TEMPTING!

INTRODUCTION

The title and theme of my homily  for today is, “Tempting.”

T E M P T I N G. Tempting. Did I  spell  that  correctly? 

"Tempting."

How many times in our life have we said, “Tempting”?

“Tempting.” Haven’t we all said that word out loud or in loud at times?

The second piece of Black Forest Chocolate Cake. Tempting. The affair. The money is just sitting there. The comment – especially when someone is posing or bragging and we would love to cut them down to size. If only they knew, what I know, about them! Tempting. We would love to throw an imaginary banana skin on the floor and see them slip and fall so all can laugh at them. Uuum tempting.

Tempting. It’s the stuff of comedy. It’s the stuff of tragedy.

FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT

Every year the First Sunday of Lent has this theme of temptation. Jesus goes into the desert and he is tempted.

This year’s gospel is from Luke. Last year was Mark. The year before it was Matthew. Each gives their particular theology and reflection on what it was like. Matthew and Luke spell it out a bit more than Mark, who is always brief. Matthew and Luke each give three temptations – but they are presented slightly different.

The key is the 40 days. All three, Matthew, Mark and Luke, mention the 40 days. Jesus represents Israel going into the desert for 40 years. Well, Jesus, the New Israel, goes into the desert for 40 days and wrestles with evil and temptations.

Christianity is smart. It knows we can’t sustain the same thing over and over again. Too much of the same thing is often too much. The ongoing can go out of our consciousness or make us numb. And so we need vacations and weekends. We need breaks. We need to break the sameness. So we have holidays and holydays. So we have the Sabbath. And it’s good for Christians to attend a retreat once and a while.

We have Lent – 40 days – a lot of days – but it’s not all our days. The year has 365 or 366 when there is a Leap Year. To be human is to compartmentalize and break things down into weeks, months, seasons. The Moslems or Islam have the month of Ramadan – which is only 30 days. We have 30 + 10 days – that is 40 days of penance.

Lent is 40 Days. We all got marked with ashes on Wednesday as a community. Now as a community we do penance – but as Jesus said in the Ash Wednesday gospel, do the penance without tooting one’s horn.

So Lent is a time to desert the dessert table. It’s a time of fasting. It’s a time of turning off the TV more – fasting from that a bit. It’s a good time with the weather getting better and hopefully the snow disappearing to take a good walk – a lot of good walks away from the ordinary and into the extraordinary within us. Walking is good for the soul.

To walk down deep into the desert of our soul – and maybe it has been deserted – and God is waiting there as the Alone in the alone that is all of us.

So Lent is a good time to escape, to retreat, to walk away and walk into the temple of our soul.

Now the big message – the theme of this homily: if you go into the desert of your soul, expect temptations. They are part of the landscape. Temptations come with the territory.

RETREATS – TEMPTATIONS

For 14 years of my life I worked in two different retreat houses giving retreats.

Somewhere early on – on some retreat, someone asked me a question I had never heard before, “How come when I go on retreat,  I have a lot more temptations?”

That was the first time I heard that question. I didn’t know the answer.

Then someone else asked me the same question again. Once more I couldn’t give an answer. Then I started making 8 day silent retreats at the Jesuit Retreat House in Wernersville, Pennsylvania. Frank Miles, a wonderful Jesuit priest, asked me to reflect on Jesus’ temptations in the desert.

It was then I realized that’s part of what it means to become quiet and make a good retreat. What hit Jesus hits those who go into the desert of self: temptations.

When we go into the desert to get closer to God, surprise, we get closer to the devil.

It’s one of life’s “Uh oh’s.” No wonder people don’t make retreats. No wonder people don’t pray. No wonder people fill up prayer time with words, babble, reading. No wonder people avoid silence. 

The closer we get to God, the closer we get to the devil.

It brought me back to the great book by C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters. He says it all in there. He tells us how the Devil works.

It’s actually obvious. “Nature hates a vacuum,” as I’m sure you’ve heard. Benedict Spinoza said that in his Ethics, from way back in 1677. Turn off the distractions, and we turn on to other distractions. Turn off the TV and spend that gained time in prayer and the screen of our mind will show lots of things to think about. We have lots of channels and programs playing on the different stations in our mind.

So when people pray, I say, expect distractions. You don’t have to go to confession about them. They are part of the landscape of prayer.

So Lent is a retreat – a 40 day retreat – into the desert of self – and expect temptations.

Jesus retreated into the desert and had great temptations.

What are your temptations? What are your 3 biggest temptations?

THREE POINTS

So on this first Sunday of the 40 days of Lent that started with Ash Wednesday, when Ashes, our mortality, is rubbed in our face, the readings get us to face our temptations.

Luke talks about 3 temptations. Each First Sunday of Lent I wrestle with how to make sense of these 3 temptations. This year I found myself wording and working on them this way:

First Temptation:  The Easy Way Out or Laziness!

Second Temptation: Give Me the Power and The Glory!

Third Temptation: Taking Risks or Risky Behavior

In this homily let me spell out these 3 a bit more. The second one, “Power” is not that difficult to understand, but the first one, “The Easy way out” is a bit foggy and the 3^rd one, Risky Behavior” is not as clear as I would like. Sorry. It’s not you. It’s me.

1) THE EASY WAY OUT

The first temptation to reflect upon is, “The Easy Way Out.” To take the easy way out. To not do anything. To sit  back and be lazy.

Jesus is hungry and the devil tempts him to change a rock, perhaps the shape of a loaf of bread, into bread.

That’s the temptation to wish we could just snap our fingers and solve our problems – or let someone else do all the work.

To have our daily bread, we have to go and work and get to the store.

To have our daily bread, you have to buy the wheat seeds. We have to dig the soil, plant the seed, and then water it. Then wait. Then water. Then wait. Then water. Then we have to harvest the wheat. Then we have to crush it and make meal and flour – or however bread is made – then bake it and then slice it or break it.

Bread takes work and time.

Or okay, you’re not into baking, you buy packaged bread at the supermarket. You still have to get out of bed each day and get to work to earn your daily bread.

So too all the work in raising kids.

Things don’t just happen. We have to make things happen.

Life is the long struggle – but the temptation is to cut corners. The temptation is to avoid work. The temptation is laziness. To duct tape life. Sloppiness. Procrastination. To bury our talents in the ground. To put things off. To do nothing. To waste a life.

So that’s the first temptation – to be lazy and let things happen instead of making them happen.

2) GIVE ME POWER AND THE GLORY

The second temptation is to seek power and glory for ourselves – instead of using our powers and gifts to serve one another.

We have wonderful gifts and powers:

·       the power of speech,

·       the power of listening,

·       the power of imagination,

·       the power of money,

·       the power of sex,

·       the power of being a male,

·       the power of being a female,

·       etc.

How well do I use my powers and do I use them to build others up or to build myself up.

We’ve all heard the saying, “Give God the Glory!”

Power is tricky.

There is a temptation to Lord it over others – to act like God – out of laziness – or feelings of inferiority – or knowing down deep we are not God.

The devil asks Jesus to give him the power and the glory.

We’ve all heard the saying from Lord Acton of England, “Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

Power is sneaky. It needs to be watched. It can corrupt us.

Those of you who are married know the power of sex. Do you use it well – to embrace, to help, to love one another?

You who are well married know that the word “intercourse” means to talk, to communicate, to use the language of love – that it’s not just a physical moment – but it’s a 24-7 communication – that love making needs to include working and walking with each other – cooperating and eating and sharing and communicating with each other. You know that using or withholding sex can be a powerful weapon – instead of a way of serving one another.

Money is power – the so called “God Almighty Dollar” – and it can be used to help or hurt folks.

A car has power – how well do I drive?

Alcohol has power – it can help folks relax in moderation – but it can also powerfully destroy human beings and wrap people around a bottle.

Here I am in the pulpit. As preacher I try to be wary of using the pulpit for my own glory – to let it go to my head. I have to be careful of the bully pulpit – to try to bully you – and you don’t have a voice back. I remember my sister saying, “It’s not fair. Sometimes as I’m listening to a sermon, I want to scream and I can’t. He’s got the mike and I don’t.”

I believe there are some topics that are more for an open forum than for a pulpit – for a forum where all can speak.

I have to be aware of the Golden Rule: What do I need from these readings if I was sitting there listening to these readings.

I have to be aware of the other Golden Rule for preaching: 10 minutes.

Power is tricky.

Look at the problem of priests who abused people. As I listened to people who have given us workshops on this, I kept on hearing that it is an abuse of power.

As I reflected on today’s gospel and the phase in it that we all know, “The Power and the Glory” – I wondered about Graham Green’s book by that title. I hadn’t read it in years. So I did a bit of research on it. It’s a powerful story of a priest – the so called, “Whiskey Priest” and his Calvary, his cross, his being hunted in Mexico at a time no priests were allowed. I remember reading it slowly and so much hit me – his dealing with redemption and pain and suffering. It’s a good read for Lent.

Well surprise, I found out something I didn’t know. Graham Green wrote the  book in 1940. 13 years later, 1953, a Cardinal Pizzardo in Rome condemned it. Then a Cardinal Griffin in England,  condemns it – along with two books other books, his so called, “Catholic Novels”. Brighten Rock and The Heart of the Matter. Evelyn Waugh, a friend of Graham Green said to him, “Why don’t you wait 13 years to reply?”

In reading about this I noticed the following: Graham Green meets Paul VI who said to him on the side, “Some aspects of your books are certain to offend some Catholics but you should pay no attention to them.”

3) RISKY BUSINESS

The third temptation is to take unhealthy risks.

The devil asks Jesus to jump off the temple and let the angels catch you.

We need to exercise and eat right. We need to get medical checkups. We need to take care of our health. Smoking and couch potatoing are not smart.

We need to drive carefully and wear seat belts and get our car serviced – and to check our tires.

Common sense  instead of a sense of reckless risk taking is the call of life.

We need to be aware of the danger of having an affair – that it can be endanger our marriages and our families.

We need to be wise with our spending – keeping without our budget.

We need to pray and have a healthy spiritual life.

And then there is the risk of hell. I don’t know about you, but I don’t worry about hell in the hereafter as much as going to hell in the here and now – thru risky behavior and risk attitudes.

It’s not smart to walk on the edge of the cliff of danger – expecting God to rescue me – or to blame God when we go over the edge.

I remember being stationed with a priest who slowly drank himself to death. We intervened. We tried to get him help – but he resisted strongly. I remember writing a poem called, “Slow Suicide.” He did not kill himself with one shot, but many shots.

Risky behavior.

Taking risks can be a dangerous temptation.

CONCLUSION

I didn’t practice what I preached – one of the regular sins of preachers – because I have gone over time.

So I conclude by saying, these 3 temptations are right there in the Our Father.

The first and third are in the regular part of the Our Father, “Give us this day our daily bread” and “Lead us not into temptation.” The second is found in the old addition to the Our Father which Protestants say right at the end of the Our Father and Catholics say at Mass right after a short prayer.

“For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours, now and forever. Amen.

March 9, 2019

SURPRISE

What is the surprise, the real me 
like? Surprise! There are wall wanters,

cartooners, judges and juries out there 
who want to put me in their boxes,

behind their walls, in their jails,

wanting me to be the I,   I am not. 
Well, I'm taking the highway 
to heaven, not the highway to hell.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2019

March     9, 2019 

Thought for today:

“And here’s to you Mrs. Robinson Jesus loves you more than you will know.  God bless you please, Mrs. Robinson Heaven holds a place for those who pray.”  

“Mrs. Robinson (1968: song; 

used in the film The Graduate, 

sung by Paul Simon [1942 - ]

FAST

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this Friday after Ash  Wednesday  is, “Fast.”

It’s Lent and one of the  ideas for Lent is to focus on different ways we can be better as Christians an as Human Beings.

The 3   standard Lenten Practices are: Prayer - Fasting - and Giving Alms.

The practice I’m thinking of working on for this Lent is Fasting.

But in the following way: to be more aware of the food I eat.

To taste it more, to enjoy it more, to be more aware of the realities and the connections about the food I eat in communion with all people on the planet.

That’s possible

FASTING

Fasting is a practice in many religions: the various Christian religious groups, as well as in Judaism, Islam and the older religions like  Buddhism and Hinduism.

We see in today’s  two readings instances of fasting: especially among the Jews.

Isaiah in today’s first reading moves away from seeing fasting only as  a food issue. Isaiah warns us about not being a pain or a grouch.  Remember the old practice of someone giving up booze or smoking for Lent and everyone in the family wishes they didn’t - because they have become itchy and irritated and ill willed.

Isaiah also warns us about not making religion a way of showing off. We’ll find that happening over and over in Jesus’ time. And we find that in Chaucer and in literature and different stories down through the centuries.

So Jesus and Isaiah move thinking about fasting way beyond  food.

For example, we can fast from speaking too much and to  listen more. We can fast from TV and use that time for  playing cards - or talking with each other more  or reading or praying more.

FAST

When I hear the word “fast”-  I can think of its opposite: “slow!”

I’m going to   eat slower this Lent.

When I’m eating, I’m going to reflect upon where food comes from.

I’m going to try to be thankful for those who cook - who  farm - those who are truck drivers who deliver food to supermarkets. I’m going to think of cashiers - store managers, and on and on and on.

I’m going to try to be more aware of the symbolism of the table we eat at.

I’m going to think of those who plant wheat - those who cut down and bring wheat to the mills - those who make flour - those who bake bread.

So too wine and grapes.

I think of the summer I worked on Coca Cola trucks - it gives me memories and an understanding of that kind of work.

How many times have we heard that every kid should work as a waiter or waitress, dish waster, bus boy, what have you. I remember working at BINGO as a kid - selling bagels, donuts, egg rolls, soda, coffee, and soft drinks.

CONCLUSION

So instead of wolfing my food down - I can slowly be in communion with all those who brought this food to my table.

I can be in communion with the poor and the hungry as well.

I can slow down and enjoy my food as well. Amen.

March     8, 2019 

Thought for today: 

“The young man who has not wept is a savage; and the old man who will not laugh is a fool.”  

George Santayana [1926-1952] 

Dialogues in Limbo (1923, chapter 3.

March 8, 2019

MAKE  A  LIST

Make a list, 

5 or 10 things 

you want to do today. 

10 might be too many. 

Then at night check off 

how many you did that day. 

Keep that list on a small pad 

by you bed table. 

Say a prayer of thanks 

for things done and people helped. 

Then the next morning 

look at your lists and 

surprise you’ll realize 

what you’ve done and 

what you have to do. 

Now if you don’t make lists, 

you won’t have a neat record 

of what you’ve done during 

these days of life. Amen. 

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2019

March 7, 2019

NOISE

I entered the silence only to find out 

there are lots of noises that I’m not hearing. 

An ambulance is rushing somewhere 

in the night. I say a silent "Hair Mary." 

My dad told me he learned that in Ireland 

as a kid. A dog barks - then silence takes 

over again. Then I hear a car tire going  

over a sewer cover which isn’t too secure. 

That's sort of like me - trying to sleep in
the night - with the flow of the stuff that 

is below - stuff I'm trying to keep a lid on. 

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2019 

March     7, 2019 

Thought for today: 

“Gossip is how we establish cultural norms.  Talking about  others is our way to test the social boundaries - to learn  what raises eyebrows, what is met with shrugs - without  directly talking about ourselves.” 

Lisa  Belkin, in article, 

“Public Displays of Disaffection,” 

Page 9, New York Times 

Magazine, July 12, 2009

ASH

The title of my homily is, “Ash” -  A S H - as in Ash Wednesday.

It’s Ash Wednesday and every year when I come to doing a new sermon - I like to see where I am this year - so last night I looked at the words,  “Ash Wednesday” - and wondered where to go for this Ash Wednesday - 2019.

It was then that the short 3 letter first  word,  “ash” - A S H hit me.

I said to myself, “For a reflection on Ash Wednesday, simply  go with some ponderings of the  word  ‘ash’.

I’m not a scientist, but I began to wonder about how much ash can be found in a breath of air - if any?  Annapolis has to be better than Dakar, Senegal - featured in today’s New York Times - as having plenty of pollution.

Are there ashes floating in the air around us?

We’ve all seen a scene from a movie where someone crumbles or tosses a letter into a fire  -  in a fireplace.

It could be a “Dear John….” letter or a rejection letter and we see on film the  paper burning  and dancing and disappearing in the flames.

Do tiny - tiny - tiny - much, much, much,  smaller than a piece of dandruff - pieces  of ash float into the room - into one’s lungs - or land on door tops.

Rejection letters, or angry letters - remain in one’s memories for years - when one is burnt - long after those letters are burnt.

Ash remains in the fireplace - in the campfire - in the backyards of our lives.

Carl Sandburg in his poem,  “Cornhuskers” [1918] wrote, “I tell you the past is a bucket of ashes.”

Are we surrounded - are we standing in - the ashes, in the dust, in the backyard, in the graveyard, of all those who have gone before us?

Memories - tiny gestures of love or neglect - or regret - of those who have gone before us - continue to exist - even though our loved ones are closed and coffined and casketed - as ashes in fine boxes - buried in our cemeteries - buried in our memories - but sometimes they flame up - or float around us.  They return. They remain.

We humans have this wonderful gift called, “Memories.”

We human beings have this powerful word and commandment, “Remember.”

We humans do a lot of things in memory of others and from others.

So on Ash Wednesday we ponder these heavy thoughts - that are sitting there like dust - on the furniture of our being.

We hear the heavy words, “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

We hear the words, “Repent, and believe in the gospel.”

We ponder that Ash Wednesday is Day One of Lent - that we are living in borrowed time - that time is lent to us to live - with love - and care - and to serve others. The ones who give - who live for others - and not for themselves - are the ones we are happy that they continue to live in our memories - even when they  have turned to ashes - to dust.

We ponder that the Son of God entered into our story - into our history - into our time - and dies like all of us at the end of Lent - on Good Friday - Good because three days later God - Christ - the Son of the Father rises in the flesh. There is no dust of Christ - no relics of Christ - in our dust - in our air - only the Spirit of God - floating in and out of our being when enter into his Spirit.

But there is bread…. There is wine… So we eat Christ - we drink Christ - we take the life of Christ into our ears and into our mouths. We enter into Communion with him - and that’s what lasts - that’s what makes this life - so beautiful - as well as the knowing that at the end of all this is not ashes - not dust - but eternal resurrection.  

So we pray: “Thy Kingdom Come - on earth as it is in heaven."

March 6, 2019

Reflection

LENT

A four letter STOP sign 

not in red - but in purple. 

A time to STOP being selfish, 

but to be more giving, more forgiving. 

A time to STOP being petty, 

but to be a pretty nice person to be with. 

A time to STOP being all mouth, all words, 

but to be more ears and more understanding. 

A time to STOP being with a statue God, 

but to be in communion with the Trinity. 

 © Andy Costello, Reflections 2019

March     6,  2019 - 

Thought for today: 

“Pray for  us  sinners now and at the hour of our death / Pray for us now and at the  hour  of our death.”  

T.S. Eliot in his poem, 

“Ash Wednesday”.

March 5, 2019

BRIEF  INTERVIEW

“You’ve been married to your wife,

Lizzy, for 45 years now. What have

you learned about relationships?”

“I don’t know. I guess I learned

that the best thing you can do -

sometimes  - is to shut your mouth

and let the other person do what

they need to do. It takes a lot of

acceptance to make a marriage

work, and you have to keep

listening and talking. And you have

to like the other  person, too. That

helps an awful lot … and there’s

more but I need to think some more.”

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2019

March 5, 2019

Thought for today: 

“If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.” 

Milton Berle

March  4, 2019

THE  MUSIC  OF  LIFE,  LIFE, LIFE

Sounds, refrains, melodies,

beats, repetitions,

drums, drums, drums,

back and forths, ups and downs,

turns and returns,

violins, guitars, banjos,

pianos, organs, key boards,

strings, strings, strings,

air, the use of air,

blow Gabriel, blow,

fingers, the use of fingers,

feet, the tapping of feet,

the tapping of toes,

dancing to the tunes,

the thousand tunes of life,

tip, tap, tip, tap, tip.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2019

TOO  MUCH 

CAN BE  TOO MUCH

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 8^th Monday in  Ordinary Time is, “Too Much Can Be Too Much.”

TRIP TO JAPAN

I just finished a trip to Japan with 24 people. Most were from this parish.

Now I need some time to process - to think about what we saw and what we did - and what it told me.

for starters, it was a bit much.  It was too much to see - and experience - but I took notes of what happened.

The title of my homily or thoughts for today is, “Too Much Can Be Too Much.”

I only had one suitcase and a small duffle type bag for stuff to carry stuff to have on hand while on the plane.

One time there I helped someone who was trying to get on an escalator with two suitcases - wrong move - I almost fell - as one bag slipped down on the moving staircase - and I grabbed the side banister, but that was moving as well.

I was reading a book on preaching about a month ago  - and the author said a priest had a great sermon - made his point - and then he made a second point - which was good, but it was too much - and he proceeded to kill his whole sermon.

Sometimes, “Too Much Can Be Too Much.”

So too eating - so too speaking - so too so much.

Three scoops of ice cream on a cone - too much - the top two - rum raison and butter almond can land on the side walk - and all one is left with is the chocolate scoop on the bottom - which might be one’s third preference.

Soo too -  too many prayers.  Sometimes folks do too  many prayers and too much time on getting one’s prayers done.

So too TV or any kind of couch potatoing  life.

JESUS IN TODAY’S GOSPEL

Jesus is edging up and around this topic of too much in today’s gospel.

A man comes up to Jesus and asks the secret of life. He wants to inherit eternal life. He wants it all? Don’t we all?

So Jesus keeps it simple and says: “Keep the commandments.” Then Jesus gives a few of them.

The guy says, “I do all that.”

Then he adds, “But I want more!”

“Okay,”  says Jesus,

So Jesus gives him more - which is paradoxically - taking on less - giving up his wealth, giving up his too much, to the poor - and he can’t do that.

So his too much is preventing him from seeing the more - begommm which is to live lighter and less filling - and he walks away sad.

CONCLUSION

Mark’s gospel tells us the guy had too many possessions.

And they were possessing him.

He couldn’t fit through the eye of the needle - so there were too many rips in the fabric of his life.

The title of my homily is, “Too Much Can Be Too Much.”

March  4, 2019 

Thought for today: 

“Always remember that you are absolutely unique, just like everybody else.”   

Margaret Mead

March   3, 2019 - Thought for today: 

“If you cannot - in the long run - tell everyone what you have been doing, your doing has been worthless.” 

Erwin Schrödinger 

March 3, 2019

TEACHERS  AND  LEARNING

INTRODUCTION

I would like to preach on the theme of “Teachers and Learning.” That’s the theme that especially hit me when I read today’s first reading and the gospel.

So a homily entitled, “Teaching and Learning.”

ACTION STEP: JOURNAL

I was trying to come up with an action step: something to do because Lent is coming up. Ash Wednesday is this week and the question used to be and I hope still is, “What am I going to do for Lent?”

Catholic Magazines suggest all kinds of action steps, things to do for Lent or things to give up for Lent. Have you done any thinking about this yet. New Year’s Resolutions last a few days, but for many people, Lenten Resolutions last the 40 Days of Lent.

How about the following?  Last year someone told me they did something practical and they were really happy with the result by the time Easter rolled around. They kept a Lenten Journal.

I went over to Office Depot and bought this notebook for 2 dollars.

Suggestion: For this Lent get a notebook like this and jot down learnings from your life. We all have a lot of them, but they are inside us. If we take the time to jot them down, wow, what a surprise. We have learned a lot since our birth and we often don’t know it.

So for this Lent, an action step would be to keep a journal. It only has to take 10 minutes a day, preferably in the evening. Cut out some junk TV or something else and I guarantee you’ll find this experience life giving. So why not sit down and jot down life’s observations. What you have learned. What you know. What you have figured out so far.

Who knows? Maybe 100 years from now, long after we are dead, someone in the family will find out jottings and this 2 dollar notebook will be worth $100,000 on some Antique Road Show some time in the next century.

FIRST QUESTION: YOUR BEST TEACHER?

First question for your journal:  Who was the best teacher you ever had?

I love to ask people that question. Surprise people know very well who their best teacher was. They will tell you the name of a fourth grade teacher or a Social Studies or an English or a Math teacher in high school. I love to ask teachers that question especially and they give their answer immediately. They have thought about it and often that teacher, he or she, is the reason why this teacher chose to be a teacher.

Who was your best teacher? Maybe it was a parent or a boss or a friend or a co-worker.

And then as you write that down, you’ll think of other teachers.

So the first question, Who was the best teacher you ever had? is a good first question for your Lenten journal.

SECOND QUESTION: WHAT DID YOU LEARN?

The second question is a tougher one. What did that person teach you? Answering that question helps us to articulate what we learned and this is much more valuable than just listing a person’s name. This second question is hard work, difficult home work, heart work, mind work, but it’s worth the work.

It might be a high school basketball coach who sat us down because our ego was too big – or we weren’t studying or we goofed off – and our team lost because of our mistakes or non-thinking.

It might have been a French teacher who pushed us into really learning a foreign language and as a result we went to France for a year and that experience opened our eyes to so much more in life.

THIRD QUESTION: EXPERIENCE THE BEST TEACHER?

The third question is this: What have I learned from the experiences of my life?

We’ve all heard people say: “Experience is the best teacher!”

People talk about  the school of hard knocks or their parents refused to pay for their college and that was the best education I ever received. I had to work my way through college. It took 6 years, but it was all worth it.

But experience is not the best teacher. The best teacher is reflection on the experiences of life. What did I learn from what has happened in my life?

I’ve heard people say that someone can have 30 years experience and another person can have one year’s experience 30 times.

What have been the experiences of my life?

The birth of a baby can change a mom as well as a dad. Or just one of them. I’ve heard people say, “Wow was I self centered and only thinking of myself till we had our first baby. I was changing my baby son one night and I laughed because I was saying, “Wow. This used to be the wife’s job. Wow have times changed. Wow is this changing me.” And changing a baby changes people. They make us change our schedules. They make us change our sleeping patterns. Wow.

Or going away to college, or the military or on a volunteer program, or  the death of a parent, or being fired, or being in a car accident, or moving to another state, or winning the lottery or admitting I have an addiction, can all be great learning moments. And often the most humbling moments can lead to the greatest risings.

So the third question is more than what have been the big experiences of my life. The better question is: What have I learned from the experiences of my life.

TODAY’S READINGS

Today’s readings gave me this theme of “Teachers and Learning.”

FIRST READING

Today’s first reading is from Ben Sirach. He lived some 190 years before Christ. He is a great wisdom teacher. Read his book or scroll. It was a favorite for Christians in the Early Church.

He gives lots of short pithy statements that have lots of experiences behind them. They are sort of like the sayings you can find in Reader’s Digest. I love to keep a whole bunch of Reader’s Digest in the bathroom. They are wonderful reading while on the pot.

In today’s reading he says to not judge by appearances. Don’t we all do that?

He says shake the sieve and see what’s really there.

He says that the true test of what a potter molds appears if it can take the heat of the kiln.

He says when a person speaks, you know a lot more about a person.

He says that the fruit of the tree shows the care of the tree.

LADY WITH THE PEARLS

As I look at my life I see dozens of times that I judged the book by the cover, judged another person by their outsides.

One time I was working on an AA woman’s retreat. I use this example many times. There was this lady who really stood out.

I began to really notice her on Saturday morning of this weekend retreat. She had on a gaudy purple dress, an enormous white hat, large white pearls and she walked around with this big white vinyl pocketbook.

I judged her to be a character, a floozy, a nothing. Sorry. But I did. As the day went on I began to realize she reminded me of a dummy, this big enormous fake person at Coney Island when I was a kid. We used to love to go by this fun house. There she was, this big laughing dummy, who would shake back and forth, laughing and laughing.

As a kid we’d love to see her and laugh with her and even sometimes go into the fun house.

Well, that Saturday night there was a big meeting and the MC announced, “We have two guests speakers tonight.” The first got up and gave a speech. I don’t remember what she said or what she looked like. Nobody remembers talks or sermons. At least that’s my experience. Then the MC got up and announced the main speaker of the evening. She was a state supreme court justice etc. She had lots of credentials and lots of experience. Then who got up to speak: of course, the joke was on me. It was the lady in purple with the big white vinyl pocketbook. She was a good speaker. Of course, once more l don’t remember her talk, but I do remember the inner talk I gave myself, not to judge people anymore.

And of course, I have done it several more times in my life and every time I feel like a dummy and have a good laugh at myself.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

Last week on Public Television they had a three part special on Abraham and Mary Lincoln: A House Divided.

Forgetting what Ben Sirach tells us in the first reading today, people saw Abe Lincoln and thought he was country hick, a real rube, a geek that people gawked at.

In 1860 Lincoln ran for president in the Republican Party – which had started back in 1846. He was invited to go to  New York City in October. William Herdon, his law partner of many years back in Illinois, said that he really worked for months on his talk.

The talk was moved to Cooper Union Hall in Manhattan. An eyewitness reported, “When Lincoln rose to speak, I was greatly disappointed. He was tall, tall, - oh, how tall! and so angular and awkward that I had, for an instant, a feeling of pity for so ungainly a man." But he said Lincoln’s "face lighted up as with an inward fire; the whole man was transfigured. I forgot his clothes, his personal appearance, and his individual peculiarities. Presently, forgetting myself, I was on my feet like the rest, yelling like a wild Indian, cheering this wonderful man." There were 1500 there that night and Lincoln was the obvious presidential candidate for the Republicans for the next national election.

He had gone to William Seward’s territory and came out the winner.

In 1860 Lincoln ran against Stephen Douglas in the national election. The democrats split their ticket with Douglas as a Democrat from the North and John Breckinridge as Democrat from the South. They had campaigned against in each other in 1858 to become senator from Illinois. Lincoln was 6 foot 4 and Douglas was 5 foot 6 or so.

On November 18^th of 1863 they had a ceremony at the Military Cemetery at  Gettysburg, Pa. for the soldiers who had died there back in the previous July. 51,000 had died. A monument for the dead was being dedicated at a ceremony. The main speaker was Edward Everett from Massachusetts. He was to speak 2 hours. They invited as an afterthought, the president, Abraham Lincoln. He was down to zero in the polls, because of all the slaughters of Northern Soldiers.

Edward Everett spoke 1 hour and 57 minutes. I guess when you speak that long, everyone has looked at their watch a hundred times. Then Lincoln spoke for 3 minutes. Lincoln worked on his speech late into the evening. It was only 10 sentences, 272 words. Which speech was remembered? Of course it was Lincoln’s. It changed the mind of the North and the purpose of the Civil War aim.

So as we look at the journey of our life, as we write the journal of our life, who our best teachers were. Often it’s not the person we would expect, but some mechanic, or some friend, or a grandmother, or some person there in the backroom of our life.

TODAY’S GOSPEL

Today’s Gospel presents Jesus as a wisdom teacher. I’ve run into Catholics who have given up on the Catholic Faith. I have been part of lots of High School Retreats. I would tell young people who have given up on Jesus, to accept Jesus at least as a great teacher. In fact, I would say, he might be the greatest wisdom teacher of all time.

Test him out. Forget the miracles in the gospels. Forget the biographical stuff (born in Nazareth, heads towards Jerusalem, is arrested, but the night before he dies, he has a great supper with his followers, and then dies the next day) and just listen to him as a teacher. You’ll be amazed at his teachings.

Today he gives some of the same teachings of Ben Sirach. The tree is know by its fruit.

But his big teaching for today, at least it’s the one that hit me, is that of not seeing specks in our brother or sister’s eye and take a look what’s in our own heart and  mind and eye.

I have given talks all over the place and many times people think they are complimenting me when they say, “I wish my mother in law was here today to hear what you had to say.” Or “I wish my son or daughter heard that.” And I smile and say, “Thank you!” but inwardly I say, “Be glad that you were here today and heard something that was for you, not them. I have learned that when I say that, it’s even more a message for me and I’m avoiding something in myself by laying it on someone else.

As they said to Jesus, “Physician heal yourself!” every preacher must first apply the word of God to themselves first. Otherwise it will be the blind leading the blind.

MOHATMA GANDHI

There is a story somewhere about Mohatma Gandhi. A mother came to him once and told him that her son had an addiction to candy. Could he come and talk to her son and straighten him out.

Gandhi paused and then said, “Come back in one month exactly and lets see if we can do something then.”

The lady came back in a month and Gandhi said, “Now what is it again that you want me to do?” She said, “I want you to talk to my son about his addiction to candy.”

“Okay,” he said. “Let’s go and see him.” Well, the mother brought Gandhi to her son. Gandhi said, “You stay here and let me talk to him alone.”

The lady went outside and Gandhi came outside a while later and said, “Everything will be okay.”

Sure enough the kid got over this addiction to candy and started to eat the right stuff. The mother as intrigued and went to Gandhi and said, “Why did you wait a month? Why didn’t you go and talk to him the first time I came to you.”

“Oh,” said Gandhi. “I too have an addiction to candy and I wanted to see if I could give up candy for a month, before I told someone else to give up candy.”

CONCLUSION

That’s my homily. If you looking for something practical to do for Lent, my suggestion for this Lent is to do some journal writing on what you have learned from life so far. By Easter, you’ll be amazed how much you’ve learned, who your teachers were, and how much is in your inner library.