WHAT’S  WITH  MARY?

 [Today we’re celebrating the Feast of the Annunciation. March 25^th was Palm Sunday. Instead of a homily on today’s readings - I decided to fiddle around with some thoughts about Mary. Mind you: this is a first draft of a sort of a story.]

Two women - one Protestant - the other Catholic - were simply talking by chance at a conference. The Protestant woman asked the Catholic woman, “What’s with Mary?”

The Catholic woman replied, “What do you mean?”

“Well you Catholics  - seem to make a lot out of Mary?”

“Yes, we do, but what are you wondering about?”

“Well,” the Protestant woman, whose name was Martha said, “My husband and I are now retired and we took about 5 bus trips and 5 cruises in the last 2 years and we visited various Catholic churches. Most Protestant churches seemed to be closed during the week. Catholic churches are often part of tourist places. Many of them are named after Mary and they all have statues and stained glass windows and pictures of Mary in them. So we were wonder, what’s with Mary?”

The Catholic woman said, “Well, you’re right. We do make a lot about Mary. You can see on my name tag that my name is Mary. In the past, we often named one of our daughters Mary. My parents did and I gave my first daughter the name Mary as well.”

“Interesting,” Martha said.

“Yes, it’s simply a Catholic thing,” said Mary.

“Oh, okay,” said Martha. “Just wondering….”

Then Mary said, “Now,  we don’t think Mary is God. Some people accuse us of that - more in the past - but we never thought that.”

“Oh, okay,” said Martha.

“But,” said Mary, “We pray to Mary. We ask Mary for help - just as we ask people to pray for us - as well as saints.”

“Oh,” said Martha. “But I go directly to God.”

“Great,” said Mary.

Silence….

Martha was still a bit unclear about Mary’s answers about Mary, the mother of Jesus. In a tiny way, it was like the Martha Mary story in the Bible - but that Mary was a different Mary.

Then Mary said, “I would suggest that you have some problems and some questions about Mary in other places.”

“What?  Explain,” said Martha.

“We Catholics know other questions because we have been asked them a lot - and preachers  from time to time address them.”

“Here’s a few: The Immaculate Conception …. the Perpetual Virginity of Mary…. No brothers and sisters of Jesus …. Mary is called the ‘Mother of God’ - not just the “mother of Jesus” …. Mary was assumed into heaven …. now those are some of the questions to ask Catholics.”

Martha’s face showed puzzlement at that comment.

Mary said, “One priest in a sermon once said, ‘We put Mary, the Mother of Jesus,  on pedestals. We’re not scared to  honor her big time. Why not? Wouldn’t you make your mom the best, if you could.’”

Then Mary continued, “Let me look up something on Google. This priest who was preaching said that some preacher from the 1100’s preached a 4 word homily on Mary’s Immaculate Conception.

As she was looking this up on Google, she said the preacher said one of the words was “potuit” So Mary typed into Google, “potuit” and then added, “I think another word was “ergo”.

Sure enough, Google said it was a Saint Eadmer of Cantebury + 1124  who said,  “Potuit, decuit, ergo fecuit.”

“God could do it.”  “It was only right that he should do it.” “Therefore he did it.”

“The famous, John Duns Scotus and others repeated that message.”

Mary said, “Aren’t these tiny phones fabulous?

Mary continued, “If Jesus was God and Mary had other children, what would they be?”

Then Mary said, “That problem never came up. However, when the Bible uses brothers and sisters, people in Bible times called close relatives and neighbors brothers and sisters - just as we do - when people say, ‘Hi bro!’ or ‘We’re close. We’re sisters.’”

Silence….

Then Mary said, “But if you really want to know what I think about this,  it’s this.  People want an edge. People want signs from God. People want help from God any way they can get it. People want a more human God. God is neither male nor female, even though we call God our ‘Father’ - so Mary equalizes some of all this a bit.”

Pause …. Then Martha said, “That’s a handful!”

Mary continued, “And many people make God a crusher and a destroyer - God isn’t - but in the scriptures - that’s how God is described and prayed to at times - to crush enemies - well, thank God Jesus is often presented as a forgiver - and his mother is often presented as a caring presence - and a perpetual helper - so balance helps us in our understandings on how to be like the image and likeness God we were created to be.”

“Oh,” said Martha, “That’s a lot of stuff to process. I need wine.”

Mary said, “I need water - which God often changes to wine - in rain and water irrigating vineyards - as in the story of the Wedding feast of Cana - when Mary helped a couple at their wedding - when they ran out of wine. She told her son Jesus to help this couple and he changed 6 large stone water jars into 6 large stone jars of wine.”

ANNUNCIATION

"I need you -

because words need flesh.

Without you, I can’t do this.

So once more I ask you:

Will you do this?"

She said, "That’s impossible."

God said, "With me it is possible."

"But …."

Well, then, she said, "Do it."

And God did it.

Look, what happened next.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2018

April 9, 2018

Thought for today: 

“If there were a  drunken orgy somewhere, I would bet ten to one a church member was not in it.  But if there were a lynching, I would bet ten to one a church member was in it.” 

Reinhold Niebuhr [1892-1971]

THE CHAIR AND THE CARPENTER

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “The Chair and the Carpenter.”

It would sound better if I entitled it, “The Chair and The Chairmaker” - but I wanted to use the word, “carpenter” because that’s what Jesus was.

Jesus was a carpenter of wood and then a carpenter of words ….

This is a sermon I have often  wanted to put together and present - as a way of talking about God. 

Better: if a person denies the existence of a God - I would ask - if you saw a chair - would you deny that a chairmaker existed who made that chair?

I would hope that person would realize that’s a trap - but I also hope they would decide either a yes or no answer.  If they said they don’t believe in a chairmaker, then I would not argue with them. If they said they would believe in a chairmaker, then obviously I would ask if they believed there was a planet maker.

My sermon has two parts,  Part One: The Existence of a Chair and Part Two: The Person Called the Chairman or Chairmaker or Carpenter.

PART ONE: THE EXISTENCE OF A PROP CALLED A CHAIR

Notice in the center of our sanctuary a chair. I think Father Tizio is the best preacher I’ve seen - in using a prop.

Check out the chair. It’s there.

Whether or not that’s a chair is not a matter of belief. So I wouldn’t say, “I believe there is a chair just sitting there.” I would say there is a chair there. We humans call that a chair and we trust our eyes.  If we were blind, another way we could know of it’s existence would be touch.

We know things exist by our senses for starters: chairs, floors, neighbors, trees, mountains, milk in the refrigerator, hamburgers in McDonalds.

We know by our senses that there are stars, the moon, deep outer space.

We just know that.

PART TWO: THE CARPENTER OR CHAIRMAKER

Next we know there was a chairmaker, a carpenter, a designer, a factory worker - who came up with the chair.

Next I would say, we know there was a starmaker, a moon maker, a planet creator - by common sense.

We call the chair maker a carpenter.

We call the star and the whole of the universe maker,  our creator. We call our creator, God.

PART THREE: WHAT IS THE CHAIRMAKER LIKE

Now I come to Part Three of this Sermon. What is the chairmaker like?

I don’t intend in life to argue with someone about  whether or not there is a star maker any more than I would argue with anyone whether or not there was a chairmaker or a carpenter.

But I would want to discuss what the chairmaker or carpenter is like.

That’s where this talk, this sermon gets interesting. At least that’s my hope. I’m moving from the objective to the subjective.

I grew up on a street that had some 94 homes.

I could simply count the front doors.

What those people were like - one learns by meeting, interacting with, talking to, investigating,  observing, asking, checking, talking with.

Looking at that chair there, I have no clue to the personality of the maker.

A guy up the street on my right was a grouch. If a ball went into his front yard, if he was on the stoop, he would not let us get the pink spaldeen ball - sometimes called a “pinkie”.

Mr. Maher, on the other side of the street, whose dog was named Pal, would watch us play and point to where the ball went - if it went into his front yard or the one next to him.

Do you get that distinction between the neighbor and what the neighbor is like?

So too with God.

People have different takes on God - just as I had different takes on the people on my block when growing up.

From telescopes and microscopes we go deeper and deeper into outer or inner space.

The scientist and the astronomer can tell us how far outer space goes and that might get out of people a “Wow” and a “Why” - a how and a how far?

From that we might say: “God is vast.” “God is good at math.”

The Bible gives us thousands and thousands of answers to the question: what is God like?

Isaiah the prophet has a different take on God compared to other prophets.

Preachers have different takes on God?

Who’s right?

Moreover Biblical scientists tell us that there are at least 3 Isaiahs - because computers can tell us that the same person could not have written the early part of Isaiah compare to later parts.  Teachers looking at homework can tell that this kid could not have written this.  In fact they can look up something that sounds familiar and see where the kid plagiarized it.

A classmate of mine got a 0 on a paper.  Weiser was the book my classmate used to write a paper on one of the Psalms. The professor wrote: Weiser 100, Krug 0

So different people have different takes on God and some of them wrote books and sections of books on the Bible.

Next people read the Bible and quote a take on God that they agree with or they like - and avoid one’s they don’t like.

A relative recently asked me about this. She said, “How come I don’t like descriptions of God in the Bible where God is wiping out people and groups of people.”

I answered: “Because some people want opposition wiped out or have God throw people into hell.”

So just as we have different takes on neighbors - people have different takes on God.

Who’s right?  Who’s wrong?

Matthew, Mark, Luke and John have different takes on the Carpenter named Jesus.

Judas, Thomas, and Peter had different takes on the Carpenter named Jesus.

In today’s gospel, Thomas has doubts. Last Sunday John had no doubts that Jesus had risen from the dead.

Today has been called, “Doubting Thomas Sunday since the beginning of the church. Then in the last century today has been called Divine Mercy Sunday.

Some people think God is going to zap them for their sins.

Some people think God is going to love them more than their neighbors because God loves sinners more than the righteous.

Some people want read family members read to them Luke 15 when they are dying. Some people are scared to die, so they don’t want to hear Matthew 25 read when they are dying - because they feel they didn’t do enough for the hungry, the poor and the sick.

But both readings say something about the listener.

CONCLUSION

All this should lead to personal conclusions.

All this should lead us to get to know the carpenter.

Pull up a chair next to his chair and say each day, “We need to talk!”

April 8, 2018

EXPECT SURPRISES 

WHEN  YOU  ASK 

She was in a wheelchair.

So I took a chance and asked,

“Bummer! How did you get

yourself into a wheelchair?”

Surprise! She didn’t go there.

She simply said, “I had a wonderful

childhood. We ran and roller skated

every day and everywhere! It was great.”

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2018

April 8, 2018 

Thought for today: 


“… the person who breaks one of the Ten Commandments may well end up less sinful than the person who self-righteously denounces people who break a commandment.”  

Reinhold Niebuhr [1892-1971]

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.