April 13, 2019
Thought for today:
“This is the grave of Mike O’Day
Who died maintaining his
right of way.
His right was clear, his will was strong,
But he’s just as
dead as if he’d been wrong.”
20th century Anonymous
Saturday, April 13, 2019
April 13, 2019
ORBIT
We all have various orbits:
family, friends, fellow workers,
church, and then we had those old orbits,
classmates, teams, organizations that
more or less float away from us as well.
Where we crash, spin out of control,
become confused, is when we are
spinning in two different directions
at once - like having dinner with family
and being on a iPhone at the same time.
Then there is God - who somehow
can orbit in and around all of us -
all at the same time - but that’s
something we can’t do because
we’re not God, but we can try to be.
© Andy Costello, Reflections 2019
Friday, April 12, 2019
April 12, 2019
SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
“Okay, attention,” someone yells out.
“Choose, your instrument!”
“Today you’re to be a violin or a drum,
a horn or a base fiddle or a glockenspiel,
a cello or a flute or a clarinet or a bell ….
“Choose one and start playing.”
"Don't just take pictures!"
"Don't just walk by."
"Smile. Tap you toes."
"Feel the beat in your heart beat"
"Clap!"
"Don't just take pictures!"
"Don't just walk by."
"Smile. Tap you toes."
"Feel the beat in your heart beat"
"Clap!"
“Make music - while you’re alive.”
© Andy Costello, Reflections 2019
Thursday, April 11, 2019
April 11, 2019
DISTANCE
It’s quite a distance
from the edge of a branch
to the edge of the moon -
as the branch tries to scratch
the moon’s hard rock back
and accept that it has craters.
It’s quite a distance
from the edge of now
to the edge of my body
in my casket box - but
touch my hand and say, “Hi!”
and hear me say, “Thanks!”
© Andy Costello, Reflections 2019
Wednesday, April 10, 2019
April 10, 2019
BEFORE AND AFTER
There’s a before, before us -
if we take the time to think about it.
We have parents. They had parents. They had parents.
And back and back and back and back and back.
There’s a before, before us -
if we take the time to think about it afterwards.
We’re the after, but we’re also the before of a
lot more that is to come.
A rose is from a rose is from a rose is from a rose is from
a rose and
back and back to the beginning of roses and oak trees and
bonsai trees.
So too butterflies, spiders, monkeys, hippos, Rottweilers,
singers, teachers, carpenters, lawyers, nurses, speakers of the house and
cleaners of the bathroom.
There’s a before, before us
if we take the time to think about it.
So if - who we are, what we say, and what we do lasts, - back
and back - till way, way back - why not
do the best we can do - in the here and now - right now.
We pray, we play, we work, we think, we talk, with words and structures
that go back, and back, and back, and back - till before
we remember back.
So I guess the message is: we’re all connected and a lot is
going
to follow us, so best case scenario: let’s leave a great
legacy. Amen.
Parvis Prayer
St. Mary's High School
April 10, 2019
36 Scholars were inducted
into the Rose Parvis
Scholarship Program
at St. Mary's High School,
Annapolis, Maryland
- Prayer Reflection
written for this occasion.
Father Andy Costello
April 10, 2019
MIND READING?????
Monkey see, monkey do.
See no evil, hear no evil,
do no evil, only
the good.
Seeing, hearing, doing
all come from the mind,
and I can’t read your mind.
So watching, hearing, guessing,
I really don’t know, so please
tell me the why of you?
© Andy Costello, Reflections 2019
Tuesday, April 9, 2019
April 9, 2019
FAILURE BRINGS
Winning wins us so much.
Winning - like a dart board - is very clear.
Failure can bring us so much more.
Only 1 team can win.
Yet 67 other teams can say they made
it to the Final 68 tournament.
Failure can make us that much hungrier.
Failure can take the air out of our heads.
Failure can be a great teacher.
© Andy Costello, Reflections 2019
THIS IS WHAT’S KILLING ME
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily is, “This Is What’s Killing
Me.”
That one liner gives me a possible reflection point from
both readings for today.
Yet - I find this message mysterious and complicated - and
I don’t think I can get my hands on exactly what is going on with these 2
readings. Sorry!
FIRST READING
In the first reading from the Book of Numbers, we hear that snakes are killing people. Moses says to the crowd in the desert, “Grab a
saraph snake after it bites you, put it up on a pole and then take a good look
at it.” [Cf. Numbers 21; 4-9.]
“If you do that, you will live.”
It’s kind of a mysterious message - but that’s a possible
message from what the story here is telling us.
To clarify this message, to broadcast this message, he
says to make it a bronze snake - and put it up on the pole.
THE MEDICAL PROFESSION
That bronze symbol of snake on the pole should sound familiar. It’s the symbol of the medical profession. A doctor sees a patient, examines a patient, and tries to name the sickness.
Tests…. Tests …. Tests …. The stuff of being a doctor
today…. The first step is to diagnosis what’s wrong - what’s the sickness.
Hopefully that can lead to healing that person.
TODAY’S GOSPEL
Today’s gospel from John 8: 21-30 refers to that story
from the Book of Numbers. Jesus says he’s going to be lifted up and then you
will know who I AM.
I assume that the text is referring to Jesus on the cross
- and the horror of what happened to him.
I assume that these two texts - are put here - as we move
towards the end of Lent.
I assume that Lent is a time of sitting and standing
under the cross - and studying Jesus - where made of bronze, wooden, plaster,
marble - getting us in touch with the flesh and blood Good Friday Jesus on the
cross.
Jesus, the Healer, allows the same thing to happen to him. He is nailed to a pole after telling us:
“This is what kills you.”
If we read the crucifixion story - we can pick up the
anger, the suffering, righteousness, the spitting on others, crucifying others, yelling at others….
People have been doing these horrible types of downing
others - down through the years - in all
kinds of ways and means.
The Christian enters into all this - into the passion -
death - and then the resurrection of Christ.
So once more Lent is a time of sitting and standing under
the cross - and studying Jesus - bronze, wooden, plaster, marble
WHAT KILLS YOU?
I think the question: “What kills me?” is an important
question to ask.
How do we crucify ourselves?
It could be a $20 dollar bill. Jesus was sold for 30
pieces of silver.
It could be food.
It could be over binging by watching television or the computer into mesmeration. Is that killing me?
We need to name our self-destroyers - or family
destroyers.
CONCLUSION
This theme - this looking at what kills us - what
crucifies us - should be in the mix of what we’re going to be reflecting on as
we move to the end of Lent and as we move closer and closer to Holy Week - which is next week. Amen.
Monday, April 8, 2019
WEAPONS OF CHOICE
The title of my homily for this 5th Monday in
Lent is, “Weapons of Choice.”
Today’s two readings feature two stories of women caught
in traps set up by men. Check them out: Daniel 13: 1- 62 and John 8: 1-11
They feature antagonism and violence - rock throwing and
accusations.
MARRIAGE PREPARATION TEST
When I meet with couples who are going to get married at
St. Mary’s, we go through this
Pre-Marriage Inventory [PMI].
In the communications section I ask the couple, “What is
your weapon of choice?”
Most of the time - couples hearing that question - or one
of them - looks at me quite strangely.
Hey they are going to give each other a ring. They are
not going into a boxing ring.
But sometimes a couple get the question and they say,
“Silence!”
That seems to be the weapon of choice of many people around
the world. I know it’s mine. And it
works - at least for me - because when I simply become silent - I don’t fall
into a verbal trap I don’t like.
ROCKS
Back when we were cavemen and women, we threw rocks.
The dirty old men in today’s first reading wanted to
execute Susanna - but when they are caught in a lie - they are executed. It doesn’t say how they were killed. Rocks were very much a standard way of
killing folks.
The men in today’s gospel - yesterday’s gospel as well -
wanted to throw rocks at the woman. Was
it to silence her - lest she tell their wives where they were.
Rock throwing is still going on around the world.
I remember seeing a bronze statue from the Iron Curtain -
Soviet Union days. It has a guy reaching
for a rock and the title of the statue was, “Rocks the Arms of the Common
Person - or Proletariat.”
TWO QUESTIONS
Why do people reach for weapons?
What is your weapon of choice?
MOTIVE
As to motive - and the need to reach for a weapon - is it
anger or jealousy or fear? Is it because
we didn’t get our way?
CONCLUSION: ROCK, PAPER, SCISSORS
If we use words as rocks to throw at people, behind their
back or to their face, write them down on paper - see what we’re
saying - and then cut that paper up.
Or maybe we should sit down with a person whom we want to
throw rocks at and say instead, “Do you
want to talk?” Better: “Do we want to
listen to each other?”
YOU NEVER KNOW
You never know whether the person in the
picture next to you at your graduation is the
person next to you at a movie 25 years later.
Or the nurse who brought you to your mom for
the first time at the hospital is the person you
just checked out at the grocery 35 years later.
Or the person you just let out into traffic ahead
of you - did the same thing to you - 14 years ago - different street - different car - same persons.
© Andy
Costello, Reflections 2019
Sunday, April 7, 2019
ONE OF YOUR 10
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily is, “One of Your 10!”
When I lived in Pennsylvania I used to go see a Jesuit
Priest, Frank Miles, a neat guy, for spiritual direction. I also saw him for a
few 8 day directed retreats - which were silent retreats as well.
In a directed retreat, one method is to give the
retreatant a single Biblical Text for the day or two days or for a short period
of time - and the retreatant would spend a couple of hours of prayer, chewing
on and digesting that text.
Well, Frank Miles gave me some wonderful texts - that fit
my needs - and what was hitting me on that time of retreat - things I wanted to
talk about.
It hit me that he really knew Bible texts in a special
way. He owned them. So I asked him, “How many Bible texts do you own?”
He asked what I meant.
I explained.
“Oh,” then he said, “I get what you’re asking.”
Then he said, “I don’t know. Let me think about it.”
The next day he said, “About 75.”
The Bible is this portable library of some 73 different books or scrolls - and this Jesuit priest
said, “75 were his. He owned them.”
TODAY’S GOSPEL
Today’s gospel has a Bible text - that all of us should
own.
It should be part of our spiritual repertoire and value system. The text is this. You already know it. I’ve
heard you say it at various times in your life. Here it is: “Let the one among you who is without sin be the
first to throw a stone at her.”
That’s John 8:7
Use your rosary and say that
text on your beads, 59 times. Think
about it. Pray with it. Make it even more your own.
That’s one text you own.
The title of my homily for
today is, “One of Your 10.”
I’m not saying to come up
with 75. I’m suggesting 10.
You have a couple of texts that you already own
and you’ve said those words - that text - that saying from time to time in your
life.
I like Galatians 6:2. I own
it, “Bear one another’s burdens and in this way you will fulfill the Law of Christ.” Come up with the best translation of the text
that you like, Galatians 6:2 is also
put this way in English, “Help
one another to carry these heavy loads, and in this way you will fulfill the
law of Christ.”
And I like John 10:10. Actually John 10:10 B. “I have come that you
might have life and that you live it to the full.”
If one of your deepest and best texts is an old
translation, take that as a possible sign that this text has been in you for a
long time.
So I’m asking in
this homily, “Come up with 10.”
NOW BACK TO THIS NOT THROWING STONES TEXT
The men who dragged this woman to Jesus - actually were hoping to use his response as an excuse
to throw stones at Jesus.
We hear in these Lenten texts especially - Pharisees and
other groups wanting to kill Jesus.
Once we catch the power, the lightning, the wisdom, the
depth of meaning in a text, it’s then that it can become our own.
SUGGESTION: NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE
If you want to get at this text in John about sin and
stone throwing, I suggest reading Nathaniel Hawthorne.
He has two main novels and lots of short stories.
He lived in Massachusetts between 1804 to 1864.
However, he wrote
a lot about the mindset of the Puritans in New England from a much earlier
time. The Scarlett Letter takes place between 1642 and 1649. Students of Hawthorne thought he wrote best
about this earlier period of New England life compared to his time: the 1850’s
and 1860.
The Puritans came to New England with the hope of
purifying the Church of England.
The Puritans were purists. They were sometimes called,
“Precisionists.”
They were stern - strict - and very off on sin.
They were not too happy about having fun. They didn’t think well about young people
dancing - for example around the so called “May Pole.”
Maturity meant sadness and sobriety - strictness and
sternness.
You can find this type of person in all religious groups.
The key is to catch ourselves when we are being this type
of person.
The woman dragged to Jesus in today’s gospel is caught in
Adultery.
Hester Prynne - in The Scarlett Letter - has a child out of wedlock. It’s assumed that her husband was dead: Roger Chillingsworth. She is tried - condemned - made to wear the scarlet letter A - for adultery - on the front of her robe.
Where is Jesus when he is needed?
Hawthorne was a Christian - but didn’t go to church. His
house was his church on Sundays.
He sided with the Puritans a bit - but more with the
transcendentalists - for a while.
The Puritans saw sin - the transcendentalists saw light
and wisdom.
Hawthorne is complex - and he changed in time discovering
more darkness and duplicity in people’s insides than when he was younger.
Every one of us has to ask that question: as I age am
seeing more emptiness and sin or more more love and joy in others? Am I mellowing and laughing more or am I
becoming, “The Scream” painting as I cross the bridges of life.
Hawthorne saw that Hester sinned. But the worst sin, the
deeper sin - was the sin of pride in the Puritans who didn’t want to see their
own sins - but only others sin.
There are 3 main Characters in Hawthorne’s novel: The
Scarlet Letter, Hester, Arthur Dimmesdale, and Hester’s husband Roger
Chillingsworth, Hester Prynne is the least sinful. Dimmsdale is next. He’s the minister who is
the father of Hester’s baby, The minister changes - grows - especially in
understanding human beings - but Roger Chillingsworth doesn’t and commits the
worst sin: revenge and can’t forgive Dimmsdale - and basically destroys himself
in his fury.
As I read up on Hawthorne I heard various specialists say
that Hawthorne learned a lot in his writing and studying all of this: that the
human heart can be depraved - weak.
Hawthorne is trying to figure out how much we suffer from
the attitudes and ways of our great grandparents etc. His great grandparents were Puritans - and
one might have been very much a part of the Salem Witch trials.
Hawthorne had very negative understandings of Catholicism
and he thought we Catholics were fluff without depth because of confession and
how easy we can sense forgiveness and
receive absolution.
The funny story is that his daughter Rose becomes a
Catholic and a famous Dominican nun.
CONCLUSION
Enough.....
April 7, 2019
Thought for today:
“There is an old legend which tells of a powerful genius who promised a beautiful maiden a gift of rare value if she would go through a
field of corn and select the largest and ripest ear, and in doing so she was
not to pause nor go backward nor wander
hither and thither. The value of the gift was to be in proportion to the
size and perfection of the ear.
The maiden passed by many fine ears, but so anxious was she to get the
largest and most perfect that she kept on without plucking any. Then the ears began to grow smaller, until
finally they became so stunted that she was ashamed to pluck any, and not being
allowed to go backward, she came out on the other side without any. For lack of decision she missed the very gift
she coveted.”
Tesa F. Best
April 7, 2019
WHAT’S
YOUR NAME AGAIN?
There’s a man in Tampa,
Florida
who took up cleaning up names
and numbers on tombstones.
The results were astonishing.
Name blotted out by dirt and grime
were cleaned and made as brand new.
Everyone living and dead has the right
to have their name cleared and cleaned,
proclaiming to the world, “I was here!”
© Andy Costello, Reflections 2019
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