers blossomed,

The pine tree pointed his finger to the sky,

And the oak spread out his arms,

The lakes cuddled down in the hollows of the ground,

And the rivers ran down to the sea;

And God smiled again,

And the rainbow appeared,

And curled itself around his shoulder.

Then God raised his arm and he waved his hand

Over the sea and over the land,

And he said: Bring forth! Bring forth!

And quicker than God could drop his hand,

Fishes and fowls

And beasts and birds

Swam the rivers and the seas,

Roamed the forests and the woods,

And split the air with their wings.

And God said: That’s good!

Then God walked around,

And God looked around

On all that he had made.

He looked at his sun,

And he looked at his moon,

And he looked at his little stars;

He looked on his world

With all its living things,

And God said: I’m lonely still.

Then God sat down—

On the side of a hill where he could think;

By a deep, wide river he sat down;

With his head in his hands,

God thought and thought,

Till he thought: I’ll make me a man!

Up from the bed of the river

God scooped the clay;

And by the bank of the river

He kneeled him down;

And there the great God Almighty

Who lit the sun and fixed it in the sky,

Who flung the stars to the most far corner of the night,

Who rounded the earth in the middle of his hand;

This great God,

Like a mammy bending over her baby,

Kneeled down in the dust

Toiling over a lump of clay

Till he shaped it in is his own image;

Then into it he blew the breath of life,

And man became a living soul.

Amen.      Amen.

BUMMER OF A BUS RIDE

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time is, “Bummer of A Bus Ride.”

When I read today’s first reading from the Book of Job, the thought that hit me was this: It would be a bummer of a bus ride – if one went on a trip sitting next to Job.

In today’s first reading listen to him, “Life is drudgery. Work – if you’re a hired hand, is a bummer. If that’s the story, your life is like that of a slave who wants to get out of the burning heat and sit down in the shade.”

He’s saying, “Life is months of misery. Troubled nights are a killer. I’m restless. I can’t sleep.  I have no hope in life. I’m going to die. My life is like the wind. I won’t see happiness again.”

If you ended up next to Job on a bus ride – or a plane – or in a small group – or had Job as a roommate in college, bummer.

TODAY’S READINGS

In today’s 2^nd reading  Paul is telling us that his main goal in life is to help make such an unhappy camper happy by bringing Christ into that person’s life. Paul – when he was Saul -  was an unhappy camper. He didn’t like Christians. 

Then on the road to Damascus, he fell on his face and  found out he was wrong. He changed. He then spent the rest of his life trying to bring the joy and love of Christ to as many unhappy campers he met.

In today’s gospel – people are coming from everywhere to be next to Christ. It's just to opposite of being next to Job. They want to receive Christ's blessings and avoid Job's whinings. They wanted to be next to Christ - the optimist and not the pessimist.

CONCLUSION

Who would you rather be next to on a bus? Job or Christ? Choose Christ. 

When someone sees us coming down the aisle of a bus - and the seat next to them  is empty, what are they thinking when they see our face?

I

February 8, 2015

COLD

Cold  - like 20 below freezing cold -

can be so silent, so sneaky, so tight.

Cold can creep into every stone,

into every bone in my body.

Cold can grab every outside metal

banister – as I stand there freezing.

Cold can stand there with me on the

top step – as I ring the bell – no answer.

Cold eases the cold as I knock, knock

on the sold front door – but nobody’s home.

Cold rushes with me as I rush home

to get inside and rub into a hot radiator.

Cold – I see myself being so cold when

someone wants me – wants me to open up.

Cold – I am too, too cold – I am so non-Samaritan,

when someone stands at my door and knocks.

Cold – it’s so much harder to be a Christian in the

cold, when I want my comfort and my warmth.

© Andy Costello, Reflection by the Bay, 2015