A  HA MOMENTS:

NAME THREE?

INTRODUCTION

The  title  of my homily for this first Saturday in Advent   is, “A Ha Moments: Name Three”?

I think that’s a good question:  “A Ha Moments: Name Three!”?

And if you talk life with a spouse or a family member or a good friend or friends, do that question of naming 3 “A Ha Moments” Come up with your answers. Then share your moments and your memories  with each other.

“A Ha Moments: Name Three”?

PROCESS

A suggested process could go like this: look at your life – jot down major learning moments – a ha moments -  name lots of them – there are many - and then pick your top 3 from your list.

That’s not a bad way to do this.  And you can keep on working on it – changing it, developing it - especially if doing this becomes an “A ha!”  moment in itself – or as you listen to the “Ah Hah!” moments of  others.

TODAY’S GOSPLE GIVES ONE FOR ME

Somewhere along the time line of my life I heard someone say that Jesus Christ’s main concern was not to establish a church – but to bring about the kingdom.

The speaker was saying: Jesus established the Church to bring about the kingdom.

This is the means and end question. It’s the which is which question.  Is the church the end or the means or is the church the way to the kingdom?

As Jesus says in today’s gospel, “Go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.  As you go, make this proclamation: ‘The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.” [ Cf. Matthew 10: 7.]

I was brought up with the stress on the Church. At some point, “A ha,”  I was being asked to wonder what is this kingdom and how do I help to make it happen? 

Wait a minute!  You’re a priest you’re supposed to make the Church happen. Nope, I’m a human. I’m a Christian and I want to be one of those who are salt and light and help the kingdom to show up in kitchens, work places, parks, family gatherings and church benches and halls.

The kingdom of God is at hand!

This makes the little people as big as the big people, the poor as important as all people and on and on and on.

It takes away the stress on pomp and circumstance, titles and seats of honor, rules and regulations,  and all that.

ST. AMBROSE

Did you notice that today is the feast of St. Ambrose?

The bishop of Milan dies and uproar and division happen. Ambrose the  provincial  governor goes to the basilica and asks for a peaceful solution. Someone screams out, “Ambrose for bishop.”

Everyone chants that scream and Ambrose – who is not baptized is baptized in a week – then confirmed that same week – and ordained that week and consecrated  bishop of Milan – all in a week.

How’s that for process?

And Ambrose  becomes a great bishop and saint – and did a lot of church things to make Milan a wonderful diocese.

Of course, this was before Canon Law as we know it. This was around the year 375 – and Ambrose  lasts till Good Friday – April 4, 397.

So a first  good “A hah” moment for me was when I heard someone say that the church is a means to building the Kingdom of God!

MY SECOND  A HA MOMENT – POLITICS FROM THE PULPIT

I learned this year – in a great a ha moment – in the big parish I was in down in Annapolis Maryland, that no matter what one says in the pulpit, the people in the benches hear what they hear in their way – and rightly so.

In a sermon I didn’t mention the president by name – but I was critical of him – because of the way he described the homes of people in the islands and in Africa.  I said I was not being political. I said I was talking morally – and we should not describe people’s homes the way the president  was  describing them.

Uh oh!  After Mass there was uproar and letters.  Some folks said I was talking politics from the pulpit. I said I wasn’t.  It doesn’t matter – some folks saw it all as politics.

I am very interested to find out what will happen in Catholic Parishes in the United States this Sunday if any priest or deacon stands up for Nancy Pelosi for saying, “I am a Catholic and I was taught not to hate.”  Then she said she prays for the president.

Up roar.

My a ha learning was that I said loud and clear that I was speaking morally and not politically – but I learned people take what they take – from their viewpoint.

Even saying what I just said can cause uproar.

I’m 80 – and a long time ago I found myself not worrying  about church stuff when I’m preaching. The call is to worry about human stuff and our church is around to speak up for human beings and their day to day life on the planet.

My second a ha moment – was that I can think what I think – but people think what they think.

THIRD A HA MOMENT

My third A Ha Moment has to do with Isaiah.

Someone said that Isaiah only gradually was beginning to see that God was more than a God of the Israelites.

I was hearing that theology and ideology can be gradual and evolutionary and developmental for folks.

So for me the goal is to evolve – to get beyond being  Catholic, Jewish, Moslem, Hindu, Atheistic, or whatever and  to be concerned about helping everyone to know and to hear that God is with us in our development - whether we believe in him or not.

Today’s first reading has Isaiah saying that God  is gracious to us and spacious to us.

CONCLUSION

That’s some homework. Come up with 3 A Ha moments and share them with your one to one connections.

December 7, 2019

THE  FRAME

The painting didn’t grab me

like a few paintings have ….

But the frame – it was unique,

dust collecting inlaid wood ….

So did the framer know - what

women and dapper guys know?

If you don’t have it, then it better

be the shirt or the skirt or the

beard or the do that does it.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2019

December 7, 2019 - 

Thought for today: 

“To  lie  about  a  foreign  country  is  easy.”  

Amharic [Ethiopian] Proverb

December 6, 2019

LEFT SHOULDER

Life -  at times - I wish this wasn’t true,

but too many times - it’s about reactions.

I say blue; you say purple.  I see the way

your eye sees the way I shrug my left

shoulder when you walk into a room –

but I say nothing – just judging from what 

I think you’re thinking - from what you said

and how you reacted 7 years ago - to what

I did just now. Hey my left shoulder has

picked up some arthritis at work or it's 

been raining and I feel in my bones

an old injury  from wrestling when I

was in high school so many years ago.

We could talk – but let’s be honest –

we rather react than actually ask.

We rather judge than speak to each

other. Why do we do that? Why?

 © Andy Costello, Reflections 2019

December 6, 2019 - 

Thought for today: 

“… out  of the  quarrel  with ourselves we make poetry.”  

W. Butler Yeats

December  5, 2019

ECHOES FROM THE PAST

If we echo our parents all our lives

without realizing it 99 % of the time,

then when we get together with our brothers

and our sisters for a funeral or a wedding,

we ought to be listening to our parents,

maybe hearing them for the first time.

                                                                                             © Andy Costello, Reflections 

ROCK:

A  MEDITATION ON ROCK

 INTRODUCTION

The title of my reflection for today is, “Rock: A Meditation on Rock.”

Since today’s two readings give rock a prominent place - as I was preparing some thoughts for  this morning - I said, “Why not put together a short meditation on rock?”

READINGS

The first reading – Isaiah 26: 1-6 - describes the Lord as an eternal rock.

Isaiah says that after saying, “Trust in the Lord forever.”

Okay, I get that.  Isaiah throws in a curve - the opposite.  Beware of being too lofty and overbearing like a mountain. You might be humbled as you tumble down to the ground.   Remember dust is disintegrated rock. Think about it:  you might end up as road - trampled underfoot by the needy -  stepped on by the footsteps of the poor.

Hear that comment: “… the footsteps of the poor.”  That’s 5  words that  I need to do some thinking about - but not now. Today I’m meditating on rock.

And today’s gospel – Matthew 7: 21-27 - has Jesus saying to build your house on rock - not on sand - so that  - when the wind and storms of life - hit your house - you will stand - because you’re built on rock.

TODAY - PICK UP A ROCK AND MEDITATE ON IT

 Walk around your house and find a stone.

I mean inside your house.  You could do this outside, but for starters, try inside your house.

Surprise you spot a small stone on a book shelf.  You ask, “What’s with this stone? What’s the  story about this stone?

It could be a rock from a vacation - or a rock with writing on it - given to you as a gift or a souvenir.

Think of Simon and Garfunkel’s song, “I Am a Rock …. I am an Island.”

Yeah, sometimes people are too cold, too alone, too unfeeling. In those experiences being a rock is negative.  Then there are people who are our rocks - our strength - like the Lord in today’s first reading.

I’ve been to Gibraltar.  If you ever are on a Mediterranean Cruise and Gibraltar is an option - go for it - outside or in.  On the outside, beware of the monkeys – they grab cameras, pocketbooks, packs and food.  On the inside see if you can get down into at least the middle level cave.

It represents security - hence Gibraltar being a symbol for an insurance company.

Contrast rock with opposite objects - like paper and scissors - in that wonderful game: “Rock, Paper, Scissors.”

Think of all the people who have had stones, gossip, words, thrown at them.

Words – hard words – hard sounding air – can hurt.

Picture the lady in the gospel – John 8: 1-11 – who was caught in adultery.

Did she hear the words, “Adulterer!  Sinner!” “This woman was caught in the very act of adultery!” for the rest of her life in that village?

Or did she stay with Jesus words, “Let him without sin cast the first stone”? Or “I don’t condemn you. Go and sin no more.”

Or the story about words that are like bloody rocks are in the gospel story of the guy in the cemetery who was bashing himself with stones. Did he spend his life hitting himself for mistakes or regrets from years past all his life? {[Cf. Mark 5: 5.]

CONCLUSION

So that’s a few ideas to trigger a few ideas inside your head.

That’s what a preacher tries to do.

Let me close with the old joke we used to tell as kids: “Was Goliath, the giant in the bible, surprised when David hit him in the head and killed him with a stone?”

Answer: “Yes! Such a thing had never entered his head before.”

December 5, 2019 - 

Thought for today: 

“Comparisons  are  often  at the heart of hurt.”  

Someone.

What do you think?

Agree or disagree?

December 4, 2019

WHICH ONE AM I? 

Would anyone of us want to be

pictured as a sledge hammer

or a bulldozer - “Grrrr! Grrrr!”

or a tank  - “Boom! Boom!

or a bullwhip, "Swish! Slash"?

No! I hope not. Wouldn’t we

rather be seen as a waitress

cleaning our table and then

saying, “Now what can I get for

you wonderful folks this evening?”

Or to be seen as a shepherd

who looks for lost sheep or a

pruner of grape vines or a farmer

of wheat who wants to put delicious

bread and wine on our table?

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2019

December 4, 2019

Thought for today:

“The  worst  thing  that can happen to a priest is that God gives him what he wants.”  

Father John Monaghan, 

page 126 in Monsignor 

George A. Kelly’s book, 

Inside My Father’s House, 

Doubleday 1989

HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO US

THAT WE KNOW THAT SOMEONE KNOWS WE EXIST AND EXISTED?

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this First Wednesday in Advent is a question, “How Important Is It to Us that We Know that Someone Knows We Exist and Existed?”

I got that question not from today’s readings, but from the Give Us This Day booklet that I know you all have.

On page 56 for this December 4^th, there is a short biography of someone I never heard of before: Sister Anuarite  Nengapeta - a Congolese nun and Martyr - dates 1939 to 1964.

Then a few pages later - also for today, December 4^th, they have a reflection on the Trappist monks of Tibhirine in Algeria who were part of the 19 Algerian martyrs - men and women - who were killed in the 1990’s.

MAGNIFICAT AND GIVE US THIS DAY

I don’t know how many of this type of booklets there are around the world - booklets that give the readings of the day - some prayers and some reflections.

I’m familiar with the Magnificat and this one, Give Us This Day.

Magnificat has lots of beautiful religious art - maybe expensive paper - and features stuff from ancient saints more than modern ones. 

Give Us This Day has more modern cartoonish type art - perhaps cheaper paper  - and the lives of modern Christian heroes.

I used Magnificat for years and now I’ve been using Give Us This Day the last few years.  I don’t know if there is an article somewhere telling the history, the niche, the audience for each of these two booklets.

For December 4^th, Give Us This Day triggered the question that hit me last night as I read the two descriptions of people like Sister Anuarite Nengapeta and the Algerian Martyrs.

I found more on the internet  about who these people were. That’s when several questions hit me: “Who Knows I Exist?”;  “How Important Is That to My Psyche and to Who and How I Am?”; and then the title and question of my homily came: “How Important Is It to Us that we Know Someone Knows We Exist and Existed?”

FOR STARTERS:  GOD KNOWS I EXIST

That is a basic teaching in Christian spirituality?

But at times we wonder: “God Do You Know I Exist?”

Did Mother Teresa ask that question during the 50 years she said she felt she was in the dark - and had doubts - most of the time?

Yet we wouldn’t be here in this chapel this morning if we didn’t have the faith to believe God knows I exist.

At a red light the other day - while driving -  I saw a squirrel dash across the street - and not get hit by a car.  At times I’ve said to God as I see a bird or a squirrel or a tree, “I believe you are totally aware of every bird, squirrel, tree, blade of grass, dead leaf on the street under a car tire.”

HOW ABOUT OTHERS?

The question that hit me for this homily is, “How Important Is It to Us that We Know that Someone Knows We Exist and Existed?”

All of us are from somewhere else.  Will someone on the planet wonder how we are doing today?  Did those 19 people who were murdered and martyred in Algeria get birthday cards?   Did their friends and those they served  know they existed?

Is the reason why some people leave religious life and marriages  because the other - the others - don’t give us a moment’s attention and the hope is that someone else out there will?

Can that need be measured, talked about, considered with each other?

MR ROGERS

I just saw the movie, “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” - that featured Mr. Roger’s, who was on TV from 1968- 2001. He helped kids see that they exist and feel their feelings and know that they are important.

CONCLUSION

Today’s two readings feature crowds. We’re part of the over 7.5 billion people on the planet.

I was with my brother’s family for Thanksgiving week and I watched how everyone held, spent time with, touched a new born baby - the only baby at a meal for 43 people.  I was looking forward since Joey was born 7 months ago - to see him and hold him. I watched how everyone embraced him. I wondered what  was it  like when I first arrived. I wondered about the other 42 people in the room. Did they still feel loved, noticed, embraced, known, worried about - cared about?

Even if in time everyone in the room saw that we are  like the people climbing the mountain for food in today’s first reading from Isaiah 25: 6-10 or like the crowd in today’s gospel from Matthew 15: 29-37 - that some  of us are lame, some of us are blind, some of us can’t really tell others about how we feel and think - and yet we can touch Jesus - be in communion with him and be lovable and known and loved.

Today see and know the people you see and don’t know.

December 3, 2019

THE FIRST MOMENT IN PRAYER

In the deep night

I kneel and ask,

“Who are You, God”

and You answer every time,

“And who are you?”

In the deep night

is that where prayer begins?

Is that the first moment in prayer

every time? Me and You?

Who are we?

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2019

December 3, 2019 

Thought for today: 

“Every  good  lawyer  should  be pessimistic.” 

Edward Bennet Williams

FLOWERS 5 DAYS LATER

The child saw the flowers - 

a dozen red roses - and screamed 

a smile of jubilation. 

5 days later she saw the

dead flowers and screamed

a scream of desolation.

She didn’t know it then

but this was to happen

again and again and again.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2019

December 2, 2019 - 

Thought for today: 

In  Edward  Albee’s  play,  A  Delicate  Balance, mother says that we sleep “to let the demons out.”

ADVENT:  4  MESSAGES 

INTRODUCTION

Today - as we begin Advent 2019 - I would like to preach on “Advent: 4 Messages.”

I would like  to touch on 4 points that come out of today’s readings.

I hope they  are right to the point as we begin the season of Advent.

                    1) Wake up.

                    2) Put off.

                    3) Put on.

                    4) They are a Beginnings that Becomes an Ongoing.

1) FIRST POINT: WAKE UP

We all know what it means to hear a knock on our door and we hear the words, “Wake up!”

We all know what it feels like to want to stay in bed, to snuggle up under the covers, especially on a cold morning like this morning and go back to sleep.

We all know what it means to give up, to say inwardly to ourselves, “The hell with it. What’s the use? I’m hiding here or I’m getting out of here and going home and going to go to bed.”

Well, Paul, uses that feeling, that reality, as a metaphor for a basic  teaching in today’s first reading. He simply says to us: “Wake up!”

He says, “It’s time for you to wake up from your sleep!”

We tend to be like the people we heard about in the Book of Genesis - in the time of Noah - that Jesus talks about in today’s gospel - they are unaware that a flood is coming.  They are unaware that they are being robbed of a better life every day.  [Cf. Matthew 24: 37-44.]

George Gurdjieff - the Armenian - Greek - mystic and spiritual teacher often talked about  most of the human race be sleeping. We are all sleepwalkers. We are sleep takers.

He - said humans can keep developing- evolving - from Human # 1 to Human # 7.

Saint Augustine was converted through this second reading for today from St. Paul to the Romans 13: 11-14.

Augustine heard the words, “Take and read.” and he picked up the letter to the Romans and read these words from Paul.

“It is now the hour for you to wake from sleep.”

I once had a job called, “Novice Master.”

Looking back now - years later - I realize my job was to give wake up calls.

I’ve wondered from time to time novices who  were sleep walkers.

Some slept the whole year I had them.  Looking back from a distance, I feel bad that I didn’t challenge them enough.

Eventually most left. And I heard from time to time about some who are still asleep.

So the first big message for advent is simply: “Wake up!”

SECOND MESSAGE: PUT OFF

The second message for Advent is to put off.

We know what it means to put off clothes, put off pajamas or whatever.

Well Paul says, Wake up and put off deeds of darkness. Put off darkness. Put off worrying about the desires of the flesh.

Put off lust, jealousy, quarreling, bickering.

Put it all off.

Let go.

Change.

It’s he purgative way - the Purgative Stage in spirituality.

Empty out.

THIRD MESSAGE: PUT ON

The third point is to put on.

It’s the taking on a new way of doing life.

It’s the Illuminative Stage in spirituality.

It’s the climbing a new mountain as Isaiah tells us in today’s first reading. [Confer Isaiah 3: 1-5]

It’s walking in new paths.

It’s taking on new instructions.

It’s turning in our swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks.

It’s peacemaking  - not war making.

It’s putting on the Lord Jesus Christ and clothing ourselves in light -  clothing ourselves in the Lord Jesus and making no provision for the desires of the flesh.

FOURTH POINT: BEGINNINGS ARE TO BECOME ONGOINGS

Beginnings are easy. It’s the on goings that are tough.

Stick-to-it-tive-ness is sticky, tough stuff.

I don’t know about you, but I find it easy to begin a project.

It’s the conclusions I find tough.

Coming up with a topic and then a title for a sermon is easy - compared to coming up with a sermon - coming up with substance - meat - beef- and then an ending.

We’ve all seen scenes of someone starting a letter or an essay or a story and tossing page after page on the floor.

But to stick to the idea, the paper, the sermon, to the end, to complete the project, now that’s work.

I have had a million and one ideas for sermons. I have less than 10,000 sermons on my computer.

Advent is a time of new beginnings, fresh starts - but it’s only one day - and today is the start of only one new Advent.

But the job is to continue ...

To keep it up..

To finish the task.

JOE DONDERS

In a sermon for the first Sunday of Advent, Joseph Donders gives a good example about all this.

He  went home to Holland. It was Christmas time. He was at this big church. The church was packed for Christmas. An old priest - at this parish said to Joe, “Isn’t it great. They still have faith. Here they are at church.”

Off to the side was an  old sacristan who said, “Yes, great, but four weeks from now, the church will be empty again.”

Beginnings are easy.

And Joe Donders thought about that. He was right. The sacristan was right. He remembered a time when a group of parish workers came to him in Africa.

They said to him, “Hey, we have programs for those who are to be baptized, those who are to make first confession, those who are to make first communion, those who are to make confirmation, those who are to be married, but what about something for those in the middle?”

CONCLUSION

So 4 points today:

1) Wake up.

2) Put off past: sin

3) Put on Christ as our future.

4) Make a beginning and then continue.

December 1, 2019

OUTSIDER?

Outsider?  Sometimes ….

Insider? Sometimes ….

But most of the time

I don’t stop to ask ….

But when I do, when

I stop to ask if I know

what’s going on - I have

to admit I don’t know ….

But  then - when - I do this,

when I go into my past, I begin

to see  I’ve been here before -

I’m an insider to all that has been.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2019

December 1, 2019 - 

Thought for today: 

“A group of  both  high-school seniors and a group of couples who had been married more than twenty years found that both groups had a more romantic, passionate view of love than couples who had been married less than five years.  The researchers concluded that high-school seniors had not given up their romantic view of love, and the older couples were enjoying ‘boomerang passion’ as a result of their long-term investment in tending their marriage.”  

Erich Fromm