GIFTS  AT  THE  STABLE

[This is a story I wrote for our kids' Mass this morning here at St. Mary's. It is total fiction.]

The Angel Gabriel’s Church in Rio Flaco, New Mexico, came up with a neat way of celebrating the feast of the Epiphany.

As you know Latino kids get their Christmas gifts not just on Christmas Day, but many more gifts on the Feast of the Epiphany.

It goes way back to the time of the birth of Jesus - when the Magi - or wise men  - or the 3 Kings - showed up in Bethlehem - each with a gift for the newborn Savior, Jesus Christ the Lord.

Jesus received as gifts, some gold, some frankincense and some myrrh - from these three visitors.

And kids - as well as adults - we have been hearing from way back when - that Jesus received these 3 gifts - and we've also been told what these 3 gifts symbolized.

Gold symbolized that Jesus was to become a King - but not the kind of king people were used to. The Magi didn’t know however, what kind of king this Jesus was to be. They didn't know he was to be a poor king - a servant king - a king who washed feet and fed the poor.

Frankincense  was used to leave a sweet smell - a sweet scent - a sweet aroma in a cloud of smoke. A barn or stable, an inn or a tavern, could smell pretty bad. People would take incense -  put it into a fire - and it would send a sweet aroma into a room.

Myrrh …. Now myrrh was a strange gift. It was part of the embalming process - which  symbolized that people were going to try to kill Jesus at some point. Maybe the Magi giver of this gift - figured this out from the way King Herod talked about this baby they were searching for - and who would be king some day.

So down through the years some parents in some places would give their children special gifts on the feast of the Epiphany. In other places this happened more on Christmas.

Well in the Angel Gabriel church in Rio Flaco, New Mexico, kids would bring a gift for Jesus that he would like if he were their age.

They would bring it to Mass on the feast of Epiphany and place it up front - on the floor and some gifts in the stable as well.

Other churches - like our church of St. Mary's  here in Annapolis - families would take a gift suggestion from a Christmas tree in the vestibule and that gift would go to a poor kid.

In the Angel Gabriel church in Rio Flaco, New Mexico, all this was done a bit differently.

All the kids in Rio Flaco were poor.

Rio Flaco - in Spanish - it means Skinny River - so most of the year even the River that ran through their town was poor - thin - and skinny.

One kid brought his old bicycle and put it up at the stable as a gift for Jesus.

Another kid loves Reese’s Peanut Butter patties, so she bought and brought a whole box - 24 inside - of Reese’s Peanut Butter patties.

Another kid brought a blue and red kite - and kites do well in New Mexico - with the high winds on certain days - days when the poor of Rio Flaco could see expensive hot air balloons in the sky.

The gifts, the Epiphany presents, were all surprises. You never knew what kids would bring to church for this celebration of the Feast of the Epiphany.

Dolls, fishing poles, basketballs, baseball gloves, Rubric Cubes, chocolate chip cookies, 2 hula hoops, a 2000 piece jigsaw puzzle with one piece missing. It was a big picture of a famous mountain in New Mexico - that’s in all lots of western movies, t-shirts, baseball caps, a cap pistol, number’s paintings, a guitar, a pretty good looking saxophone, and on and on and on. They were all lined up - up front - at the stable - all before Mass.

Well, the kids didn’t hear the sermon that Epiphany Mass.

Their minds and their eyes were on the gifts up front at the stable. They checked everything out - especially when they went up for communion.

After Mass - that day - everyone stayed. The kids all had to put their names on a small index card. Then the collection basket was passed around the church.  Each kid put their card with their name on it -  in the basket.

Then Mamma Rosacitta, the oldest person in Rio Flaco, 102 years of age, was brought up front. They would sit her in the priest’s chair.

The church became all silent - with the excitement in the big room.

Then  one by one she pulled out a kid’s name. It was handed to an 7^th grader - who then read that kid’s name out loud  - so the whole church could hear it.

To the kids with the first, second and third call, it was if he or she won lottery.

The kid would come up and pick any gift he or she wanted - and everyone would clap.

The poor kids near the end didn’t have the best of choices obviously.

A very thin  girl got the box of the Reese’s Peanut Putter Pieces - 24 of them. Good thing she was generous, because her 3 siblings, 2 cousins, and then her friends got a patty, and that box was empty in 1 minutes after the drawing took place.

And oops - when it was a kid’s turn to pick - whatever gift he or she wanted - from what was still there - the kid would wink at Jesus.

Of course it was just a tiny statue of Jesus - but now and then a kid would say, “I think Jesus winked back at me.”

And kids and the people of the town of poor little  Rio Flaco would say, “As far as we know, this is the only town on earth - where such a thing happens every year on the Feast of the Epiphany.

EPIPHANIES

  

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “Epiphanies.”

Epiphanies:  Appearances, Manifestations, Showings, Seeings, Insights, Moments of Light, Figurings, Enlightenments, "Aha" moments, Revelations, Realizations, Apparitions’, The Curtain Rises, The Mask Comes Off, I finally see, I finally get it, Understandings, ….

Epiphanies….January 6^th  or so.

Christmas - December 25^th  - Mary and Joseph and the Shepherds see Jesus….

Epiphany - the Magi - the wise men - the 3 Kings  - the outsiders - the non-Jews - the Gentiles see Jesus….

Epiphanies. 

QUESTION

Have you ever said, “I had an epiphany.”

Translation: “I saw something I never saw before.”  “I got an insight.” “Oh, now I get it. Now I see.”

It’s like someone tells a joke and some people get it and laugh. Others don’t get it. They scratch their head and sometimes they admit, “I don’t get it.”

Then - when they do get it - they go, “Oh…. Oh now  I  get it.”

If they really get it, they got an epiphany.

I knew an old priest and he loved to say to people, “How Long is a Chinaman.”

And they would always answer, “I don’t know.”

So he would say it again, “How Long is a  Chinaman.”

And the person would say, over and over again. “I don’t know.”

And he - with a devilish smile on his face would say it again, “How Long is a Chinaman.”

They still wouldn’t get it - till he shifted gears and would say, “It’s not a question. It’s a statement of fact.”  They wouldn’t get it till he would say, “It’s like saying, ‘Geronimo is a native America. How Long - that’s his name - is from China. He’s a Chinaman.”

It’s then they go, “Oh, Okay - now I get it.”

QUESTION

Have you ever had an epiphany of God.

When my brother got cancer - melanoma - at the age of 49 - the doctor told him, “You have 18 months to live.” It was Good Friday - 1984. And the doctor was right. He got all the treatments - chemotherapy - the works - but he died in 18 months. I just happened to drop in that Good Friday and I heard the bad Friday news. I asked him - in a one-to-one moment - “How are you going to handle this?”

He said, “I don’t know. I’ll let you know.”

Just before he died he said to me, “Remember when you asked me, ‘How I’m going to handle this?’ and I said, ‘I’ll let you know.’  Well, I found out, ‘Thank God for mom and dad. They gave us the gift of faith.’”

That moment was an epiphany for me. I too said, “Thank God for mom and dad - for giving us the gift of faith.”

I told my mom that and thanked her.

I also thanked whoever it was - their grandparents - their great grandparents - their great, great, great, great, grandparents. Was there someone way back when - who decided on God - decided on church - decided on letting it go and accepted God. Thank you.”

In the last few years I’ve noticed and I’ve thought about this gift called faith - that I’ve been given.

It was a given - but it has become an epiphany as I think of my brother and my mother - who was killed the following year in a hit and run accident.

Thank God for the gift of faith.

For starters, I think about it looking backwards.

I remember a sermon I heard a priest give.  He made a statement from the pulpit that went something like this.  Picture a little girl going to the bathroom on her own around 12 at night. She goes by her parents’ bedroom and she spots her dad kneeling down - with his back to her - and he’s leaning into his bed praying.

Then the preacher said, “That little girl seeing that scene by accident - is learning something that is much, much bigger than all the catechism lessons she will take - and all the Masses she’ll ever go to.”

Is that true? I don’t know. That’s something that can’t be proved - obviously. That can’t be measured.  It’s preacher’s exaggeration.

But you never know.

It got me to look back. I saw my dad with his prayer book - praying in the basement a few times. I used to have the 6 AM mass as an altar boy at OLPH Brooklyn and one time I had a side altar mass and I just happened to look out - and down the side aisle and there was my dad praying in a side bench.  I only saw him once.  I had assumed the was already half way to work by subway to the Nabisco Plant where he worked most of his adult life.

EPIPHANY - GIFTS

One of the messages of the Epiphany is that it’s gift day.

The 3 Magi - as the story - as the tradition - as the legend goes - brought gifts to baby Jesus - gifts of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh.

In Latino and many other traditions this is the feast when kids get gifts.

For homework, this week, think about the 3 best gifts you have ever received in life - from your parents, whoever - your 3 best gifts.

I would say, Family, I would say Faith, I would say, Education.

When It comes to education I have discovered that I don’t have the math gene - but I got the imagination gift.

When it comes to sports, I have discovered that I wasn’t the best in sports, but I did get a great interest and enthusiasms for sports.

CONCLUSION

How about you? Today, this week, answer that question: what are the 3 best gifts you have received.  Next ask each other that question and listen to each other’s answers.  In fact, a good sign of listening is to ask another for clarification of the answers they have given.

Then say “Thank you” to parents, living and dead, former teachers and coaches and to God, and who have you, for the 3 top gifts you have been given. Amen. 

January 7, 2018 - 

Thought for today: 

"Have you ever had that moment when you looked back on something and said, 'Well, gosh, that seems obvious now... why didn't I see it then?' I like to call this the Face Palm Epiphany. Oh, hindsight, you magical, humbling thing."


Alethea Kontis

January 7, 2018

DEATH  AND RESURRECTION

Sure there’s a day and a year there

printed on your death card and chiseled

out on your granite grave stone - but

my sister Mary and I - we’re the last two -

we love to play Jesus now and then - and

resurrect you from the dead - telling your

gospel stories - mostly good news -

chapter and verse - thanks be to God.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2018

January 6, 2018 - 

Thought for today:

                  “Then the sea

And heaven rolled as one  and from the two

Came fresh transfigurings of freshest blue.”

Wallace Stevens [1879-1955]  

in Sea Surface Full of Clouds [1923], II

January 6, 2018

ENORMOUS

To understand what  enormous means,

poets might say, “Count the stars of

the heavens”  or “Count the grains of

sand on the shores of the sea.”

Obviously, sand and stars cannot

be counted. So is there another way

to understand and to discover just

what enormous means?

To see enormous, how about looking

out at night through a telescope into

outer space or through a microscope

at just one grain of sand.

How about experiencing forgiveness

from another whom we hurt with an

enormous mistake? Or how about the

love involved in a 50 year marriage?

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2018

ST. JOHN NEUMANN: 

SOME COMMENTS ABOUT HIM

Today,  January 5^th, is the feast day of St. John Neumann - so I would like to simply make a few comments about him.

It would be nice to have this mass at St. John Neumann Church out on Bestgate Road - but then again I don’t have to clean the snow off my car to get out there.

Next time you’re at Mass out there, take a good look at the bronze statue of John Neumann in the church plaza.   I understand it’s pretty much his size and his look. He was a short man - and as solid as bronze.

It is good to know John Neumann was here on Duke of Gloucester Street for the blessing of the cornerstone of this church in 1858. I assume there was the understanding that he would be here for its completion as well  - but he was to die too soon.

I like to reflect that he visited Most Holy Redeemer on 3^rd Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan - which was my first assignment. Some factual questions hit me last night. I have to see in print if that actually happened. I know he was at St. Nicholas Church on East 2^nd Street in 1836. I came up with a question last night - did he by any chance do any baptisms in his short time there after his ordination on June 25^th 1836? Those baptismal records are at Most Holy Redeemer on 3^rd Street.

John Neumann was born in Prachatitz, Bohemia - part of the Chech republic on  Good Friday, March 28^th, 1811. He was baptized that same day.

He died January 5, 1860. While walking on Vine Street near Thirteenth he collapsed with heart failure and was carried into a nearby house. He died almost immediately at the age of 49. He was going to the Post Office or from the post office to send a chalice to a priest.

He was the 3^rd child of 6 born to Philip and Agnes Neumann.  His dad was a stocking weaver.

His mom and dad were good Catholics. His mom went to Mass every morning.

In those days the practice as Catholics was for parishioners to go to communion once every 3 months - and confession every 3 months.

John wanted to be a diocesan priest. He went to the seminary with that in mind - but they had so many priests in his diocese of Budweis - so he had to wait. When he saw notice that priests were needed for people in the United States, he applied and headed for New York - with the hope of being ordained over here.

 He landed in Staten Island, New York. Then he sailed the short distance to Manhattan on June 1, 1836. He got accepted for the diocese of New York.  That June he was ordained sub-deacon, deacon and then priest on June 25^th. He was then sent to the Rochester NY area where there was only 1 priest - Father Pax. Then he was sent to Buffalo - where his field of work was some 900 miles.

He was quiet, an introvert, a hard worker, dedicated, and smart.  He spoke German and French for starters and in time learned English and several other languages - including some Gaelic. He's listed as speaking 6 modern languages.

Fortunately, he wrote a sort of journal - not for others  - but to put into words his struggles with faith, purity, envy, depression, the pits, and how things often went wrong for him.  This was done between 1830 and 1840 - when he was 22 to 31.

He also was asked to write his life quickly - the night before he was made a bishop. That document is around.  He wrote that short document in one evening.

That’s it for any writings he did - except for business correspondence, etc. etc. etc.

If you want to read a good biography of John Neuman read the one written by Father Mike Curly - a Redemptorist. It is loaded with details, footnotes and research.

After four years in the northwest corner of New York State, John Neumann realized life as a priest was too tough all by himself up on the Niagara, New York frontier, so he joined the Redemptorists.

He wanted companionship and community.

His novitiate didn’t work out as a year of novitiate should. He was often on the road. He was always being asked to do this and to do that. He was an ordained priest.  He worked in Baltimore and Pittsburgh. 

After taking vows, he quickly became the superior and boss of the Redemptorists in North America and then he was quickly made bishop of Philadelphia.

People knew this priest was the real deal as well as being very real.

Yet, he often felt inadequate. He suffered from put downs by others who spoke English and comments that this priest didn’t have the right foreign accent.

He was a bishop who went to the outposts of the diocese - all over the place, to little mining towns and what have you. He writes somewhere that when he was a kid, nobody ever saw a bishop - except at a confirmation every couple of years.  Well, the people of the enormous diocese of Philadelphia saw their bishop - especially in the tiny spots.

I’d make him patron saint of travel - the patron saint for those who suffer from feelings of inadequacy and self put downs - and also regrets.

I’d also make him the patron saint of those who do a lot quickly. As bishop of Philadelphia 80 churches were built under his auspices. He helped the Sisters  of the Third Order of St. Francis to begin - so as to teach in the many new Catholic schools in the diocese. He helped get two catechisms and in 1849 a Bible History published.

He was a real busy priest and bishop - and gave every situation and person he met, his best.

 January 5, 2018 - 

Thought for today:

“Everyone in the world is Christ and they are all crucified.”  

Sherwood Anderson, [1876-1941] In Winesburg, Ohio [1919] The Philosopher

January 5, 2018

YOU  NEVER  KNOW

                               

We never know what’s on

another’s channel - inside

their inner room - so we

better stop assuming -

that they are even watching

TV or they are playing solitaire
or praying - or whatever they 
are doing. They might even be 
taking a nap or writing a poem.

God only knows what’s

going on inside another.

They might not know either.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2018

Cf. Matthew 6:6

Cf. Matthew 14: 14; Luke 22: 11

TEST: 

LOOK AT THE  

FACES IN THE CROWD 

Which kid in this class picture is Hitler?

____________________________________________________________

About the top picture - here is what is written in the book, Photoanalysis by Robert U. Akeret. "Find the Fuhrer in this photograph.  One of the children in this school picture is Alois Schicklgruber, or Adolf Hitler, as he later became.  It's a typical fourth-grade class, like the kind any of us might have been in if we had attended an all-boys school. The difference is that one of these boys as an adult tried to dominate the world.

"Study the faces, the body postures, the positioning.  Imagine for a moment that your are Hitler as a fourth-grader, and you already have some mind-blowing plans.  Where would you place yourself as this class photo was about to be taken?  Holding the fourth-grade sign?  Close to the teacher?

"Hitler is in fact in the exact center of the top row, not only central, but also slightly higher than anyone else in the photo.  "Deutschland uber Alles" was the German World War II battle cry, and in this early photo it''s "Hitler uber Alles!"  What the photo shows, in all too chilling dimensions, is that Hitler's personality was set at a very early age." [Page 143]  Further question: agree or disagree or undecided?

__________________________________________________

Do you often find yourself looking back?

_________________________________________________________

Have you ever folded your arms, disagreed, but didn't say anything?

_________________________________________________________

Can you find the 7 nuns in this picture?
____________________________________________

Can you find the 2 sisters in this Sunday School photo?

In the book, Photoanalysis, by Robert U. Akeret, we read the following about this picture which has the 2 sisters. "This is a group of Sunday school girls with their teacher. Look carefully at each student.  Which two girls would you pick as being sisters?  What clues would you use as evidence?

"Parents frequently dress siblings alike, even when they aren't twins, and here the two girls with the same tilt of the hats, and the same coat with white collars, are sisters. Now that you know, you can also tell that their facial features are similar." [pp. 64-65]

January 4, 2018

FACES IN THE CROWD

Whose face will you see

among all the faces in

the crowds you'll see today?

Who stops to look into

your eyes and asks you about

your attitudes and your moods?

Who wonders and worries

about you - where you are

and where you’re headed?

Who looks back over their

shoulder making sure

you’re okay this very day?

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2018

January 4, 2018 - 

Thought for today:  

“When you reread a classic you do not see more in the book than you did before; you see more in you than there was before.” 

Clifton Fadiman [1904 -1999] in Any Number Can Play [1957]

January 3, 2018

Thought  for today: 

“A lifetime of happiness! No  man  alive could bear it: it would be hell on earth.” 

George Bernard Shaw [1856-1950] in Man and Superman [1903] epistle dedicatory.

January 3, 2018

ANNUAL  CHECK  UP’S

Check your eyes.

You might see more.

Check your ears.

You might hear more.

Check your mind.

You might think better.

Check your attitude.

          You might understand others better.

Check your heart.

You might be neglecting someone.

Check your faith.

God might be going, “Ahem!”

Check your hope.

Opportunities might be knocking.

Check your charity.

Love might be sleeping.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2018

REMAIN

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for January 2^nd, is, “Remain.”

The word “remain” appears 6 times in today’s first reading from the First Letter of John 2: 22-28 - so I took that as a hint to preach something about the theme “remain”.

Now I’ve preached on this theme - “Remain”  at various times - and I don’t want to repeat sermons. Themes yes.  However, we’re being asked - according to surveys - to speak about spirituality - and schools of spirituality.  Well, “Remain” is a key theme in John’s School of Theology in the New Testament - that is, the gospel of John and the First Letter of John.

I think it’s a theme worth reflecting upon.

Remain … stay … be with … lodge … abide …be present … stand with ….

The Greek word for remain is “meno”. It sounds like the English word “remain”.  You can also hear the Greek word “meno” in the Latin word “remanere”.  The English word -  “remain’ - as in mansion - is dated from around 1400.

The Greek verb  for remain - “meno" - is used 40 times in John’s gospel but only 12 times in the synoptic gospels - that is Matthew, Mark and Luke.  So it’s a key theme in Johannine Theology.

TO REMAIN IS A LIFE ISSUE AS WELL AS A DAILY ISSUE

To remain or not to remain is a life issue.

Do I stay or do I go?  That’s a daily question.

How much time do we spend with another?

How long do we remain on the phone?

Yesterday afternoon I visited two people - both of whom were in nursing homes.

The first was a guy in Somerford Place - on Riva Road. His wife and a son and I figured his daughter-in-law were there as well. He was out of it - failing a lot lately - and about to enter into hospice.  I chatted, talked, connected with them. We prayed. I anointed him. At some point, I asked myself, “How long do I remain?”

The second was a lady in the Annapolitan Assisted Living. That’s a nursing home off Route 50, off Bay Dale Drive, off Old Mill Bottom Road. She was much more out of it. I anointed her. She knew the Our Father. I have found out those with memory loss know the words of the Our Father and the words of Happy Birthday.  Once more I inwardly was wondering, “How long do I remain?”  I spent more time with her - mainly because she was all alone.  I heard that her daughters come to see her most every night.

LOVE OF GOD AND LOVE OF NEIGHBOR

How to love God and to love our neighbor? One way is to remain with them.

The gospel of John has in Chapter 1 the story of Andrew asking Jesus: “Where do you stay?”

Jesus said, “Come and see.”

Jesus will say in the gospels, “Abide with me.”

Live with me. Abide in me.

Be like the apostles abiding in the Upper Room - as well as being with the Lord Jesus.

Be like the grapes on the vine - connected - remaining alive on the vine.

ONE OF MY FAVORITE STORIES

One of my favorite stories was told by a psychiatrist.

I think all of us can connect with this story.

There was this old lady in a dementia ward. When the psychiatrist would see her, he would first get a cup of tea for himself and a cup of tea for the old lady. He would go into this big room. It had a great window view - looking out to a big lawn and then the woods.  He would sit with her and enjoy the tea. Now a word was spoken in return for a couple of years.

Well on this one visit, the psychiatrist was sitting there in the silence. He slowly drifted off into thinking and talking to himself about where he would be that evening. The old lady - who hadn’t  spoken to this psychiatrist in years suddenly spoke up and said to the doctor, “Don’t leave me.”

She was saying: Remain with me.

Do we all know it when another is physically present - but they have left us and left us alone in the room.

Is our conscious down deep aware of whether another is really present or not.

I don’t know about you, but when I’m listening to a boring or complicated sermon - I drift elsewhere.

CONCLUSION

The title of my homily is, “Remain.”

Prayer is sitting in the presence of God - and remaining with God.

So too friendships.

January 2, 2018 - 

Thought for today: 

“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.” 

Oscar Wilde [1854-1900]

January 2, 2018

STOP COMPLAINING

A teacher - whom I never expected

to be a teacher - taught me to stop complaining about the cold - as well 
as the heat of the summer. The teacher

was the big tree in my back yard. It

just sits there. It just grows there. It 
just exists there - naked in the cold 
and in the heat - without a complaint.

And I suspect, I do, that it won’t complain when it's cut down and becomes a chair 
or a table or a door - or it simply becomes firewood. Now that’s a humble ending.

 © Andy Costello, Reflections 2018

January 1, 2018 

Thought for today: 

"Friendship is born at  that  moment when one person says to another: 'What! You too? I thought I was the only one.'”. 

― C.S. Lewis  [1896-1963]

[I plan to put a thought or quote for the day - besides a reflection a day - on my blog this year. I did a poem by someone else every day a few years back. This is a more modest self promise. Have a good year. "What you too?...."]