April 7, 2018

FIRST AND LAST WORDS

There are times we wonder about 

parting words. I hope mine won't be, “No!”

Last words, “Yes!” I hope mine will

be, “I love you” -  never “I hate you.”

I hope mine will be, “I’m sorry!” -

never, “I’ll never forgive you.”

I celebrate that my last words to

my brother were, “I love you.”

That was before he underwent

his brain cancer operation. Oooh!

My mom? I hope it was, “I love you!” I don’t

remember what I said that last phone call.

I didn’t know she was to be killed this day

in a hit and run accident crossing the street.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2018
In memory of my mom who died
this day, April 7, 1987 - walking
to church in Brooklyn N.Y. 

April 7, 2018 

Thought for today: 

“The  first  question which the priest and the Levite asked was: ‘If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?’ But… the good Samaritan reversed the question: ‘If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?’" 

Martin Luther King Jr.

April 6, 2018

LONG  DISTANCE

Long distance ….

Two words used for the longest time -

when talking about phone calls ….

Long distance ….

Not now - long distance phone calls are easy -

now just inches away from ear and heart.

Long distance ….

Looking back I think of people I knew and

began to forget and they became long distance.

Long distance ….

Some are buried in a fancy box - under a

heavy stone in a rain or snow covered grave.

Long distance ….

God - sorry to say - you too have become

long distance - that is, till we …. I’m calling ….

Long distance ….

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2018

BREAKFAST  WITH  JESUS

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this Friday in Easter Week  is,  “Breakfast With Jesus.”

Today’s Gospel is one more interesting story in the Gospel of John.  There are many more. Here are a few:

Wedding Feast at Cana - 6 large water jars;

Woman caught in Adultery and the stones in hand and Jesus writing in the earth; 

Woman at the well;

Nicodemus at night;

Blind man whose parents wouldn’t vouch for him;

the last supper and the washing of feet;

and here breakfast with Jesus.

FOOD MOMENTS

Here are 7 possible food moments with each other: breakfast, lunch, supper - a cup of tea and scones, a coffee break, a drink together and going out for ice cream.

To be human is to do interesting things - often with food.

To be human is to do interesting things - usually with others.

To be human is to do life in relationships, friendships, and meetings.

Here in John 21:1-14 we have this interesting story that takes place at the Lake of Galilee. Its key characters are Peter and Jesus.

WORKING - WITHOUT ANY LUCK

At times in life, people work hard, but they get no catches.

Salesmen and saleswomen of the world tell me your stories.

DETAILS IN THIS  STORY

This story has interesting details: 153 large fish, bread and a charcoal fire.

Then there is the invitation, “Come have breakfast together.”

A GOOD QUESTION: WHAT HAVE YOU CAUGHT IN YOUR LIFE?

What have you caught in life? List 153 things.  

Caught a good milk shake place on Route 30 near Crestline, Ohio.  Caught a truck driver in Pennsylvania on Christmas Day off Route 80. He was just sitting there eating alone at a truck stop. I was alone, so I asked to join him. We had a great conversation about family. He said he had to make a living - driving a truck - far from home on Christmas day.  I met Leo Cravatta, a great Italian plumber from West Pittston Pa on a religious retreat at Tobyhanna, Pennsylvania. Is he still alive?  Had breakfast with my sister Mary a dozen times in Virginia Beach and she doesn’t like to go out to eat.

What have been your breakfasts?  Could you list 153 of them?

Is breakfast with the boys at Burger King or McDonalds or the Diner or Chick and Ruth’s one of the best blessings of retirement.  Do men do that more than women?  I don’t know.

Looking at your life, what have you caught? Whom have you met? Did you have any moments like today’s gospel from John 21: 1-14?

What would it be like to have breakfast with Jesus?  Who would do the talking? What would be the topics and themes.

If Jesus asked you, “What have you caught?” What have you netted?  How would you answer that baby?

What is your favorite breakfast?  Would you take fish?

In today’s gospel, it says none his disciples dared to ask Jesus, “Who are you?”  Would you dare to ask Jesus that question: Try it.

Would Jesus dare to ask you that question?

Obviously, Jesus went fishing and caught Peter.

Has God ever caught you?  Please describe?

For example ….

It was a dark church in Cincinnati and I just happened to walk into that church on a Wednesday afternoon and I felt overwhelmed by God and ....

It was an early morning moment when I was fishing and God ....

It was a clear star moon lit night and I was alone walking the dog and I looked up at the dark star filled night sky and Jesus ....

It was something a priest once said in a sermon and ....

CONCLUSION

In this homily of sorts I gave some random questions and comments coming out of today’s gospel.

I’m just fishing.

Can the whole of life be summed up with two words, “Gone Fishing?”

April 6, 2018 

Thought for today: 

"I  came  to the conclusion that there is an existential moment in your life when you must decide to speak for yourself; nobody else can speak for you.” 

Martin Luther King Jr.

RADIANCE

The glisten in a wedding ring,

the bouncing light off a marble table top,

the color green in her eyes,

the faces of graduates, brides and grooms,

on their big day. Sensing God’s creative

energy on a snowy day, a rainy day, any day….

God don’t let me not see your radiance today.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2018

April 5, 2018 

Thought for today: 

“In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”

Martin Luther King, Jr.

STOP!

He hadn’t talked to his dad 

in 7 years - and 7 months. 

He saw a sign on the wall of the  bus. 

The red light was long enough 

for him to read  some words 

from Martin Luther King, Jr. 

“He who is devoid of the power 

to forgive is devoid of the power to love.” 

He didn’t have his dad’s phone number. 

Mom had died  7 years and 7 months ago.  

He got off the bus at the next stop 

and took a cab to his father’s house. 

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2018

April 4, 2018  

Thought for today: 

“Let  no  man pull you so low as to hate him.”  

Martin Luther King, Jr.

April 4, 2018

NAIL BITING

If someone says to you,

“Stop biting your nails!”

don’t listen to them.

Everyone bites their

nails, especially when

they are nervous.

I guarantee you: there

never will be a NBA,

a Nail Biters Anonymous.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2018

THE ASCENSION:

TWO COMMENTS

INTRODUCTION

Since the Ascension of Christ is mentioned in today’s gospel [John 20: 11-18], let me say two things about the Ascension  this morning. So the title of my homily for this Tuesday within the octave of Easter  is, “The Ascension: Two Comments.”

FIRST COMMENT: THE ASCENSION - WHEN DID IT TAKE PLACE?

Today’s gospel brings out  that Jesus says to Mary, “Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father.”

Some folks might even remember this scene and other scenes about Mary and Jesus from the musical and the movie: Jesus Christ Superstar.

Then we read other post resurrection comments when Jesus touches and holds his disciples.  Remember when Jesus, the Risen One, asks Thomas to put his hand into Jesus cuts and wounds [Cf. John 20:27.]

So I have heard some theologians wondering if Jesus ascended to the Father right after the resurrection and then came back during those 40 days after Easter - then he ascends to the Father again.

That’s my first thought - put out there in the form or a wondering.

We can understand Jesus feeding people or walking the roads of Galilee, but understanding what happens after death is quite tricky. Bread and roads we have done; death not yet.

Does death and then resurrection put us into different time and space realities  than we are in right now? The answer to that has to be “yes” but what it’s like, we have to wait till our death to find out.

SECOND COMMENT: WILL THERE BE A MAJOR NEW THEOLOGY IN THE FUTURE?

In the last century, there was a major change and understanding of the resurrection, I heard some theologian say that just as in our time the theology of the resurrection evolved - so too in the future a whole new understanding of the Ascension will happen.

We Redemptorists would know that about Easter and the Resurrection - because one of our priests, Father F. X. Durrell came out with his church changing book, The Resurrection: A Biblical Study, [1960].

When we were kids, Lent sort of ended on Holy Saturday morning.  Then the Liturgy shifted us back to Holy Saturday evening and the Easter Vigil.  

It was after that we saw and smelled the RCIA, the Easter Vigil, Easter, the Resurrection  being as important as it is - as Paul told us loud and clear in 1 Corinthians 15: 1-19 -  that we wondered how we had slipped into the mind set we were in for the longest time.

With that in mind and as an experience, is there a whole new world of the theology and philosophy of the Ascension just sitting there.

Time will tell.

But I don’t know who the experts, the writers, the scholars on the Ascension are, but let’s hope they will show up.

When - maybe this century?

We’re only 2000 years into Christianity….

Who knows what has to be developed more: Pentecost, the Second Coming, as well as the Ascension.

April 3, 2018

Thought for today: 

“The tragedy of life is not death but in what dies inside a man while he lives - the death of genuine feeling, the death of inspired response, the death of the awareness that makes it possible to feel that pain or the glory of other men in oneself.”  

Norman Cousins, in Saturday Review, October 2, 1954

DAVID’S  TOMB:

KEEP  SEARCHING

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this Monday in the Octave of Easter is, “David’s Tomb: Keep Searching.”

This homily is about David’s tomb - from today’s first reading: [Acts of the Apostles 14, 22-33]

If you have nothing to do and you like to look things up on your computer, look up “David’s Tomb.”

I remember standing there in a small room in Jerusalem. Our tour guide pointed to a dark blue cloth covered a sarcophagus or casket or burial box, and said, “This is said to be the burial place of David.”

I immediately said to myself, “No way. You’re kidding.”

David’s dates are disputed - but it’s helpful to simply say “David was from around 1000 years before Christ.”

This morning I read in today’s first reading, “My brothers, one can confidently say to you about the patriarch David that he died and was buried, and his tomb is in our midst to this day.”

That brought back the memory of being at that blue cloth covered  box in Jerusalem that I saw in January of the year 2000.

So I looked up this morning in Google and a few other spots on line, “David’s Tomb.”

Various places for his burial are mentioned  - as well as doubts about the place I saw in Jerusalem.

Keep digging.

DID YOU KNOW

Did you know that Grant’s tomb is empty?

But we know where our loved ones are buried. But not all.

Keep digging.

I’ve gone searching for one of  my father’s sisters in a graveyard in Portland, Maine. I had found the other two sisters.

I had been there once, but I couldn’t find it when I went looking for it about 4 years ago.

Keep digging.

BURIED WITHIN US

I like another idea about burials better: the ones inside us.

Those we love are buried within us - in various ways.

Keep digging.

My sister Mary loves the book, It Didn’t Start with You.

Why we walk and talk the way we  walk and  talk - keep digging.

Our grandparent’s values and faith - are buried within us.

This should make us hesitant - so keep digging and talking to each other about what our moms and dads were like - and grandparents as well.

I am trying and working on this with my sister the last few years.  We’re trying to resurrect why we are the way we are - not just getting our DNA - but hopefully we have small museums of old letters from way back, etc. etc. etc.

In the meanwhile, save your letters and write your memoirs.

CONCLUSION

Christ has died. Christ has risen - Christ will come again.

David has died - please God he’s risen with God.

Praise God and please God, we’ll find David in the scriptures and glimpses about what he was like.

Praise God  and please God, we’ll keep finding Christ buried within us and not just in the scriptures.

And hopefully when we visit the sick, turn the other cheek, forgive 70 times 7 times and do another thousand things, we’ll dig and realize we are discovering how Christ is buried and where he is buried and has risen in us. Amen.

April 2, 2018

Thought for today: 

“None knows the weight of another’s burden.” 

George Herbert, Outlandish Proverbs, 1640

AMEN!

Sometimes spontaneously my soul

says, “Amen!” Most of the time it’s

an inner whisper - but sometimes

if it’s a spectacular staircase or 

chandelier or babies fingers - or

surprise sunset, my “Amen” is like

Handel   live - and in living color -

with a 100 piece orchestra. Amen.

Halleluia!  Halleluia!  Halleluja!

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2018

IT  FINALLY  DAWNED  ON  ME

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “It Finally Dawned  on  Me.”

It dawned on me yesterday: Easter is like Christmas. It’s a moment of light.

At Christmas Jesus comes out of the womb into the light of the world - and slowly becomes the light of the world.  At Easter Jesus comes out of the tomb as the light of the world. The darkness of death did not put out the Light of the world.

NOTICE THE GOSPEL FOR THIS MORNING

Notice the gospel for this morning from John.  It begins, “On the first day of the week, Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark, and she saw the stone removed from the tomb.

Remember the 3 word sentence from Holy Thursday evening.  Judas leaves the Eucharist - the Last Supper. He  goes to get his money - the 30 pieces of silver - for betraying Jesus. Then he wants to bring to the garden those who want to have Jesus arrested and  killed.  The 3 words: “It was night.”

We all fall asleep.  We are all in the dark at times.

Not everyone wakes up at  the same time.  Not everyone wakes up the same way. We’re on vacation - at the beach. Some people get up early - like 5:46 AM - to head for the beach so they can stand at the water’s edge and see the sun rise.  Some get up at 10:30 AM.

Bacon - bacon - bacon - the scent of bacon sneaks and slides into their nostrils around 10:29 A.M.

For others - the scent of God sneaks into and slides into our brain at 5:15 A.M. God dawns on us early on some mornings.

It’s Easter Sunday Morning.

GOD IS A TRINITY

Not everyone knows this, but God is a Trinity,  the  Trinity.

God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit - are 3 Persons, 1 God.

Not everyone knows this…. Not every religion teaches this.  Not every Christian community proclaims this the same way - as we Catholics do.

God is a Trinity - three persons.

It’s an amazing awareness - to know this. It’s a gift of faith. It’s a teaching that some people pass onto other people - without knowing that’s what they are doing.  Did your mom or dad bring you into a church - take your hand and put it in the Holy Water - and then make the sign of the cross on you and say, “In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit? Amen.

God knows persons.  God knows people.  God knows that faith - light - dawns on people at different times.  It all depends where we are and who we are.

God knows about people. God created us and gave us freedom. God knows fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, free spirits and not so free spirits.

And God made us so free - as free as God is - well to a degree - meaning that God doesn’t crush us if we don’t get this - or don’t accept this -  or grow with this -  that is - till this finally  dawns on us.

Hey, love and acceptance, awareness and connecting with each other - would be nothing, would be horrible, would not have its joy and it’s “pinchability” - if the other had to love us.

Think of a moment in our life when we felt and found out that another  likes us - another loves us. They  want  to find time to be with us. Pinch me. I’m recognized. I’m loved. I’m wanted to be with another. Woo… Woo…. Wow…. Wow.

So God is other and we are other and God wants us and sometimes this dawns on us - that God knows us and wants to be in a relationship with us.

Do we?

Hopefully, it dawns on us - that life is about mutual love - love that is freely given - one to the other - not out of obligation - but out of choice.

This is why I don’t like the term: “Sunday obligation” or “Holy Day of Obligation”.  I prefer, “Holy Day of Opportunity” or “Sunday opportunity.”

This means we want to be on the dance floor with God. We’re not dragged from our chair - but we get up. We  take God’s hand saying,  “Yeah - wow” to God. God wants this dance - this moment with me.”

Life: Father and Son dancing - and the Spirit of love between them dancing and hopefully, we want to join in this dance.

Amazing - amazing grace - amazing that God the creator of this whole spinning - moving universe - is on the dance floor and wants to dance with me - and all the people on this planet.

God is on the dance floor - dancing.

When does that dawn on us - that God is not alone - God is there on the dance floor - spinning, and spinning,  dancing and dancing, and is calling me and all the people before and now, onto the dance floor called existence.

And so many people are just sitting there saying, “I don’t dance!”

And the Lord of the dance - keeps dancing and laughing - and switching hands with billions of people - hoping all of us will enter into the dance.

God is Three - God is with billions - God is alive.

Oh, people might say they believe in God. People might  know with words that God is a Trinity. People might even make the sign of the cross - especially when in trouble,  asking help or praising God “In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

But God is more than words - talk, talk, talk.

God is a relationship. God is forever calling us into this relationship in and with God.

CHRISTIANITY

Christianity teaches that people were not getting this.

So God - in the fullness of time - went different.

God became one of us - so we can become one with God - actually enter into the Trinity.

Has this dawned on us yet?

Jesus became one of us.

What happened next - is what many who have tried Marriage dot.com - have discovered.

Sometimes the one we meet - is not the one we want.

People meet Jesus - but sometimes it’s a no go.

The gospel of John begins, “In the beginning was the Word; the Word was in God’s presence, and the Word was God.”

Then the Gospel  of  John says, “And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.”  [That’s Christmas.]

Then the Gospel of John tells us that Jesus did life as an us. That’s the life of Jesus - as part of the Trinity.

Then the Gospel of John tells us that people rejected him - but to those who accepted him - he gave them the power to become children of God.

The others killed him.

The gospel of John and the other gospels tell us that Jesus rose from the dead. [That’s Easter]

And for the past 2000 years Jesus has dawned on people - and they  became his followers.

CLOSING MESSAGE

Last night all kinds of people all around the world came into the dance, the community, called God, called Christian.

They just spent months and months - perhaps years and years - preparing for  that moment.

Christ dawns on people at different times as we heard in today’s gospel.

I love the line in the gospel for today that the beloved is the faster in the run to the tomb - and he’s the first to believe - but he lets Peter go in first. Most think this is John - he saw and believed.

I like to add: the power of the pen.

When you write your life - write down the moments - when Christ - the Risen Lord - dawned on you. Amen.