ABOUT LAST NIGHT

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this Easter is, “About Last Night.”

I wasn’t sure just what to preach on this morning. What do you need?

What does your spirit crave this Easter?

Of course the main focus of Easter is Christ – the Risen Christ.

ABOUT LAST NIGHT

Last night we had the Easter Vigil Mass at St. John Neumann – our other church in this enormous parish. The Mass took two hours. I was watching my watch. It was a good religious experience - and I have to watch out for the time keeping side of me.

It started in the dark.

Our Pastor, Father Jack Kingsbury, blessed a new fire in the back of the Church.

Then Deacon Tony Norcio brought over the new Easter Candle.

The pastor cut a cross in the wax of the Easter Candle. Then he traced on the wax the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet while saying,

“Christ yesterday and today,
the beginning and the end,
Alpha
and Omega;
all time belongs to him,
and all the ages;
to him be glory and power
through every age for ever. Amen.”

Then Father Jack pressed five grains of incense into the Easter Candle in the form of a cross saying,

“By his holy
and glorious wounds
may Christ our Lord
guard us
and keep us. Amen.”

Then he lit the Easter Candle from the new fire saying, “May the Light of Christ, rising in glory dispel the darkness of our hearts and minds.”

The church is still in darkness when Deacon Tony Norcio begins a procession down the main aisle of the church. Holding the lit Easter Candle high in the air he sings three times, “Christ our light.” And the crowded church in the benches sings each time in response, “Thanks be to God.”

Halfway down the aisle the altar servers take a light from the Easter Candle and begin lighting candles that people are holding. Slowly the whole church becomes filled with people holding a light.

It had to be especially impressive for the 30 people here in this parish who came into the Church last night. And this was happening all over the Catholic Church around the world last night.

The bottom line is this: Christ is our light. Christ gives meaning to our lives. Christ gives sense and significance to our lives. Christ is the one we are following – down the aisles – traffic – the everyday situations of our lives – especially when we feel we’re in the dark.

FOLLOWING SOMEONE WHO HAS A VERY UNFAMILIAR NAME
Has this ever happened to you? You’re watching the evening news or reading an article about a disturbance or disagreement going on somewhere in Iraq – and the reporter says the fight was caused by the followers of some leader with a very unfamiliar name to you – and maybe even hard to pronounce. And the article says that the leader has thousands of followers.

Then you get the thought: would there be people in the world who would think me strange if I said, “I am a follower of Jesus Christ.”

Then when I say that, someone says, “I really don’t know who this Jesus Christ is? Who is he?”

You’re surprised.

Then you begin to answer the question: “Two thousand years ago there was this carpenter from a small village in Northern Israel, a Jew. When he was around thirty years of age, he began preaching and teaching and healing. Some people began following him. Some got angry at him for upsetting the status quo. And he was killed – crucified on a cross. And his followers believe he returned from the dead. He is alive."

Then you pause and then add, "I too believe. I too follow him."

Then you add, "There is a lot more to the story - much more. And right now, Christians, those who follow Christ, are the largest religious group in the world. Of the 6 billion plus people in the world, well over a billion are Catholics – and another half billion plus follow him as Protestants or Greek or Russian Orthodox, or in other branches of Christianity.”

Would the other person think we’re strange? Or would they say, “That’s interesting.” Or let's talk about this again some day." (Cf. Acts 17:32)

RENEWAL OF OUR BAPTISM VOWS

Last night at St. John Neumann, five of the 30 people were baptized. Most were already baptized – so all 30 received the Sacrament of Confirmation – as they became Catholics.

At this Mass this morning – and all the Masses on Easter Sunday, Catholics renew their baptismal vows – and there is the sprinkling with the Holy Water to remind us of the Baptismal waters – something we do every time we come into church - when we put our hand in the Holy Water font and make the sign of the cross.

We just went through a Lent in preparation for this renewal of our Christian faith and our following of Jesus.

Those who came into our Church last night went through the RCIA – the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults program. It started last September. That’s a lot of Wednesday evenings.

Last night, as priest I had a great seat up front facing the congregation. I could watch the whole scene. I was not preaching or in charge. I was just a potted plant – so I watched faces. I like to watch faces.

Deacon Leroy Moore and his wife Kathy – have been running our RCIA program for years – and Father Jack Harrison has joined them these past 3 years – along with several other people who serve. Their faces were filled with joy – along with those coming into the Church – their families, sponsors and friends as well. There was a daughter who came into the Church a few years ago and she was the sponsor for her dad doing the same last night. I studied her face as she stood there behind her dad with her hand on his shoulder.

I’m sure every new Catholic has a unique and wonderful story to tell.

I’m sure you read in the paper about a month ago how many Catholics drop out and try other religions.

I think, this, as well as recruitment, and renewal, should be topics at our annual Town Hall Meeting – as well as the groups we belong to in this parish, etc.

Before I came here to Annapolis five years ago, I was stationed in Lima, Ohio at St. Gerard’s Parish. We were average when it came to the number of people coming into the Church at the Easter Vigil – usually about 15 people. But every year there were about 50 people who became Catholics at St. Charles Parish on the other side of town. I wanted to know the reason. And I got the answer. It was this older nun – probably younger than I am now. She would start Monday morning after Easter gathering names for the next RCIA class – that would start in September. And she would quietly contact lots of people who showed interest.

I would think we need to advertise the RCIA program a lot more.

I would also think we need to put into play a program for fallen away Catholics. There are several good programs that are going on in Catholic parishes around the United States and world – right now. Folks meet for a series of weeks - have a chance to ventilate their questions, concerns, hurts, what have you - and are challenged to look at their story.

Okay, if more people starting coming to Mass, it would cause more space problems in our parking lots and our two church buildings – here and at St. John Neumann. And it would mean more work for us priests. Why not?

NOW WHAT CAN THIS CARPENTER OF NAZARETH DO FOR US?

Each of us has to answer this question for ourselves. We have to look at the furniture in our inner room. That’s one of Jesus’ images and questions. Who’s sitting in the chairs of our mind and heart? Who’s doing all the talking? Who’s running the show? Who’s present? Who’s absent? Whom should we be talking and listening to? Who’s taking up our energy and excitement? What are our dreams and what are our nightmares? Is Jesus Christ there? Do we meet the Father and the Spirit there?

There are Churchy answers and there are personal answers to the Jesus question. In the public forum and in the pulpit we give the Church answers – theology answers – very important answers – well worked out answers from some 1900 years of theology and thought – but in one to one moments with ourselves and with others we can give our personal witness.

The 3 people in today’s gospel – would each tell you a different story. In the gospels, we get glimpses of who Jesus was to these people: Mary of Magdala, Peter, and the Disciple whom Jesus loved. Most think this is John – but we’re not absolutely sure.

What is your story? Who is Jesus to you? Why are you here today?

Your story - your relationship to Jesus - your meeting God stories - are as unique to you as the question to a couple: "Where did you meet? When did you fall in love? Tell us your relationship story?"

I am a born Catholic. We went to Mass all the time. We said the rosary in the house – and I used to wish it wasn’t so long. Then my mother started doing the "add on’s" – ugh. I still hate "add on’s" and it’s the nature of religion to have "add on’s". We’d finally finish the rosary and my mom would add on 5 Hail Mary’s for the wound in his right hand. 5 Hair Mary’s for the wound in his left hand, etc., etc., etc. One time as adults my brother and I were home and mom and dad said, “Do you want to say the rosary?” We were trapped. So we said, “Yes!” We discovered my mom and dad had come up with another whole series of new "add on’s". When we finally finished my brother said, “Mom are you going to put vestments on now and say Mass for us?”

We went to Catholic school. I was an altar boy. And priests would ask us in grammar school from time to time. How many here would like to be a priest? And it got me thinking. So I went to the seminary and all that. But it wasn’t till I was 20 years of age – having finished two years of college – and I was in our novitiate year – a whole year in the middle of our 4 years of college. It was New Year’s Eve – and we had to go to bed around 9 and I thought that was crazy, so I stayed up till midnight – to bring in the New Year – but I was all alone – so I went to the chapel in our religious house and at midnight I said, “Happy New Year” to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. I had this overwhelming experience of the real presence of Jesus on New Year's Eve, 1960 – a meeting with a carpenter from a small town in Nazareth – some 2000 years ago.

My religious understanding changed at that moment. Looking back, my life changed at that moment. Jesus switched from being a word and an idea and a teaching and a picture and a statue – to a person – a real life person whom I have been connecting with ever since – in my inner room, in the bread, in people, in thousands and thousands of everyday situations I’ve been in ever since. Imagine telling that to someone who has no clue who Jesus Christ is?

Years later, I remember telling my New Year’s Eve experience to my sister Peggy and she laughed. She’s a nun. Surprise! She told me that she had the same experience on a New Year’s Eve – when she was making her novitiate – but instead of going to chapel she went to the bathroom – got a glass of water in a paper cup and at midnight saluted herself in the mirror saying, “Happy New Year!”

We both laughed because our dad was the type who went to bed at 9 PM on New Year’s Eve – but my mom and my brother and sister and their spouses and family always celebrated New Year’s Eve.

CONCLUSION

I better conclude this – less this too take 2 hours – and there might be some watch watchers here.

In today’s gospel, if that stone would not have been rolled back, we would not be here this morning. We would not believe that Jesus is present in the bread and wine of the Mass. Imagine telling that to someone who never heard that before? St. Paul gets even more dramatic. He says, “If Christ did not rise from the dead, we would still be in our sins.” We priests here at St. Mary’s have just spent the last three weeks hearing thousands and thousands and thousands of confessions – here as well as in many other parishes in Anne Arundel County. St. Paul says, “If Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, we’re idiots for believing in him. But we’re here.

About last night. At some point, the stone was removed from the tomb. Jesus was not in the grave. We believe: Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.

HOLY SATURDAY MOMENTS

Holy Saturday -- the day after -- the day in between -- the day after the death.

Holy Saturday -- the only words to describe it are waiting, watching, and quiet, lots of quiet.

Holy Saturday -- waiting.

Like waiting as a family in a waiting room outside the intensive care center in a hospital.

Like waiting for 9:00 P.M. in a funeral home after a long, long day of standing, greeting relatives and friends who have come to say a prayer and pay their respects and voice their sorrow and sympathy to us -- when we have lost a loved one.

Like waiting for spring after the winter -- to see buds and birds once again -- new life -- the resurrection of the earth.

Like waiting for the birth of a child -- a mother about to give birth has great pain, but all that changes to joy when she sees her new child born into this world.

Like the father of the Prodigal Son waiting, waiting for his wayward son to come home -- and then waiting, waiting for the stubborn older brother to come into the house and welcome his younger brother back into the family.

Like Jesus waiting and looking with one last glance from the cross before he dies hoping to see Judas coming home, coming up the hill of Calvary.

Like Peter, not knowing resurrection, scratching his mistakes like picking at a freshly formed scab on a cut on the skin of his soul.

Like Mary, hurting, another sword -- pondering all this in her heart.

Like waiting for tomorrow: Easter Sunday.

Holy Saturday: watching.

Like watching others and how they deal with a loss.

Like watching the eastern sky for dawn.

Like watching our watch and then a clock and then the phone and then our watch again when another promised to give us a call that they arrived home safely on an icy night.

Like the disciples in the upper room huddled in worry and fear, wondering what’s going to happen next.

Holy Saturday: quiet.

Quiet like the quiet after experiencing a dream that has become a nightmare -- when all our plans and all our expectations have totally unraveled.

Quiet like the quiet we feel when someone we loved has died -- feeling the gulping hole in our conversations and our thoughts and our prayers.

Quiet like seeing an empty space in a bed.

Quiet like seeing an empty cross.

Quiet like the quiet we feel when someone has hurt us badly.

Quiet like the quiet we feel when we were wrong and can’t admit it.

Quiet like the flowers of spring ready to burst -- tulips trumpeting the spring.

Holy Saturday: an off day -- a day in between -- a day you have to have -- to slow us down before the big day -- the day of we’re waiting for, watching for, then the quiet, then the burst of the Easter Christ.

Come Lord Jesus, come. Come Risen Son of God

Holy Saturday a time to come here to church for quiet prayer together, waiting and watching for Jesus’ return -- for resurrection -- for new beginnings and new life. Amen

Come Lord Jesus, come.

Come Resurrection and Life.

Come “Amen” of the Father.

Amen, Jesus always rising within us all days, even to the end of the world.

Amen. Maranatha.*

Come, Lord Jesus, come.

*Cf. Book of

Revelation 22:16-21)

© Andy Costello

CRIES

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “Cries!”

Good Friday is a good day to get in touch with our cries– our tears – our fears – the deep pains and hurts – which are rooted in us along with many other roots, buried in the hard earth of our soul, beneath this tree called me. I am bark and branch, lsapling and sap, but especially roots – roots, without which I would fall. (Cf. first reading, Isaiah 53: 2)

Our roots – what we can’t see – the underneath stuff of our life is the important stuff – where we are planted – have been planted as well as uprooted and replanted.

Our roots, our story, our family, our parents, our life experiences, our jobs, our memories of our experiences hold us up. We become what happened to us. As Tennyson says in his poem, Ulysses, “I am part of all that I have met.” We become what we eat. We become what we meet. Better we become how we digest and process what is happening to us every moment of our life – and sometimes we cry tears and sometimes we laugh tears about what has happened to us.

Cries are part of life – stress on the word “part” of life. What are our cries? What have we watered our tree with?

Obviously, cries are just part of our repertoire – just some of our sounds. Life is laughter and tears, comedy and tragedy, death and resurrection, downs and ups. Good Friday isn’t the only date on our calendar. Easter Sunday sends hints of its presence – with each movement of our watch or clock – “Tick. Tick.” Or “Silence. Silence.” And here in the Northern Hemisphere, flowers are popping up on our lawn. Trees are about to bud. We get out our rakes, wheelbarrows, and search for our gardening gloves. We feel Spring in the air and spring in our feet. New life is budding. Resurrection and hope is in the air.

But tonight, in the meanwhile, we stop for a moment. Today is Good Friday and we listen to cries.

Cries.

On Good Friday we stand under the tree of Jesus. We stand on Christ’s roots. We stand under the tree of the cross – knowing there is so much more underneath the story of Christ than what we see.

We face the cross and we face the reality that one of our human sounds is crying.

We cry when we are born. Thank God. We cry at death.

To be human is to cry deep screams – in loud or out loud.

When we picture nails being driven into Jesus’ hands and feet we wince. I picture him screaming. When they raised up the cross – when gravity pulled the weight of his body downwards, we can feel the hurt. Was he numb from the loss of blood from the crown of thorns and the beatings the day before? Or did he scream a stream of loud cries?

“Were you there when they crucified my Lord? Were you there when they nailed him to the tree? Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble. Were you there when they crucified my Lord?”

This crucifix here in this church is somewhat easy to look at – like the crosses on our walls back home or on our rosaries – compared to what the reality must have been. But could we endure facing the bloody reality of Christ on the cross 52 weeks of the year?

TODAY’S SECOND READING

The title of my homily is, “Cries!”

In today’s second reading, we heard, “In the days when Christ was in the flesh, he offered prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered; and when he was made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.”

The first meaning of “obey” is to listen. We stand under the cross and we listen to Jesus. We hear his words from the cross – words of forgiveness and thinking of others. We hear his cry to his Father – his feeling that the Father has forsaken him. Then we hear his learning on the cross: his letting go and putting himself into his Father’s hands.

We stand under the cross and we listen. We learn. We notice.

BOO BOO

I’m sitting on a soft sofa in a living room – at a family gathering. It’s many years ago. On the other side of the room, my grandnephew Christopher, aged 3 or so – looks across the room and notices my hand. He sees a band aid on one of my fingers – a flesh colored band aid – and yells a loud cry from the other side of the room pointing at my cut finger, “Boo. Boo!” And everyone in the room becomes silent. And he walks across the room and everyone is watching and he takes my cut finger and says, “Boo Boo.” And then he kisses my cut.

It was one of those moments – one of those simple life moments that make up the moments of our life – our roots.

I didn’t know what to say, other than, “I cut it yesterday. It doesn’t hurt today.”

EXODUS

One of the oldest lines in the Bible is in the Book of Exodus, when it says, “God heard the cry of the Israelites in Egypt.” (Cf. Exodus 3:7,9)

God spotted a hurting people.

Of course, forever afterwards, we cry out to God, “Why don’t You hear the cries of the people in Darfur and Zimbabwe? Why don’t You hear the cries of children abused? Why don’t You hear the cries of those stuck in 1,001 different ways around our world?

Of course, we all know the comeback of preachers who then say, “And God says, ‘Why don’t you hear the cries of the poor and those in Darfur? Why don’t you hear the cries of children and those mumbling and crying in nursing homes?”

And we add, “But You’re God.”

CHRIST: THERE’S DOESN’T SEEM TO BE A CONCLUSION

As Christians we know there is too much mystery in life – too many twisted and turning roots that we can’t see underneath the tree of life. As humans we know there are many more questions than there are answers.

As Christians we know that God heard the human cry of every human being and so he became one of us – human – born a baby of Mary – born in a borrowed stable – was hunted and hounded – and was rejected when he started to really challenge people to notice their brothers and sisters – and to hear their cries – especially when they were hurting and wounded on the roads of life.

As Christians we know we are called to hear the cries of others – to become like little children who somehow know when something is wrong in mommy or daddy or brother or sister or uncle or aunt. We are called to be like children and see that every person in this room here tonight and every room – has a boo boo – a hurt – a cry – a scream – a wound.

Every person here tonight knows Good Friday. Every person here tonight has been on a cross – maybe right now.

And so tonight we come up the aisle like little children and kiss the cross.

And so in life, we cross rooms to help those who are cut and crying.

*

HOLY THURSDAY:
SEVEN INGREDIENTS

1) People,
2) Place,
3) Bread,
4) Wine,
5) Water,
6) Table,
7) Words.

1) People:
people wanting to be with Jesus,
people wanting to follow Jesus,
people hesitating to have their feet washed,
people not sure what is really going on,
people who will remember.

2) Place:
the upper room,
the place of the Last Supper,
the place of coming of the Holy Spirit,
the place where the disciples hid out of fear,
the place where the disciples heard, “Peace” from the Risen Lord,
the womb, the birth place of the church.

3) Bread:
bread broken,
bread shared,
bread held,
bread that hears the words: “This is my body which is being broken for you”,
bread eaten out of hunger for the Lord,
bread always asked for -- “Give us this day our daily bread.”

4) Wine:
wine made from grapes picked from a living vine,
wine made from crushed grapes,
wine the color of blood,
wine in the chalice that Jesus said “Yes” to,
wine gladdening the hearts of all who thirst for it,
wine becoming the blood being poured out in a New Covenant of love and service.

5) Water:
water used by Jesus to wash his disciples feet,
water reminding us of all the people on the planet who serve others, parents, nurses, farmers, dentists, mechanics, cooks, waiters, waitresses, truck drivers, nursing home workers, business people, hopefully, everyone,
water reminding us of the sacredness and beauty of all the water on our planet covering most of our earth,
water answering our prayers, “Give us this day our daily shower”; “Give us this day our daily glasses of cold water”; “Give us this day our water for our many hand washings”,
water, like the water that would flow from Jesus’ side on the cross.

6) Table:
a table of food, a meal, bringing people together in love and communion,
a table, reminding us of all that goes into our everyday meals, sacrifice, work, planning, shopping, lining up, preparing, cooking, serving, doing dishes and silverware, saran wrapping and plastic containing leftovers, etc.
a table reminding us of Jesus willingness and joy to sit down at our tables,
a table, a place for each one in the family to answer, “How was your day?”,
a table, an altar that brings us together with Jesus in a real presence at each Eucharist,
a table reminding us of the importance of gathering as a family around table for everyday meals, everyday Eucharist’s as well as special celebrations and thanksgiving dinners and Eucharist’s,
a table reminding us of the need to gather at table for meals, for meetings, for mapping out how we can live the New Testament.

7) Words:
Last Supper words, teachings,
Last Supper words, prayers, promises, a new commandment,
Last Supper words of Thanksgiving, Unity, Mystery,
Last Supper words that will be remembered,
Last Supper words, “Gather” and “Do this in memory of me.”

* I received

the picture

on the top

of this meditation

on an Easter Card -

but there was no mention

of who the artist is. Sorry.

WAIT A MINUTE!

“Wait a minute!” Haven’t we all said that at times? Haven’t we all said that when we felt a need for a STOP sign – when the traffic of words – or demands – or people pushing – were coming at us too fast– and we didn’t want to crash or be forced off the road or over a cliff.

“Wait a minute!” 3 simple words – that we need to have in our backpack of everyday skills for everyday living.

“Wait a minute!” There are a series of books - that talk about “The One Minute Manager!” Kenneth Blanchard and others challenge people to use one’s time well - to learn how to be aware of the monkeys on one's back, etc.

Wait a minute. Awareness is the first step. The second step is to learn to say politely, calmly, but strongly, “Wait a minute. Let’s talk about this. Let’s negotiate this. Let’s see what’s going on here. Let’s take some space. Let’s work this out.” Or when someone suddenly stops us with the request when we're on the way to do something else, "Do you have a minute?" we can say politely, "Sorry. I don't right now." Or if they read the book, to say with a smile, "I don't want your monkey for my pet."

“Wait a minute!” Without pushing too hard, why not take a minute right now to practice saying a few times? “Wait a minute!” “Wait a minute!” “Wait a minute!” Take a rosary and say it on each bead – 59 times. Say 59 times: “Wait a minute!”

Wait a minute! If you take a minute or two to practice saying that, you’ll find yourself saying it to yourself from time to time – hopefully at the right time.

Wait a minute. Ask: "What am I not seeing?" "Whom am I missing or 'dissing'?"

Wait a minute – what I just said hurt you.

Wait a minute – I’m driving too fast.

Wait a minute – you’re going too fast.

Wait a minute! Don't go there!

Wait a minute! Do I really want to watch this?

Wait a minute – smoking – or drinking – or using these drugs will do damage to my body, my brain, my lungs, my liver.

Wait a minute, I’m wasting my life with too much sitting around.

Wait a minute, I want to save this for marriage.

Wait a minute, this is cheating.

Wait a minute – I’m not allowing God into my life.

Wait a minute – I’m not really trying. I’m just going through the motions.

Wait a minute, I’m not helping around the house.

Wait a minute, I just dumped my empty coffee cup on the tarmac of the parking lot and someone has to pick it up.

Wait a minute, I’m hurting here and I need to talk to someone about this.

Wait a minute, it only takes 15 to 30 seconds to say a prayer before eating or going to bed – or after waking up in the morning.

Wait a minute, it only takes a short phone call or e-mail to connect with someone I haven’t heard from in a while.

Wait a minute! Look before you leap. A whole life can change in a minute.

Wait a minute, confession only takes a minute. It’s good for the soul. It’s good to say, “These are my sins” and hear ourselves say what we’re sorry for saying or doing or not doing. Presidents and governors, parents and teachers, all of us find it difficult to say, “I made a mistake.” Say it: “I sinned!” “I was selfish!” “I didn’t stop to think before I spoke.”

Wait a minute. I need a minute to think about this.

© Andy Costello.

March 18, 2008

[I wrote this for yesterday's

St. Mary's High School

Penance service -

then adapted it a tiny bit

for a wider blog audience

last night.]

WE UNDERSTAND

PALM SUNDAY

The title of my homily or reflection is, “We Understand Palm Sunday.”

Should I end my sermon or homily having said just that?

I could. Then a few of you will stand in the back after Mass and say, “I didn’t understand what you meant by your statement: “We understand Palm Sunday.”

So I’ll say something: something about something we all know.

Sometimes all goes right. We’re the talk of the town and sometimes we’re a disaster: everything in our life has come tumbling down.

Life is the highs and the lows – the Mountains and the Pits, Palm Sunday and Good Friday. Life is not a flat plain. If we’re alive, the monitor shows us alive as a jagged line, highs and lows, till we flat line.

Understand that, and you understand Palm Sunday.

Understand that, and you understand life.

Sometimes we’re the lead horse and we win the race; sometimes we feel like the donkey. Nobody notices us – but they notice the person or persons we’re carrying on our back.

Understand that and you understand Palm Sunday.

Life! The baby arrives – finally – and we all celebrate. Praise God. There are the phone calls – cell phone and e-mail pictures – and then a party – and Christians celebrate birth with baptism.

And then life goes on. Life’s calendars are marked with birthday parties – and graduation parties – and wedding parties – and anniversary parties. Life goes on and on and on.

We understand Palm Sunday.

We understand celebration – parties – parades – Palm Sunday type moments.

And this same baby in time becomes a graduate, becomes a bride or bridegroom, has babies of their own, gets older, has a hospital stay or two, retires, gets cancer or is in an accident, gets even older, needs a cane, a walker, Depends and a bed pan – and at some point dies.

Understand that and you understand Palm Sunday – and Holy Week.

Spring, summer, autumn, the trees are beautiful – buds, glistening green leaves, then green turning to orange, red, beautiful brown and gold leaves, then the fading, the fall, the crumble, then the long cold winter – trees standing out in the cold - empty naked branches shivering and scratching the night sky wondering is there anything after the golden glory of autumn? Trees know the meaning of the cross. Trees long for the sap of Spring – resurrection – new life.

Understand that and you understand Palm Sunday – and Holy Week.

Christ knew he had to go to Jerusalem. He had to face evil and the opposite of what he was about. He had to go there to celebrate the Passover. He couldn’t pass over it.

Christ also knew he had to have a last supper with his disciples. They still didn’t understand him – who he was and what he was about - after dozens and dozens of parables and dozens and dozens of healings. He had to wash their feet and tell them life is all about service. He had to sit with them one last time and try to sum up his whole message. He chose two simple everyday, every table, gifts: bread and wine. Both have to go through the life cycle to get to that table, wheat, grapes, cut, crush, baked, then bread, then wine.

Jesus knew life. He knew the way and the truth of life. He said he was the way, truth and the life. Isn’t that the truth?

Life: male, female, mom, dad, egg, seed, baby, the mother cut, body and blood, the mother along with the father holding their baby saying, “This is my body. This is my blood. We’re giving our life to you.”

Life: raising kids, working hard, building a home, shopping, making sacrifice after sacrifice – laughter, card games, ups and downs.

Life: long nights, worry about who the kids are hanging with, the nagging whine and angst and acne of their teen age years, okay there are A’s at times and goals in field hockey, lacrosse, football or soccer, or a great performance in a school play, but there are fights over dating the wrong person, after all we’ve done for you, driving you here and driving you there, and you’re driving us crazy at times.

Money - worries about money - taking a second job or a second mortgage. Hoping the family gets the message at every meal: “Hey we are giving our body and blood for you?” Family, food, prayer, sacrifice, togetherness. Hoping the family understands the meaning of the kitchen table – that it’s connected to the altar table.

This week – Holy Week: Palm Sunday to Easter – two highs and then the lows of betrayal and fear and tears in a garden – the high of the Last Supper on Holy Thursday – the low of spit, nails, curses and crucifixion on Good Friday.

Holy Week: Palms up. Hosanna to the Son of David. Holy Week: Thumbs down – a governor betraying himself – trying to manipulate a crowd by giving them a choice between Jesus and a thief named Barabbas – a governor whose wife sent him the message: “Have nothing to do with that righteous man. I suffered much in a dream today because of him.”

Holy Week: Christ’s hands sharing bread and wine as well as washing feet, hands nailed to a cross.

Holy Week: the steps Jesus had to take to get to Easter – the steps we follow because we want to have everything to do with this righteous man named Jesus.

Understand this and you understand Palm Sunday – and Holy Week. It’s a matter of life and death and resurrection.

LIFTED UP

If I be lifted up
like a child
on my Father’s shoulders,
all will see me,
some will wave and
some will wink,
but most will soon forget
such a cute scene
and none will believe
who I AM.

But, if I be lifted up
like a criminal
on my Father’s shoulders,
this time shoulders
made of wood, a cross,
then all will see me,
especially those who are caught
in pain and shame and then
maybe some will believe
who I AM? Amen.

© Andy Costello

Reflection for 5 Tuesday Lent

ARE YOU NUTS?

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “Are You Nuts?”

Different people use that phrase, “Are you nuts?” or “Are you crazy?” or, “I don’t believe you.” or “No way!” or “Muy loco!”

Today’s readings have the great theme of resurrection or life after death. The theme is put here this Sunday because next Sunday is Palm Sunday which begins Holy Week and then Easter – when we celebrate Christ rising from the dead.

FIRST READING

Today’s first reading is an excerpt from the great scene from the 37th chapter of book of the Prophet Ezekiel. He finds himself in the middle of a big valley filled with dead bones – skeletons – and God tells him to walk up and down among the dead bones. He sees that they are quite dried up. God tells him to prophecy over the bones that they come back to life – and they do. If you have time today or this week, read the 37th chapter of Ezekiel – or go to a cemetery and walk around the grounds. Think of the bones beneath the stones.

And then God tells Ezekiel, “This is Israel. The people are dead. Call them back to life. Tell the people to come out of their graves – and I will put a new spirit in them.” And Ezekiel does that and they come back to life.

The message is twofold: here and hereafter people are dead. God calls people here and hereafter to rise from the dead – to have a new spirit – to come back to life.

Ezekiel’s stress is on the here and now. The Gospel of John is a stress on both here and the hereafter. I tend to stress the here more than the hereafter. What about you? Is it a question of age?

To me the message is obvious: people are dead. People are sleep walking. People need to hear “Alarm clock words!” People need to hear, “Wake up everybody!”

POST OFFICE

I always remember a moment when my niece and I were to meet my brother, Billy, in New York City. He worked for the post office out of Washington DC and he was working on changing a procedure in the main New York office – over near the Old Penn Station. We went in and met him. Then he took us into this big room with about 40 desks – with someone at every desk. There was a big clock on the wall and it was at 3:55 and he sort of whispered to us, “Wait till you see what happens at 4 o’clock. It’s finishing time. The bell will ring and if anybody doesn’t believe in resurrection from the dead, they should be standing here ever afternoon at 4 PM.”

TODAY’S GOSPEL

In today’s gospel we have the great story about Lazarus – who has been dead 4 days. He and his two sisters were good friends of Jesus – so when Jesus gets there – they are crying. They are wishing he had come sooner, because then Lazarus would not have died. When Jesus sees how sad Martha and Mary are, he too cries. Then after Jesus speaks they remove the stone that locks the tomb and Jesus cries out in a loud voice into the tomb , “Lazarus, come out!” And Lazarus comes out – tied hand and foot – with burial bindings. His face is wrapped in cloth. And Jesus says, “Untie him and let him go.”

It’s a great scene to picture. It’s one of the key stories in the gospel of John – right in the center – and it can evoke all kinds of theological themes.

Each main character in the gospel of John is us: Nicodemus, the man born blind, the woman caught in adultery and people want to stone her to death, the man at the pool of Siloam who is sick and stuck for 38 years, and this Sunday, Lazarus.

We hear these stories and we pray that Jesus calls us, heals us, hears us, saves us, enlightens us, challenges us, changes us.

We hear the story of Lazarus and we pray that Jesus will raise us from the dead – both here and hereafter.

POEM

I’d would like to read a poem that I love. It’s by the Swedish poet, Ingemar Gustafson. It’s where I got the title of my homily for today, “Are You Nuts?”

LOCKED IN

All my life I lived in a coconut.
It was cramped and dark.
Especially in the morning when I had to shave.

But what pained me most was that I had no way
to get in touch with the outside world.
If no one out there happened to find the coconut,
if no one cracked it, then I was doomed
to live all my life in the nut,
and maybe even die there.

I died in the coconut.
A couple of years later they found the coconut,
cracked it, and found me shrunk and crumbled inside.

“What an accident!”
“If only we had found it earlier.”
“Then maybe we could have saved him.”
“Maybe there are more of them locked in like that …”
“Whom we might be able to save,”
they said, and started knocking to pieces
every coconut within reach.

No use! Meaningless! A waste of time!
A person who chooses to live in a coconut!
Such a nut is one in a million!
But I have a brother-in-law
who lives in an
acorn.

To me the poem has the same message as today’s first reading from Ezekiel and today’s gospel from John.

TODAY’S SECOND READING

In today’s second reading from Romans Paul says we have the choice to live by the flesh or by the Spirit.

The obvious call is to live by the Spirit.

The Spirit of God is in me – in these bones called “me”.

Am I living in the Spirit? Or am I living like the man in the poem cramped and crumbling inside a coconut? Am I all wrapped up in myself – small and tiny – when I could be so much more alive and spirited?

HERE AND NOW

Here and now – don’t we all hear the call to new life – from time to time – the call to a deeper spirituality – especially during Lent – to be a better Christian, a better worker, a better mom, dad, wife, husband, kid, servant?

Friday I was driving to Pennsylvania to go to my grandnephew Benjamin’s confirmation. He asked me to be sponsor. How about that? But I had to get a letter indicating that I was a practicing Catholic. While driving I was listening to a talk by John Shea on a CD. I had heard the talk in person – and didn’t really hear till yesterday something that I found very interesting.

Looking at his own life, John Shea, the speaker, said something like this: “When it comes to adult education, I find that I go through different periods. Sometimes the window is closed and I’m not learning anything. Sometimes I need to read and eat all I can. Then I need other periods to digest things. Then I become silent for a while. Then looking back I realize I put some of those new learnings into practice.”
I said to myself: “That’s so true.” Then I said, “Where am I right now in my growth process? – in my adult ed process?”
Where are you?

We’re nuts or crazy if we’re not growing.

MICHAEL HIMES

I was watching a video tape this week by Michael Himes, a theologian, who was giving a talk on today’s readings. Plagiarizing an image that he uses in his talk, he says that today’s gospel reminds him of a baby in the womb – comfortable, living a leisurely life, being fed as is, being told, there’s another world you’re going to have to enter one of these days and it’s going to be exciting. You’re going to experience all kinds of new adventures and the baby says, “I’m perfectly satisfied with the way things are right now.”

Then we’re born. The doctor yells out, “Come forth!” and surprise we meet faces and tears, smiles and celebration. “Welcome to a new world.”

He says that’s a glimpse of what eternity will be like.

Looking back I’m sure the baby would say, “Are you nuts? I’m satisfied being just where I am right now.”

We never hear what Lazarus’s thoughts are after he comes back.

We do know that Israel fought Ezekiel’s call to new life.

CONCLUSION

I see Jesus going around calling out our name. He sees right through our hard shell, our mask, the walls of our tomb, our barriers and he keeps knocking – hoping that the person we are called to be will come out to play – come out to pray – come out to live life to the full.

And we say, “Are you nuts? I satisfied to be who I am and where I am right now.”

And Jesus laughs and cries and keeps knocking on our skull, on our coconut shell. “Is there any body in there?”

What would it be like to die – as an acorn – only to find out we could have been an oak tree? Now wouldn’t that be nuts?

LAZARUS*

Down, on the ground,

unnoticed,

buried in a crowd,

surrounded

by so much similarity –
thought dead at times –
yet we’re all so different - so different.
The few who see us
know us by our edges,

but, who but God,

really notices us?

Yet it’s March,

and wind and rain,
resurrection and Spring,
mean hope - new life.
We’re Lazarus
begging at doorsteps
and graveyards
and Jesus keeps calling us
from death to life.
Celebrate!
God will green us again.

God will Easter us again.

*Cf. John 11:1-54;

Luke 16:19-31
© Andy Costello

JUST STANDING THERE

At times it’s good to just stand there,
to stop,
to be rooted deep

in the soil of one’s life,
watching the sun set,

feeling the cold,

seeing a reservoir in the distance,

realizing the entanglements

and the cling that are part of my life,

to know dead leaves don’t mean death.

There is tomorrow. There is Spring.

There is green Resurrection and hope.

To stop….

To laugh at limber youth

and how there was no hesitation

in the risks I took back then,

those timesI swayed in the wind,

a young tree –but an old tree

has many circles –

and the others will really only know them

when I’m cut down – a fallen tree,

a wooden casket planted in the ground –
me somewhere else. O Lord ….
Somewhere else, O Lord.

© Andy Costello, Reflections, 2008

38

Thirty-eight years:
now that’s a long time
to be stuck in one place.

Thirty-eight years seeing people
coming and going –
but not me – not changing –
not being able to overcome
this problem of mine.
Never mind!

I just can’t change.
I just can’t do it.

Never.

No how.

Impossible.

Thirty-eight years.
It took me thirty-eight years
to hear him say,
“Do you want to be well?”
“Of course,” I answered,
but then came my excuses –
the circumstances,
the what if’s and back then’s,
and the names of the people
I blame for me being who I am
and the way I am – and this and that.

He laughed.
He healed me.
It took him less than 38 seconds.
He didn’t even plunge me
into the deep waters,
into the pool,
into some long program,
so I could be healed.
He just said, “Stand up!
Get off the mat. Walk!”

And that was that – just like that.

Poetic Homily for 4 Tuesday Lent

BLIND

[For our Children's Liturgy / Family Mass, I like to write a story triggered by something in the readings for the day. This is a story for the 4 Sunday of Lent A.]

Blind? What’s it like to be blind? Ask Billy Beekeeper. He’ll tell you.

Billy was born blind, but when it comes to hearing, he’s the best.

Billy, now age 42, has this amazing ability to hear. Like Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles, he learned to play the piano at an early age – and wow can he play. While other kids were playing football, soccer, baseball or lacrosse, Billy Beekeeper played music – by practicing, practicing, practicing. But he did exercise. He loved to walk – and walk fast. He’d bump into things at times – but in time he developed this uncanny way of knowing something was in front of him – a shopping cart or a tree. His two sisters’ shoes – now that’s a different story. If they left them lying around on the floor near the TV couch, that was a no no – because Billy would often trip on them while growing up in the Beekeeper House.

No, Billy’s dad was not a beekeeper, but they figured 5 generations back – that would be his great, great, great grandfather in southern Germany – probably was a beekeeper – and obviously, they think that’s where their last name came from. And they loved their last name. It always got comments. It always got, “Now how do you spell that.”

“B E E K E E P E R – Beekeeper.”

And the other person would suddenly say every time, “Oh, Bee Keeper.”

When his parents found out Billy was born blind – they were shaken up. Now what? They didn’t expect this. After a long nine month pregnancy, hoping for a boy after two girls, only to find out, their new born baby was blind, “Oooh!” That was an “Oooh,” if there every was an “Oooh!”. “Woo,” they thought. “A whole lifetime ahead and this their third child – their only boy – was going to have to go through life – not being able to see.”

They took Billy to every specialist – every doctor – every eye center they heard about. No luck. This was before Google – and before so many advances in medicine.

So Billy grew up blind.

It wasn’t all that bad. He was very smart – very clever – and as I already said, “When it comes to hearing, Billy was the best.”

If anyone was to go through life blind, Billy would be a great choice – because he had a great disposition.

He could hear in another person’s voice worry, sadness, doubt, faith, jubilation or celebration. He was able to really console his dad when he came home one evening and told the family after supper, “I lost my job today. The company is downsizing, but don’t worry, everything will be okay. They gave me some leads.”

His mom and his two sisters didn’t hear what Billy heard – a 42 year old man worried – worried big time – that he might be too old to get the kind of job he thought he needed – a job that could pay the mortgage payments, food bills, schooling, and teeth straigtheners that both his sisters had. The Beekeeper girls were pretty, but their teeth took a long time to be in place. They needed help with wires and rubber bands – and those kinds of wires and rubber bands were expensive. So Billy went to his dad in the garage after the announcement, after supper, to console him – and tell him, “Not to worry.”

When it came to school Billy had no problems. Of course, being blind he couldn’t read or see blackboards and all that. But he listened. Billy listened and his teachers were amazed. He always got straight A’s.

If he overheard it a hundred times, he overheard it a thousand times, teachers being amazed at how smart he was – would say, “I guess if we lose one gift, another gift gets better.”

When Billy was a kid he had to resist listening in to gossip – on the school bus – amongst his sisters’ friends when they were over to the house for a slumber party on a weekend – or when sitting in a restaurant with his family. He could hear people on other tables. He knew what waitresses were pushing – when they didn’t even know they were pushing the special of the day – because the restaurant owner told them to push the lentil soup or the Neapolitan Salmon.

Now, what to do and what to be when he grew up?

His first thought was music. He was in a band – playing the piano. He also played at the Youth Mass in his parish of St. Didymus.

Billy wasn’t sure. One advisor in his high school senior year suggested going to Georgetown – and get a degree in foreign service. Billy was great with languages – being able to speak Spanish and German. He also dabbled in Russian.

Since Billy could hear tones in voices, a high school teacher, who had worked for the CIA before he retired, knew about a blind woman who had worked for them. She was a better lie detector machine than lie detecting machines.

But Billy decided to go to college for psychology – family psychology. Since he couldn’t see, maybe he could help families see things they weren’t seeing.

And that’s what Billy Beekeeper got his degrees in. It took a lot of time, but he became a Family Psychologist – and wow was he good. Teenagers and kids were not scared of him. Husbands and wives could say things to each other – after sessions with Dr. Beekeeper – that they never said or saw before. Dr. Beekeeper could ask the best questions – questions that could get to the heart of the matter – why kids were acting out – trying drugs – not wanting to study or do homework – why families were fighting. He could hear things parents were saying that they didn’t know they were saying.

If he heard it a hundred times, he heard it a thousand times, he heard people during time with him say, “Wow am I blind?”

Then there would come the “Oops,” every time. And both Billy and the person who said it would laugh.

Billy never married. Oh he dated a few gals – and one time they were very serious, but Billy sensed down deep, there was something else he had to do with his life.

There was.

It happened one Sunday morning, on the Fourth Sunday of Lent, and the gospel story was about the man born blind.

He had heard that story before – and he liked that story and several other stories about blind people in the gospel stories about Jesus. But that Sunday the story overwhelmed him.

Billy heard the call to be a priest. Yes a priest. “But,” someone said, “They won’t ordain a blind priest.”

“Why not?” said Billy.

And the priest he talked to also said, “Why not?”

And it took time – but that’s what Billy became, a priest.

Everybody loved going to confession to him. He couldn’t see who they were – but wow were they surprised when he would ask quick, simple questions, darts of thought that often changed people’s lives and they too would say, “Wow was I blind.”

But his sermons were the best. People would come from miles around, just to hear his sermons. People would say, “I never listened to sermons all my life. I have no idea what priests are talking about, but Father Billy Beekeeper helps me to see things I never saw before. He’s the best. He’s a keeper.”