DIFFERENT
O O O O O O OWhen you see me,
is it, "Who do you see?"
or "What do you see?'
Do you see a color
or a look
or accent
or a collar
or a title
or a label?
Saturday, July 28, 2018
July 28, 2018
ZUCCHINI AND GOD
ZUCCHINI AND GOD
Okay, you’re putting God off
till you’re retired and you have
a wondering if both of you
will be ready for each other
before the casket or the cancer
grabs you like a crab underwater.
Step back, relax, remember
the two of you connected
a few times
down through the years - and probably
better than some church goers.
For example, remember the joy
you felt that night you walked home alone
having just proposed to your wife....
Or that time you saw your first grandchild ….
Or that time you were sitting there
with family at your dad’s funeral ….
Or that time you cried - you actually
cried - after your neighbor whom you
never said hello to, gave you 26 zucchini
and about 2 dozen tomatoes.
© Andy Costello, Reflections
2018
Friday, July 27, 2018
Thursday, July 26, 2018
Wednesday, July 25, 2018
July 25, 2018
BOOK OF KELLS
BOOK OF KELLS
Good news written on calf-skin ….
Did those calves know - while
grazing in the fields - that they
would last from
the 800’s till
now - under glass - in the Old
Library at Trinity College in
Dublin? Tourists grazing and
gazing on beauty - words
becoming flesh - copied in gold -
red lead - yellow arsenic sulphate -
inspiring all of us to love
Library at Trinity College in
Dublin? Tourists grazing and
gazing on beauty - words
becoming flesh - copied in gold -
red lead - yellow arsenic sulphate -
inspiring all of us to love
one another as Jesus taught us -
realizing goats - besides sheep -
can make it into the Book of Life.
© Andy Costello, Reflections
2018
Tuesday, July 24, 2018
MAKING MISTAKES
MY TAKE - OTHER’S TAKE
- GOD’S TAKE
ON MY MISTAKES
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily for this 16 Tuesday in Ordinary
Time is, “Making Mistakes: My Take - Other’s Take - God’s Take on My Mistakes.”
Today’s first reading from Micah and today’s Psalm 85
triggered for me the theme of this homily: Making mistakes: my take on my
mistakes as well as how I think others take my mistakes - as well as I think
God takes my mistakes.
WHEN WE MAKE A MISTAKE
When we make a mistake - whom do we think about mainly?
Ourselves? Others?
God?
In this homily I want to think about all 3 - how we see
mistakes impacting ourselves as well as others and God?
MYSELF
Let me begin with myself?
What do we say when we make a mistake?
When I make a mistake,
I say things like, “Dumb! Dumb! Dumb!”
or “Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!”
I close my eyes when saying that or I say, “Dang it! Dang
it! Dang it!”
I might even hit myself or bang my fist against the palm of my hand. “Oooouuh!
Uuuuuuuuuuuh!”
For example, I miss an appointment and blame it on my old
age. Or I end up in the wrong nursing home as I did last Saturday and I get frustrated at myself for the mistake I
made. Well, Crownsville and Croften
both begin with a “C”
So when we sin or make a mistake - we might ask - “How
does this make me feel about myself.”
What do I think about myself as myself? Can I forgive
myself? As priest people tell me about
the mistakes of their life - some they are
aware of life like a scar on the skin of their soul.
Do I feel guilty? Can I forgive myself? Do I deny that I made a mistake?
I like the distinction some make between shame and
guilt. Guilt means, I made a mistake.
Shame means I am a mistake. So guilt is
easier than shame.
OTHERS
Then there are others?
Sometimes we worry about what others will say or think about us when we
make a mistake?
We hope they will give us a break - allowing us to be mistake
makers.
Here is where we get a chance to understand Christ - who said, “Let the one without sin
toss the first stone.
Here is a chance for us to discover what others are
really like - who our friends are?
Friends are those who call us up - to see if we are okay
- after the news gets out that we got caught shop lifting - or we got fired
because we stole from work - or what have you.
Sunglasses and side doors and the dark are mistake makers
best friends.
GOD
Then there is God. How do we see God - when it comes to
our making a mistake.
Today’s first reading from Micah has God described as the
God who removes guilt. It says that God does not persist in anger at our being
a mistake maker. Micah says God has compassion on us.
Micah says that God casts into the depths of the sea, all
our sins.
I remember hearing a big sermon by a priest saying God
buys this big trunk - fills it with our sins - locks it - chains it - and then
throws it into the deepest part of the ocean.
In today’s psalm, the author says God doesn’t rejoice in our sins. It says God covers our sins. Like we’re sitting next to God at a table with a white table cloth and a red juicy meatball gets away and rolls off our plate and God says - pointing to the sunset out the window and everyone looks that way while God slips off his white napkin and covers the table cloth that we messed up - with that slippery meat ball.
God is all about joy, rejoicing, kindness, life, saving
us from sin and self-embarrassment.
We might get angry with ourselves - others might get
angry with us for spilling bloody red spaghetti sauce on the family name - God
doesn’t. God likes us as part of his creative juices. Amen.
July 24, 2018
ECHOES THAT I LIKE
Thank you.... Thank you.... Thank you ....
Nice.... Nice .... Nice ....
Sweet.... Sweet .... Sweet ....
Wow.... Wow .... Wow ....
Wonderful.... Wonderful .... Wonderful ....
Yes.... Yes .... Yes ....
Bless you.... Bless you .... Bless you ....
© Andy Costello, Reflections
2018
Monday, July 23, 2018
THE LORD
IS NOT A
MOUNTAIN!
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily for this 16th Monday in
Ordinary Time is, “The Lord Is Not A Mountain.”
Today’s first reading from the Book of the Prophet Micah
begins with a very visual image. The Lord says, “Present your plea - your voice
- to the Lord before the mountains.” [Cf. Micah
6: 1-8]
“Stand before the mountains -
yell - and hear your voice. Hear the echo of your sounds. Pay attention to what you are saying,
pleading, asking, praying for?”
In other words, listen to
your own prayers and pleas.
EASY TO PICTURE
It’s easy to picture a mountain.
We’ve been there - or we saw them in movies or on television.
When kids draw - they often draw
mountains - so easy - along with trees and cats and dogs.
So imagine yourself standing
there facing a gigantic mountain.
What is your biggest prayer in
your life right now? For family? Self? Friends? Our world?
Yell it out. Hear your echo.
Listen to what your saying - attentively. Carefully.
Then Micah says to us: Listen to
what the Lord speaks back to you.
WE ARE NOT MOUNTAINS
We are not made of stone - but
sometimes we are stone deaf. Sometimes we feel like a rock or a stone. Isn’t
that the sense of Simon and Garfunkle’s
song, “I am a rock. I am an island….”
Prayer, a conversation, is two sided.
Prayer, a conversation, is two sided.
Unfortunately, sometimes we talk
to each other and we’re really not being with, listening to, looking into the
other’s eye and being - and hearing what the other is saying.
God is not a mountain. Yet God
is pictured as a mountain - in the scriptures.
Mountains don’t have eyes, ears, a heart, an understanding.
Yet mountains can be very
powerful. Imposing. Overshadowing.
Overwhelming.
I was on Gibraltar. I was inside
Gibraltar - inside the big caves and tunnels within. It was a moving moment.
I’ve hiked up some of the Rocky
Mountains and the Presidential Range of Mountains in New Hampshire.
Momentous moments
I’ve prayed on Mountains.
However, God is not a mountain.
God is 3 Persons - a community
of 3 persons who are so together, they are 1.
TODAY’S MESSAGE
Today’s message is to be in
communion with God - however you imagine him: mountain, ocean, father, mother,
shepherd, spouse, bread, wine, fortress, wall, woman in labor, farmer.
Whichever, whatever, image you
use when you’re with God, make sure it’s personal and particular - one to one
with God.
Make sure you’re not alone - as a person standing before
a mountain - but as a spouse or child in your parents arms.
CONCLUSION
Let me end by making a few conclusions.
So God is not a stone mountain.
God’s voice is not an echo.
As Elijah discovered while he was hiding on a mountain,
“God was not in the earthquake, the wind or the fire. God was the sheer silence.”
[Cf. 1 Kings 19: 11-18]
Listen.
Sunday, July 22, 2018
3 THINGS JESUS TAUGHT ME
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily for this 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time [B] is, “3 Things Jesus Taught
Me.”
The last line in today’s gospel is, “… and he began to
teach them many things.”
When I read that,
a question hit me: “What did Jesus teach me?”
I began jotting down different things Jesus taught me and
then picked three.
I ask you to do the same thing.
Tell yourself 3 things Jesus taught you.
That’s my homily. Simple.
Do that with each other. Share and compare notes.
TO GET THERE, LET ME GO THIS WAY
Looking at life, what have you learned and who taught
you?
I once made a workshop on stress and the heart and
health.
A guy named Jim Gill, a Jesuit priest - a former Navy guy
- who became a Jesuit, then a doctor, then a psychiatrist, gave us a few talks
about stress.
He told about a doctor in the San Francisco area who
taught people to go into a bank - where you have to do some business - and
there are several lines. Pick the
longest line - and when you get to the 2nd in line - get off that
line - go to the back - and pick the longest line again.
While on that line do the following. Think of your high
school senior classmates and in your mind name as many of them as you can.
That’s it. You could pick neighbors on your street
growing up - weddings you’ve been to - books you read - different things Jesus
taught you.
I heard that and have done just that ever since - not
every time - but I’ve done it at Graul’s - toll booths - I don’t have E-ZPass -
getting a table at a restaurant - what
have you.
This works. Lines have never bothered me ever since. No
stress.
Or for example, a priest named Jack Shea - from Chicago -
gave a talk at a workshop I was taking.
He said he was once giving a talk in Dallas at a Hotel convention. His
talk was at 11 AM. He said he went down for breakfast around 8 AM. No lines.
He got his breakfast - had it on a tray - and headed for
a table to eat. The place was not too crowded.
He sees a guy sitting by himself. So he asks, “Mind if I join you?”
He didn’t know who the guy was - whether he was there for
the convention on Spirituality or something else - but why not. It’s not good
to eat alone.
He didn’t tell the guy he was one of the speakers - just,
“Hi. I’m Jack.”
He found out the guy was there for the convention. Jack still didn’t tell this other guy who he
was. He just wanted to share breakfast with another human being.
The guy in the midst of their conversation told Jack that
when he picks up a book on spirituality or religion he likes to look at the
chapters or the index and see if they list anything about work and
relationships. He said, “It seems that
many books don’t list those two issues or say anything about those two areas of
life. He added, “As far as I’m concerned, except for sleep, that’s where people
spend most of their time - work and relationships.”
Jack said, “I said to myself, ‘Uh oh, as soon as this
breakfast is over I’m going up and look at my talk and make sure I have stuff
on those two areas of life.”
I learned something at that moment and have tried to keep
those two issues out front in my sermons and my writings.
Interesting …. I was driving the other day listening to
BBC on the radio. A Jewish man - who helps folks deal with death - was being
interviewed. He was asked if he noticed any differences between men and women
who were dying. He said, “Yes. I noticed
men have trouble when they see themselves losing it - when it comes to being
able to produce. Women feel it when they
see themselves losing it when it comes to relationships. there they were again: work and
relationships.
NOW THREE THINGS JESUS TAUGHT ME
Now let me give three things that Jesus taught me - 3
things that grabbed me - three things that I have tried to put into practice.
I’ll give my three - I’ll practice what I’m preaching
this weekend - in hopes you do the same.
FIRST TEACHING: FATHER FORGIVE THEM BECAUSE THEY
DON’T KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING.
On the cross Jesus was dying after being beaten, nailed
to that cross, spit at, yelled at - and he says, “Father forgive them because
they don’t know what they are doing.”
When hurt …. when talked about …. when criticized …. when
crucified …. think about the person hurting you. They don’t know why they are
doing it.
Motive - the why - why - why - is very tricky.
It could be envy - it could be pay back - it could be
they were hurt - it could be, we remind
them of all the bullies they have run into in life. Why did this guy kill the 5
folks at the Capital?
Horrible - but whether this guy knows why he did what he
did - maybe we’ll never know. There will
be stated reasons, yet, down deep - will we ever know.
Obviously, the killer has to be isolated - but after that - we can’t let someone continue to
kill our spirit and spirituality.
Father forgive him because he doesn’t know why he did
what he did.
SECOND TEACHING: LET HIM OR HER WITHOUT SIN CAST
THE FIRST STONE
In many of our relationships, we throw stones at other
people.
We might be doing it because we want to knock people down
a level.
We might do just that because we really want to hurt
ourselves.
We might be doing just that because we don’t want to face
our own sins and we know down deep what we saw this other person doing was
wrong.
I have never forgotten an example in a story by Hawthorne
about Puritan Life way back in this 17th Century New England town. There
was a woman who walked around making the sound, “Tch. Tch. Tch.” and this other
lady said to her, “You need to commit a really good sin, then maybe you’ll
understand the rest of us around here.”
THIRD TEACHING FROM JESUS: TAKE AND EAT, THIS IS MY BODY - TAKE AND
DRINK, FOR THIS IS MY BLOOD
Be in communion with one another. Be in Holy Communion with one another. Eat
with one another. We are not a bunch of
I’s here at church together. We are a
mass of people called a “WE”.
Jesus was always eating with other people.
When we eat with one another, we become one another.
Their lives, their experiences, their day, their work,
their relationships, become us that is if
we chew on and digest each other and our stuff.
If I’m hearing people, if I’m seeing people, if I’m
knowing people, people are not eating each other up.
People are not being in and with the Mass - called family
- enough.
People are not stomaching each other - enough.
People are not in the I of the other - their eye is on
the TV or their ear is on the cell phone or iPhone.
Want a Eucharistic Spirituality? Eat together. Come to Mass. Eat together.
Come to meals to be with each other. We’re here - not just to be with Christ,
but to be with each other and become the Body of Christ.
See your family table as an altar. Play cards on it. Talk
at it - long after the meal is over. Eat each other up.
See the sacrifice that makes up a good meal together. The
cost of food - with money from our work salary. The time it takes to shop and
pick out and prepare the food the others like and to clean up afterwards.
Learn the meaning of sacrifice.
Let that sink in.
At Mass we hear the stories - of what happened in Jesus’
day.
At meals, we can hear the stories - of what happened in
each other’s life.
Let those words become flesh and dwell among us.
CONCLUSION
The title of this homily is, “3 Things Jesus Taught You.”
These things can be tough to do. It’s called the
Sacrifice of the Mass of all that a good life consists of. When we fail, let’s
forgive and realize the other has forgotten what they are to do in life. When we fail, let’s not throw rocks at each
other. When we forget, let’s remember
our calling to be good shepherds and set a good table before each other.
I gave you my 3. What are your 3? Amen.
July 22, 2018
PRIEST WALKING
PRIEST WALKING
I’m walking down the white vinyl
hospital corridor - walking by
person after person after person.
I give each person a “Hi” or “Morning!”
or a wave and a smile. Some smile
back. Some “Hi” back. Some scowl.
At that moment I realize - because of the
collar - I represent every priest they ever
met. Is that why I get a smile or a scowl?
© Andy Costello, Reflections
2018
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