THE BIG TABLE

The whole world is seated

          at one big table,

          but the trouble is

          all the food

          is on one side

The whole world is seated

          at one big table,

          but the trouble is

          people have problems

          passing things.

The whole world is seated

          at one big table,

          but the trouble is

          people have difficulties

          stomaching each other.

The whole world is seated

          at one big table,

          but the trouble is

          the first are first

          and the last are last.

The whole world is seated

          at one big table,

          but the trouble is

          people don’t like

          the seating arrangements.

The whole world is seated

          at one big table,

          but the trouble is

          people seem to want

          separate tables.

The whole world is seated

          at one big table,

          but the trouble is

          nobody realizes

          the table is round.

The whole world is seated

          at one big table,

          but the trouble is

          the next generation

          is waiting for the leftovers.

THE RAFT

Somewhere out there in the deep waters

          is a raft

          called Love,

          called God.

And everybody knows it’s there,

          somewhere,

          as we all swim

          around in this ocean

          of words and stuff,

          trying to find the raft

          called Love,

          knowing that Love

          is the answer,

          as all the songs sing it,

          as all the prophets tell us.

And it’s hard work swimming and struggling

          and trying to find that raft

          called Love,

          called God.

And suddenly some of us

          spot the raft

          off there in the distance

          and as we swim closer

          we see it’s almost sinking

          with people.

Then God reaches out with his hands

          and pulls us up

          out of the water

          and onto the wood,

          and just then

          God suddenly laughs

          watching us trying

          to lug our wet possessions

          on board, too.

But then God starts to clap

          and slaps somebody

          on the back,

          who just then saw our stupidity

          and threw his stuff overboard,

          and once more

          there is just enough room,

          just enough space,

          on the raft

          called Love,

          called God. 

_____________________________________

P.S. I'm adding these two pieces from my book Listenings that goes back to the 1980's in case someone thinks I'm onto a 2017 agenda.

February 18, 2017

SANCTUARY  EARTH 

Centuries ago it was churches, places where someone

could run to,  for safety and to cry aloud, “Sanctuary!”

Next it was cities - some large cities where people

who were illegal - strangers - WOPS - “without papers” -

knew they could be safe - be with family and neighbors.

Oh, they were described by some as robbers and

rapists, but construction and landscape companies,
farmers, meat packing plants, restaurants and stores,  
they know who the workers are and how the economy goes.

Now there is a cry for colleges to be sanctuary

universe-cities - where kids brought here at 2 or 4

can be safe till they finish college - protected

by the Dream Act or DACA - and not be dragged

away immediately by I.C.E. into the cold dark night.

Question…. Prophetic challenge…. Gospel call….

When will we know this earth belongs to all of us?
It’s a sanctuary. It’s a holy place - to be open to all -

without walls - without borders -  without barriers.

Those are constructed with map lines, fences, walls,

words, languages, religions, cultures and colors.

Hello! Christ comes through walls and says, "Peace!"

Take off your shoes. Look down. You're on holy ground. 
Wash feet. Invite everyone to have a seat at the table.

And let the millionaires, billionaires and governments

learn that life is all about serving, not being served.

Sanctuary Earth! Isn’t that a great solution?

Sanctuary Earth! Isn’t that a great dream? 

Or do we need to keep on creating labels

as a way of creating strangers - to get self votes -

and a way to think we’re better than someone else?

When will we learn the real way on how  to be great?

Here's how: Christians stand there with a sign or a mirror
that says, “Matthew 25: 31-46” - but make sure

you have first made those words flesh in yourself and
then - who cares about you - make others great.

© Andy Costello, Reflections  2017

Footnotes:

This is a first draft document. It's choppy and clumsy, but I'll continue to sculpt it.

In the meanwhile, for starters,  one needs to know the history of the idea of sanctuary.

It's a holy place.  It's a safe place.  It's a place of protection.

In our story, it's our mother's womb - where we had a sanctuary for 9 months.

In a family it's the home. It's the kitchen table. It's the couch.  It's our mother and father's arms.

In a church it’s where the altar is - a place marked out by altar rails at times - or a place where a saint is buried - or where there are relics in the altar - making this a “holy place”. 

Every human being - [how about every animal?] - needs a safe place - where we are safe from the claws and fangs of horror stories.

Everyone needs safe havens.

Pause before entering.

In time people who needed safety headed for a sanctuary - in order to scream, "This is God's Holy Place - a sanctuary! Leave me alone. Let me be safe with God in this holy - wholesome place."

Next one ought to know the Biblical prophets and how they saw people and how all people need to be treated.

"Sow integrity for yourselves, reap a harvest of kindness...." -  Hosea 10:12

Listen to Isaiah 10: 1 - 4:, "Woe to legislators of infamous laws, to those who issue tyrannical decrees, who refuse justice to the unfortunate and cheat the poor among my people of their rights, who make widows their prey and rob the orphan. What will you do on the day of punishment, when, from far off, destruction comes?  To whom will you run for help?  Where will you leave your riches? Nothing for it but to crouch with the captives and to fall with the slain. Yet his anger is not spent, still his hand is raised to strike."

Read Isaiah 61: 1-3, as Jesus read it,    "The spirit of the Lord Yahweh has been give to me, for Yahweh has anointed me. He has sent me to bring good news to the poor, to bind up hearts that are broken; to proclaim liberty to captives, freedom to those in prison; to proclaim a year of favor from Yahweh, a day of vengeance for our God, to comfort all those who mourn and to give them for ashes a garland; for mourning robe the oil of gladness, for despondency, praise. They are to be called 'terebinths of integrity, planted by Yahweh to glorify him."[Cf.  Luke  4:18-19.]

Jeremiah 7:4-11 proclaims,  "Don't put your trust in illusions and say, 'The Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord are these [buildings].' No, if you really mend your ways and your actions; if you execute justice between one another; if you do not oppress the stranger, the orphan, and the widow; if you do not shed the blood of the innocent in this place; if you do not follow other gods, to your own hurt - then only will I let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers for all time. See, you are relying on illusions that are of no avail. Will you steal and murder and commit adultery and swear falsely, and sacrifice to Baal, and follow other gods whom you have not experienced, and then come and stand before Me in this House which bears my name and say, 'We are safe'? [Safe] to do all these abhorrent things! Do you consider this House, which bears My name, to be a den of thieves?  As for Me, I have been watching - declares the Lord."

So one must know the prophets  who challenge us to treat others right and just and fair. 

So anyone who glories in the title, "Evangelical" - or "Christian" or "minister" or "priest" or "Catholic" or "Biblical" - anyone who builds their life on the prophets and on Jesus - please know and live what's between the covers of the Bible.

So anyone who puts their hand on a Bible better know what they are touching. The Book is filled with fire and justice and warning. Shouts of “Shame, shame, on you!” come screaming out of the Book towards anyone who touches it while being sworn in - if they are not swearing they are going to go by the Book and protect the inalienable rights of all people.

Remember walls fall. Read Psalm 18: 29-30 ".... with my God I can scale a wall...."  

Read Robert Frost's poem, Mending Wall. Remember how it begins, "Something there is that doesn't love a wall, / That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it, / And spills the upper boulders in the sun; / And makes gaps even two can pass abreast."  I hope more than 2  can fit through - whatever language they are speaking! And I also know what  the last line of Robert Frost's  poem is, "Good fences make good neighbors."

Which line is you: opening or closing?

Let's make the words - the 1883 sonnet  of  Emma Lazarus [1849-1887] on the foundation stone of the Statue of Liberty become flesh - and not just be bronze.

THE NEW COLOSSUS

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
MOTHER OF EXILES. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed  to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Let's continue to make the United States a sanctuary ... or to quote John Winthrop the Puritan, Ronald Reagan the President and Jesus the Prophet - that we be a city of light on a hill for all to see - and all to discover.

For the sake of transparency my parents were not born in the United States - but on Planet Earth. What are your roots? 

Let's work to make the world a sanctuary - the title of this piece - for all people.

Go to your local sanctuary and pray to make this a Better World.

For the sake of transparency I am a member of the Better World Movement.

For the sake of transparency I like to read Martin Luther King Jr's "I Have A Dream Speech" - on a regular basis.

The title of this piece is Sanctuary Earth.

Then there are bird sanctuaries - protected places for saving precious animals.  

In English law and tradition a sanctuary was a place of safety and asylum from the 4^th to the 17^th century.

In the United States 440 cities were declared sanctuary cities from 1980 to 2000 for people caught in the Central America Civil Wars.

As to the United States - people have to know we are a nation of immigrants. 

I want to here cite a note about WOP - which I mention above.  There are various anecdotes about it's meaning.  It is said to have been based on the Southern Italian word "guappo" meaning pimp or thug. That is supposed to have come from the Spanish word "guapo" meaning handsome. That is said to have derived from a word for pimp and on and on an on. Some said it stands for "Without Passport" or "Without papers" or "working on pavement".

I would like it to stand for, "Work On Peace!"

There is a need to continue to talk together in a sacred place - about all this. And walls don't help when it comes to talking - but then again - it was behind walls and in a locked upper room, where Pentecost burst Christianity on its feet.

February 17, 2017

READING

Is reading me?

As they say, the 3 r’s: reading ‘riting, ‘rithmetic….

Is there a book in me - a biography, a novel,

a book of poems, a textbook, an autobiography?

Has there been a book that changed my life?

What was the last book that I couldn’t put down?

Can anyone tell me by my cover?

If I were a book, what would be my title?

Who are the people on my pages?

What have been the chapters of my life?

How many more pages and chapters are to come?

Who would want to hear my story?

Who's story do I want to hear?

Is reading me?

© Andy Costello, Reflections  2017

February 16, 2017

SPORTS

Is sports me?

Am I reruns of a home run or a great

catch or a race I didn’t think I could win?

Am I a couch potato who sat and watched

too many games - when I could have been

out there walking, running or riding a bike?

Am I most me when I’m wearing a jersey

or a t-shirt or a cap advertising my team -

trying to ride their glory and I want a title?

When I’m running the human race, do I have

St. Paul’s vision of life: Christ as my goal? [1]

Do I follow St. Irenaeus’ words, “The glory of
God is when we are fully alive and human life

is the vision of God?” [2]

Is sports me?

© Andy Costello, Reflections  2017

[1] St. Paul, 2:Timothy 4: 7-8

[2]  St. Irenaeus,  "The glory of God is man fully alive, and the life of man is the vision of God….” AH IV, 20, 7.

READING DREAMS

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, "Reading Dreams."

One of the great ways of interpreting scripture is to imagine what you are reading or hearing is a dream you had.

Some people like to write out their dreams. When they wake up from a dream, they turn the light on and jot down what they experienced. It makes the dream more memorable, more reflectible, more message laden – that is - if you can read your own writing from 2:45 in the morning.

TODAY’S TWO READINGS AS DREAMS

This dream approach doesn’t always work too well with a lot of scripture readings, but today’s two readings are good ones for this dream process.

Image you had a dream where you were in a big boat and the whole world was flooded and you had no place to land and you wanted to land somewhere, anywhere. You’re sick and tired of water, water, everywhere. Rain. Rain. Then more rain. If that was a dream you had and you woke up and wrote it down and then read it in the morning, what would a dream like that tell you about yourself and the world you live in?

Or imagine you had a dream about yourself as blind and Jesus comes into your life and heals you. And now you see! How would you feel about yourself after waking up from such a dream?

How would you feel about yourself if they were two of your dreams in your dream journal?

HOPE AND HOPELESSNESS

For the want of a better way to categorize dreams, there are two kinds of dreams, good ones and bad ones, nightmares and good dreams.

The good ones give us hope; the bad ones give us feelings of hopelessness.

It’s as simple as that.

Today’s two readings can be seen as stories and dreams of hope.

And we human beings need to have dreams about hope. We need signs of hope, stories of hope. We need images and symbols of hope – especially when we are down or when we are feeling hopeless.

When things are going well, we don’t worry about hope. We don’t notice signs of hope as well. We don’t need stories of hope as much.

It’s like the old cliché. We don’t notice and appreciate our health till we are sick. Then we hope for health and recovery.

So we hope for hope a lot more when we are feeling hopeless.

We hope for light a lot more, when we feel like we’re in the dark.

This message of the need for hope, to have dreams of hope, when we are feeling hopeless, hit me when I read today’s readings.

Take the story in the first reading – the story of Noah’s ark – lost at sea. They are caught in a sea of destruction and they are filled with fear. They are sailing in a sea of terror and they are hoping to see the shore. When the dove returns with the olive branch, Noah and his family have a great symbol of hope.

Take the gospel story. It tells the story of a man who is blind. He can’t see and he receives his sight. Like everyone, he has to make the journey from darkness to light. It can be a story of hope.

HOMILY MESSAGE

So my hope for this homily is to present a message of hope – to get that message across – in the midst of hopelessness.

And I hope you can see today’s readings as stories of hope

Now sometimes we have heard something too many times and as a result we don’t hear it. 

Today’s story about Noah’s Ark is something we have heard 50 to 100 times. It’s like an old commercial. We heard the story before, but we still enjoy it.  However, we don’t get the old impact. It’s like an old movie or an old joke or song. We know the ending.

But imagine if we never heard the story before? Imagine  it wasn’t in the bible?

Imagine it is a dream you had one night. Imagine you have a dream where you are on one of those big cruise ships and it’s filled with couples – two by two – like in Noah’s Ark – and you’re having a great time, but it starts to rain, and rain, and rain, and rain, and rain, and all the earth is flooded and you begin to notice when you look over the side of the ship’s railing floating bodies and dogs and cats and debris, dead people, children, ugh. Animals. All died. The captain announces over and over again, “Thank God we are on this ship, because there is no longer any land. The whole world is flooded out.”

And you wake up and you feel yucky. Yug. Oooooh. You feel rotten and you feel that way for a week and you wonder if it’s you or if it’s the world that’s headed for destruction and you wonder about your dream.

And a few weeks later you have another dream and this time you are on that same boat and this time you send some birds out to see if they don’t come back – because if they do come back they haven’t found any place to land and one comes back – with an olive branch in her mouth.

What a sign of hope!

And you wake up, feeling right, feeling hopeful, feeling better.

One dream was a nightmare and the other was a dream of hope.

FLOOD DREAMS!

Have you ever had a flood dream?

Carl Jung in his book, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, tells about some dreams he had in 1913 and 1914. They remind me of the Noah story.

Let me let him tell what happened in his own words.

Toward the autumn of 1913 the pressure which I had felt was in me seemed to be moving outward: as though there were something in the air. The atmosphere actually seemed to me darker than it had been. It was as though the sense of oppression no longer sprang exclusively from a psychic situation, but from concrete reality. This feeling grew more and more intense.

In October, while I was alone on a journey, I was suddenly seized by an overpowering vision: I saw a monstrous flood covering all the northern and low-lying lands between the North Sea and the Alps. When it came up to Switzerland I saw that the mountains grew higher and higher to protect our country. I realized that a frightful catastrophe was in progress. I saw the mighty yellow waves, the floating rubble of civilization, and the drowned bodies of uncounted thousands. Then the whole sea turned to blood. This vision lasted about one hour. I was perplexed and nauseated, and ashamed of my weakness.

Two weeks passed; then the vision recurred, under the same conditions, even more vividly than before, and the blood was more emphasized. An inner voice spoke. "Look at it well; it is wholly real and it will be so. You cannot doubt it." That winter someone asked me what I thought were the political prospects of the world in the near future. I replied that I had no thoughts on the matter, but that I saw rivers of blood.

I asked myself whether these visions pointed to a revolution, but could not really imagine anything of the sort. And so I drew the conclusion that they had to do with me myself, and decided that I was menaced by a psychosis. The idea of war did not occur to me at all.

Soon afterward, in the spring and early summer of 1914, I had a thrice-repeated dream that in the middle of summer an Arctic cold wave descended and froze the land to ice. I saw, for example, the whole of Lorraine and its canals frozen and the entire region totally deserted by human beings. All living green things were killed by frost. This dream came in April and May, and for the last time in June, 1914.

In the third dream frightful cold had again descended from out of  the cosmos. This dream, however, had an unexpected end. There stood a leaf-bearing tree, but without fruit (my tree of life, I thought) , whose leaves had been transformed by the effects of the frost into sweet grapes full of healing juices. I plucked the grapes and gave them to a large, waiting crowd.

At the end of July 1914 I was invited by the British Medical Association to deliver a lecture, "On the Importance of the Unconscious in Psychopathology," at a congress in Aberdeen. I was prepared for something to happen, for such visions and dreams are fateful. In my state of mind just then, with the fears that were pursuing me, it seemed fateful to me that I should have to talk on the importance of the unconscious at such a time!

On August 1 the world war broke out. Now my task was clear: I had to try to understand what had happened and to what extent my own experience coincided with that of mankind in general. Therefore my first obligation was to probe the depths of my own psyche; I made a beginning by writing down the fantasies which had come to me during my building game. This work took precedence over everything else.

OURSELVES

Haven’t we all had dreams where we felt trapped, caught, lost, being attacked. Aren’t they connected to the world we are experiencing every day?

Haven’t we all watched TV and then gone to bed and somehow what we watched got into our dreams?

Well, doesn’t the same thing happen when we watch the world and our everyday experiences? Don’t they get into our dreams?

A FORTIORI

So if we feel hopeless in our dreams, trapped, caught, the world we experienced must feel that way. Maybe we have to make some moves. Maybe we need to move away from hopeless situations. Maybe we better plug into good stuff. Maybe we better reflect and meditate on stories of hope so that we will dream hope stories.

When we feel sorrows deeply in our dreams, maybe it should move us to pray for the world. Not just ourselves. Maybe we need to be a  sign of hope for our world, not just for ourselves, but for all those around us, who hopefully dream of a better world and then we will have the dreams of hope as well.

TODAY’S GOSPEL

Take today’s gospel. Imagine if you never heard this story before and you have a dream of yourself as a blind man bumping into people, and the stuff around you. And you meet Christ and he sees you and your blindness. He stops everything. He has time for you. He then takes you outside of where you are and puts spit in your eyes and heals you and then Jesus says to you, “Go home now a new person.”

CONCLUSION

Interpreting dreams can be a very powerful way of raising our consciousness, so too the scriptures. Not everyone writes down their dreams for later reflection and meditation. However, various people have taken the time to write down the scriptures for our growth and development. Amen.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Painting on top: Noah's Ark by Edward Hicks, 1846

February 15, 2017

MUSIC

Is music me?

As they say, “If you don’t toot your

own horn, you own horn goes untooted.”

Is the primitive me drums - like my heart

beats - pulsating in my inner jungle - me?

Am I the songs lodged deep in my memory,
“I gotta be me….” “To dream the impossible

dream….” “Somewhere over the rainbow….”

“People who need people are the luckiest ….”

“It’s a wonderful world….” and so many more?

Am I the musical pieces I hear from time to time - while driving, at restaurants, while

walking the long corridors of life? 

Am I a piano player who stopped lessons or

a guitar player who put the guitar in the closet?

Am I an instrument that is not too late to learn?

Is music me?

© Andy Costello, Reflections  2017

LOVER’S  PRAYER

Lord,

is February only for lovers:

Valentine’s Day

and young couples

longing for the spring?

Lord,

isn’t every day

a lover’s day:

if I stop along the road to listen to a friend,

or challenge an unkind slur,

or help carry another’s burden

when I see them struggling up the hill?

Lord,

isn’t every day

a lover’s day:

if I tell another

I am grateful for their presence

in my life and how they change

my winter into spring?

© Andy Costello

Markings Prayers

February 14, 2017

MATHEMATICS

Is Mathematics me?

There is only one of me - but it took two to make

me. Thank you mom and dad. Thanks God.

It’s not good to be alone - as God said, and as

the song went, “One is the loneliest number.”

It takes two to tangle and tango.

It takes one to write the book,

but it takes two to make War and Peace.

It takes millions to keep this going,

so we better get our math straight.

Long division can cause long silences.

So too when we subtract people who are
different from us from our lives. We need
the addition and multiplication of others

as we head for the common table - 
the common altar of sacrifice - where
we all need to sit and eat - listen to
each other and wash each other's feet.

It’s not the size of the crowd,

unless those things bother us.

Jesus said the secret is,

“Make numbero uno last.”

Is Mathematics me?

© Andy Costello, Reflections  2017

February 13, 2017

HISTORY

Is history me?

Would I be any different if I was born

anywhere or any time else? Obviously.

I am my stories and my parents -

and the main actors on my stage.

And a lot more and a lot more

and a lot more to come, please God.

Shakespeare helps me hear my story.

To be or not to be Hamlet or the fool.

At times I am “A Midsummer Night’s
Dream,” and “I am slow of study.” [1]

“The web of our life is of a mingled

yarn, good and ill together.” [2]

I don’t want, please God, to end up, “A

poor infirm, weak, and despised old man.” [3]

Is history me?

© Andy Costello, Reflections  2017

[1] Shakespeare, A Midsummer’s Night Dream, Act I, Scene ii, line 70.

[2] Shakespeare, All’s Well That Ends Well, IV, Scene iii, line 83

[3] Shakespeare, King Lear, Act 3, Scene ii, line 20.

THE MARK OF CAIN

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 6^th Monday in Ordinary Time is, “The Mark of Cain.”

These powerful stories in the Book of Genesis give us plenty of life issues to think about.

In today’s story from Genesis 4:1-15, 25, we hear about Cain - a tiller of the soil - a farmer - who killed his brother Abel - a shepherd.

Motive: thinking God liked Abel better than God liked him. Cain thought God thought Abel brought the better gift as an offering. Motive: jealousy, envy, and anger - and probably stuff that goes way back into their history.

Here it is Chapter 4 and the authors of Genesis have already brought up and put on the stage the question of Good and Evil - and that God creates good, so who brings about evil? Answer: us.

We eat forbidden fruit. We hide from God. We blame the other. We want to be equal to God. And here we have brother killing brother.

Cain then wanders the earth: restless and filled with remorse. And on his being is the mark of his mistake: the mark of Cain.

YETZER HARA

Jewish rabbis like to point out that we all have the mark of our sins on the blackboard of our soul.  We have the chalk dust - still there - even though we try to erase it. We have scars. We have memories. We know our big mistakes.

Jewish rabbis also  like to point out - using this story of Cain killing his brother Abel - that there is lurking at our doorstep - at the flap of the tent of our mind - something called, ‘The Yetzer Hara”. That’s Hebrew for the Inclination to Sin.

Yetzer - inclination. Hara - sin or evil.

They also like to point out that there is also the opposite - right there at the edge of out being: the Yetzer Ha tov: the inclination to good.

They teach when a boy hits 13 and a girl 12 - it’s bar or bas mitzvah time - to point out that we have choices. Choose good; avoid evil.

We Catholics have confirmation. Other religions and tribes - more or less have these puberty rites. The Amish have the Rumspringa - literally “Run Springing  - running around - when young people are put out there for roughly a year - not to get into evil drug parties - that some documentaries like to televise. They want to give their young ones the freedom to choose Amish.

The rabbis like to teach that every person has to move from the physical to the spiritual. We have desires to eat and drink, but there is the inclination to be a glutton and overdrink. They like to teach that we have sexual powers, but we need to fight the yetzer hara to over indulge. So too speech…. So too to have fun, but we can overdo it - and get marked down for life.

FOR LIFE

Cain carried the sin - the mark - of his evil deed for life.

As priest I know that people carry the sins of their youth, young adulthood, old adulthood for life.

So the message is obviously to choose good and have that marked on our being for life.

IN TOUCH WITH

I would think it is important that we know about evil and good - how they lurk at the edge of our life.

I would think it’s important to help kids choose good - and to encourage.

I would think it’s important for us to give good example.

I would think it’s important to help kids realize there is evil. 

It's Black History Month and I would think one good movie to watch is, "42" - the story of Jackie Robinson breaking into the major leagues as the first African-American baseball player. Relevant to this sermon is a scene in Cincinnatti - where Robinson is taunted and made fun and called the "N" word.  The camera puts a close up and the focus of a little white kid watching Jackie Robinson - his new found hero - till he hears his father and his father's friends calling Jackie the "N" word and then after a long pause - the kid does as well.

The evil inclination. The Yetzer Hara is always around.

I would think kids learn that for beach week at the end of high school and during spring break in college, there are opportunities to work on houses - like habitat for humanity.

I would think it’s smart to know kids need supervision - when the superego - chaperone’s are talking  - kids are plotting. I always remember boat rides up the Hudson as a kid - altar boys - there would always be Catholic high school seniors throwing chairs overboard - and making mischief.

CONCLUSION

Regrets and remembering dumb and dirty tricks, hurting and killing one another, sins and selfishness and a lot more are the marks of Cain.

Forgiveness from our brother Jesus  - who has become our keeper - is a way to recover and we can be redeemed and walk with the mark of forgiveness on our hands and soul.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++
Painting on top: Cain and Abel,  by Keith Vaughan Tate, 1946.