OTHER

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INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “Other.”

Life is about myself - I live it - I learn it - I figure it out as I live it - but then again - life is about the other.

The other person in the crowd - the old lady looking out the window - the other woman … the other man … the other making the noise … the other person on the road - or in the car - or maybe taking my job… or has a need to go to the bathroom - so he or she sits at the end of the bench instead of moving in …. 

The other….

For some reason that’s the thought,  - “OTHER”  - that popped up as I read today’s readings - as I wondered about what to preach on this 4^th Sunday of Advent - with Christmas just two days away.

The other…. This will be about basic stuff. You’re sort of stuck with me this Sunday morning. I’m the other priest and my name was on the list to celebrate this Mass. Another priest would be speaking on some other topic or other theme. Isn’t that the way it often works? I expect this and I get some other something or some other person.

THE BABY

We were all once upon a time another baby - the other - who came as a gift and a hope or a surprise to mom and dad.

We were a me - and if it was a well functioning family  - we got the limelight and the pictures  - that first month or two or three or more. We got the attention. We got the lifting up into safe arms when we were scared. We were heard and then held when we were a scream in the night. We were fed - changed - bathed - put in a safe place for sleep and play.

I once heard a priest give a series of talks during which he referred to a baby as “His majesty the King” or “Her majesty the Queen.”  This other priest seemed to think this was very significant.  I never grasped fully what he was getting at. I think he was saying that he noticed that some people never get over the fact that the king or queen position is not for life - and then all their life they resent having to give up that position - like when a brother or sister arrived or when another person had an idea - or a different way of doing something.

Maybe because I’m the fourth and last kid - I didn’t understand what the guy getting at - unless it was just that. My sister Mary has been fond of saying that our parents had 4 only kids - and we were all close in age. I get that - but sometimes I don’t get that. Sometimes we hear the other - but we’re not sure what the other is saying.

What I do get is that at some point in life we have to learn to deal with each other - especially the other person - that there is more than one of us on the planet. There’s always the other. Like Robinson Crusoe there is the moment we see the other’s footprint on our beach - and it’s not our size. Uh oh! It’s the other….

I know I once visited my niece Jeanne to see her new baby, Sophie - her and husband David’s second kid. Jeanne brought Sophie into the room and placed her on the floor in one of those baby carry cases. I was sitting on the couch - and began looking down at this beautiful tiny baby. Then I started going, “Hi! Hi! Hi!” to this tiny creature - hoping she’ll laugh and smile. While doing this Benjamin the first born comes over and sits on the carrying case blocking out Sophie and says, “Hi Uncle Andy!” I didn’t ask if Sophie did this to her sister Olivia - when she came along.

Do we all do that sometimes in our life: blocking out the other?

THE PLAY HOUSE

I once heard Bernard Basset, the Jesuit, he’s now dead, tell in a talk a story that went something like this. Better this is how I heard and interpreted the story - because that is what we do with other people’s stories. Once upon a time there was this little kid who was born into a horrible family situation and ended up being totally wrapped up in himself - and loaded down with problems. The family fell apart and the kid was put into foster care and given large doses of therapy and love from adults. Then one day he was put in a small play house in a corner of this big room. The play house had toys and windows and a door. The team of therapists were watching everything from behind a two way mirror. A door in the room where this play house was situated opened up and in came about a dozen kids - roughly the same age as the kid in the doll house. They immediately headed for the toy boxes and pulled out their favorite toys and started playing with them on the floor in this big room.  Hearing the voices the little boy in the play house stood up and looked out the window at the other little kids playing about 30 yards away. He watched and watched. Bernard Basset said that a therapist said out loud: if he opened his door and went over and started playing with those kids, there was great hope for him. If not, uh oh!  He opened the door and went over and played with the other kids.

That’s a life time story for me. I’ve seen loners in my life - folks who have never come out of themselves. They are priests and doctors, mothers and fathers, this and thaters. From my experience of priest loners I discovered the horrible principle: “The stranger the ranger, the more the avoidance; the more the avoidance the more strange the ranger  becomes - and on and on and on.”

So parents bring their kids to playgrounds and to cousins. They have slumber parties and Birthday and Halloween parties. Hopefully Pre-K helps. Hopefully every school, every place, every parish, every family is a welcoming place.

Hopefully, there are professionals at all the various levels of life who can spot stuff and talk to parents and staff their about kids. Thankfully there are all those wonderful volunteers in the scouts and Little League and Pop Warner and Dance Groups. Hopefully, little kids are also allowed to integrate and have fun without supervision tons of times  - and their creative juices make this world a magical world for themselves and others.

QUESTION: WHO HAVE BEEN THE OTHERS IN OUR LIFE?

The title of my homily is, “Other.” Now I can’t picture anyone on the planet writing on their hand in ballpoint pen, “Other!” - but I have seen people writing on their hand with a ballpoint pen: “Judy” or “Mike” or “Penny” or “Patrick”.  We’ve seen names of others as tattoos on the skin of others: mom, Millie, Molly, Maude and Sally. We seen the initials of thousands of people carved into trees or scratched into hardening cement or spray painted onto walls or magic marked onto school books or bags or casts for  broken bones.

The other….

Today - right now - forget about this other preaching up here. Locate a ballpoint pen and write down the significant others in your life.

Use the number 3: who have been your 3 best teachers - 3 best friends - 3 people who changed your life - 3 people you worry about - 3 people you couldn’t figure out - 3 people you could say anything to?

I laugh at the e-mails I get from time to time. I don’t have Facebook or some of these other things but sometimes I receive an e-mail that says that someone I never met or heard of - has befriended me.

I still like the comment that if we have 5 people who are friends with us in this life, we’re lucky. I’m 73. I can list my 5:  and 3 of them have already died. Bummer.

We need the other. The first book of the Bible - Genesis - has God saying, “It’s not good to be alone.”

GOD: HERE IS WHERE THIS OTHER MIGHT LOSE YOU

If I was in that play house and God was out there - and I spotted God - would I open that door and go out and meet God?

Do I even think, see, consider God as Other?

What is this other called God like? The Jewish Scrolls and Scriptures answer that question with lots of answers: Creator, Shepherd, Judge, Law Giver, King, Father, Mother, Someone with a Will, Peace,  to name a few.

Jesus comes along in that tradition and we have a breakthrough on who God is. Jesus is God. Yet Jesus also tells us about the Other - whom he calls “Our Father” - and he also talks about the Spirit. It takes the followers of Jesus a long time and a lot of discussion, but they finally nail down in Creed and Council that Jesus told us God is Trinity - without using that actual word.

God is THE Other - but the Other is not just one Person - the Father. There is this Other Person, the Son. Then there is the Other Person: the Spirit. Amazing.  God is a Trinity of Persons - One God. Go figure.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Merry Christmas. For the Christian we have been gifted with a great teaching - that God can become a reality for us.

Let’s backtrack a tiny bit - and talk about the Second Other - Jesus the Son of God - who comes as a  Baby - who is also one of us - who was born of a virgin - the fruit of her womb - as we heard in today’s gospel.

Christmas is the Advent, the beginning, the coming of the Christ. We know the story - it’s pictured on a million Christmas cards and stamps and cribs. It’s told so well in Luke’s Gospel on the Charlie Brown Christmas Special - the Midnight Mass Gospel - which some priests like to read at all the Christmas Masses. This baby grows - yet he lays low for 30 some years - and then leaves his significant 2 others: Mary and Joseph. He reaches out to others. Some accept him; some reject him. Life.  We know the feeling.

CONCLUSION

With regards the Other - the title of this homily - Jesus taught us two central messages: first the visible others:  we are to love the other - forgive the other - give to the other when the other is hurting, rejected or down - go the extra mile for the other, give the shirt off one’s back for the other - lay down one’s life for the other; secondly, the Invisible Other: God. The Other is the Father who loves the Son and the Spirit of Love between the Father and the Son - is God. This is the secret of life - loving each other. When we are in communion with each other and with the Other called “God” - we are experiencing heaven here and  this can lead us to heaven hereafter. Amen.

WHAT  WERE ST. THOMAS' 

SERMONS LIKE?

New Quote - December 23,  2012

"When you preach the Gospel, beware of preaching it as the religion which explains everything."

Albert Schweitzer [1875-1965]

Painting: Doubting Thomas by Caravaggio [1573-1610]

WRITE YOUR 

OWN  MAGNIFICAT

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for December 22, is, “Write Your Own Magnificat!”

Most of us would respond: “You mean my ‘Insignficat?’”

I’m suggesting taking some time and write at least that - and then looking deeper  into one’s life, write one’s “Significat” - and bringing God into the picture, make it one’s Magnificat.

TODAY’S READINGS

In today’s first reading from 1^st Book of Samuel 1: 24-28, we have the story of Hannah. She goes to the temple of the Lord in Shiloh and makes a presentation to the Lord of her son. Then in the Psalm response - notice it’s not a psalm today - we have Hannah’s magnificat prayer to God - from the beginning of Chapter 2 of Samuel.

In today’s gospel from Luke 1: 46-56, we have Mary’s Magnificat , which we are more familiar with.

TRY THESE TWO MAGNIFICATS ON FOR SIZE

The thought hit me, “Write Your Own Magnificat!”

The first step would be to go through Hannah’s and then Mary’s magnificat and then ask, “Could I say this of myself?”

Could I say, “I’m giving myself to the Lord”?

Could I say, “My heart exults in the Lord”?

Could I say,  “My soul magnifies the Lord!”?

Could I say, “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord!”?

Could I say, “The Lord has done great things for me”?

Could I say, “There are times I fear the Lord”?

Could I say, “I realize that the hungry, the poor, the empty, the lowly are seen by God as the rich ones”?

Could I say, “When I look at my life I realize God has remembered to me his promise of mercy”?

WRITE YOUR OWN MAGNIFICAT

The title of my homily is, “Write Your Own Magnificat!”

My first draft would go something like this:

My soul magnifies  the goodness of the Lord  ---- sometimes.

My soul minimizes the goodness of the Lord  ---- sometimes.

The almighty has done great things for me: good family, good friends - great life so far. Thank You God for helping me to understand Chesterton’s words, “People are the million masks of God.”

The almighty has fed me with his bread when I was hungry and at times I was unaware of these riches - and so I walked away feeling I was empty.  Sorry God.

When I’m filled with myself, I sound so empty ---- sometimes.

When I’m poor or with the poor, I realize my riches ---- sometimes.

When I was proud he knocked me off my throne - scattering me till I admitted my conceit ---- sometimes.

When I realized I was his servant he came to my aid and in doing this I remembered his promise of mercy, the promise he made to our ancestors.

When I’m stinking like a stable, You, Lord Jesus are born in the midst of my messes, so my soul does magnify the Lord ---- sometimes.

So Lord  help me to be like Mary and bring you to our world ---- all the time. Amen.

TAILORING JESUS 

TO FIT OUR AGENDA

Quote for Today - December 22, 2012

"In every decade we instruct Christ as to what He was and is, instead of allowing ourselves to be instructed by Him."

Amos N. Wilder [1895-1993], Theology and Modern Literature, [1958}

Book cover of a book about Thornton and Amos Wilder - brothers from a very fascinating family. Check them out on line!

  CHRISTMAS  SCENE 

The cow chewing her cud ….

The sheep eating her hay ….

The donkey resting after

that long journey from Nazareth ….

looking at the baby born of Mary,

not knowing her grand-donkey

will carry this same child

into Jerusalem some 33 years

from now - and into the lives

of billions of people to come.
Oh my God, you’re calling me

to be a donkey - to carry Jesus to

others. Oh come let us adore him.

O come let us adore him:

Christ the Lord. Amen.

© Andy Costello, Reflection 2012

ADVENT  PRAYER 

          Watching and waiting 

                   for you, Lord Jesus,

          watching and waiting

                   for you in prayer.

          Jesus, you are the beginning

                   and the end of my everything. 

          You touch my life from A to Z.

          You are the Alpha and the Omega.

          You are the center around which

                   my life keeps spinning

                   from birth till death:

                   my Bethlehem to my Calvary.

          Watching and waiting

                   for you, Lord Jesus,

          watching and waiting

                   for you in prayer.

          Jesus, you stand there

                   on the shore of my life,

          calling me to drop everything,

                   and follow you.

          You are still the Story Teller,

                   telling me about the Kingdom.

          You are still the Healer,

                   ready to heal me

                   of bad memories and of my mistakes.

          You are still the Lover,

                   standing on the lake shore of my death,

                   ready to feed me,

                   ready to love me,

                   ready to bring me into eternity.

© Andy Costello, Prayers for Markings, December 1991

ON  THIN ICE 

Quote for Today  - December 21, 2012

"What a sea 
Of melting ice I walk on!"

Philip Massinger [1583-1646], The Maid of Honour, [1632], a Tragicomedy in 5 acts.

Comment: At some point in our life, we need to look at the foundations of our life - what we stand for - what our life is built on. We need to name our present platform. We ought to then name our dream platform - whether it's justice for all, listening, family, God, leaving the earth better than we found it or what have you.  We need to ask: "Am I standing on a sea of melting ice?"

O 

NOW  - I GET CHRISTMAS

“Ero Cras!”

“Ero” - Latin future tense

for “I will be”.

“Cras” - Latin word

for “tomorrow”.

“ERO  CRAS”:

it's Latin phrase for

“I will be there tomorrow.”

Wait a minute!

Are you saying

the world is going to end

tomorrow, December 21, 2012?

No - I’m saying that Christ

will come again today, 
tomorrow and again 
and again and then at the End.

“ERO CRAS!”

An acrostic, an acronym -

each letter standing for
the first letter of a Latin word
describing “Christ”.

Way back before they

had TV and techy stuff,

that had time to write

things like “O Come,

O Come, Emmanuel” -

listing 7 titles for Jesus - 
with those 7 letters in Latin 
of “ERO CRAS.”

E -  Emmanuel - Jesus God is with us.

R -  Rex - Jesus is King of the Gentiles.

O - Oriens - Jesus is Orient - the morning light.

C - Clavis Jesus is the Key.

R - Radix - Jesus is the Root of Jesse.

A - Adonai - Jesus is Leader.  

S - Sapientia - Jesus is Wisdom.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2012

THE GOD GROAN

Quote for Today - December 20,  2012

"God is an unutterable sigh, planted in the depths of the soul."

"Gott ist ein unaussprechlichter Seufzer, im Grunde der Seele gelegen."

Johann Paul Friedrich Richter [1763-1825] - German Romantic writer

Painting on top: Johann Paul Friedrich Richter

Check out 2 Corinthians 5: 1-5.  Then check out Romans 8: 26-27.  Johan's father was am organist who became a pastor. Did he hear his dad preach from these texts?

THE LORD BE WITH  YOU 

“The Lord be with you!”

Isn’t that a sweet blessing?

We say it at Mass - but not

on the street - yet I have

heard grandmothers saying,

“God be with you on your

way back to college. Drive

carefully now. Drive carefully!”

And I heard someone singing

in the parking lot on their way

to their car after Mass, “O come.

o come, Emmanuel.” It was one

of those many simple graces

that God gives at times - simply

to show: “The Lord is with us!”

© Andy Costello Reflections, 2012

THE  POOR

Quote for Today - December 19, 2012

"A decent provision for the poor is the true test of civilization."

Samuel Johnson, Boswell's Life of, 1772

CONSUBSTANTIAL

INTRODUCTION

This will be a short homily for December 18^th  - because it’s going to complicated and confusing. The topic is Jesus as God - and Jesus as equal with the Holy Spirit to and with the Father. How could anyone explain the Trinity? We find it difficult to explain ourselves and our relationships with each other.

The title of my homily is, “Consubstantial.”

Last year - for the First Sunday of Advent -  the Nicean Creed which is the usual Creed for Sunday Mass - changed in its wording from “one in being with the Father” to “consubstantial with the Father.”

Some in the Church didn’t think “one in being with the Father” was an exact translation from the Latin text’s words “consubstantialem Patri” - which is a translation from the original Greek text of the Nicene Creed of the year 325. The Greek word that early church leaders and theologians came up with was “homoousios”. The first part of the word - that is, “homo” - means “same”. The second part of that word “ousia” means in English “being” or “essence” - but when you translate that second word “ousia” into Latin with the word “substantia” you have grabbed a word that has material overtones as well.  When we say “substance” we think stuff.  The new translators want us to think “being” or “essence”.

All these words have long, long, long, long histories.

It took the Catholic Church - East and West - till the year 325 at the Council of Nicea to develop and then declare Christ is one with the Father - one in being with the Father - of the same Substance of the Father. In other words, Jesus is God.

Further councils stressed the equality of the Holy Spirit in this Trinity.

Further councils stressed the humanity as well as the divinity of Christ.

TODAY’S GOSPEL

Today’s gospel text from Matthew 1: 18-25 was written before 110 A.D. and probably around 80 to 90 A.D. It  is key in all the arguments for the next 300 to 500 years.  Matthew is very clear in pointing out that Mary become pregnant by the Holy Spirit - without Joseph.

But Matthew wants to continue stressing as he did with yesterday’s genealogy that Jesus is of the lineage of David and that comes through David - to Joseph - who adopts - or takes on very courageously the calling that Mary had received from God.

CONCLUSION

So those who translated the creed into English in the 1970’s - chose “one in Being with the Father.”  Those who did the new translation chose “consubstantial” - substantial having a different meaning than our word “substantial” - and the different documents that came out said for us to try to explain all this. 

Each time we have the creed at Mass - like Sundays - we can use the Nicean or the Apostles creed. I’ve done both - sometimes to avoid the word "consubstantial".  

However, the Apostles Creed has the phrase, “he descended into hell” and that doesn’t mean “hell” the way we understand “hell”. It’s into the deeper areas after death where all the dead are pictured. I’m sure that confuses people as well. At least that’s what I believe.  Enough already. 

What was he talking about?

HATRED

Quote for Today - December 18, 2012

"If you want to be miserable, HATE someone."

Anonymous

Questions:

Do you agree with that statement about hatred?

Have you ever hated anyone?  What happened next?

Have you ever unhated?  How did that icy fence come down between you and the other?

ALIVE  ON  THE  EDGE

Quote for Today - December 17, 2012

"We are always attracted to the edges of what we are, out by the edges where it's a little raw and nervy."

E.L. Doctorow, in the Los Angeles Times, April 5, 1989


Questions:

Always?

If we stop being attracted to the edges of what we are, does that mean we're dying?

Who can better tell us what we are: ourselves or others?

If we can name what we are like, name what is a little raw and nervy?

Picture: 

Mohawk Men Working on a Skyscraper - found on line.

HOW DOES IT HAPPEN?

How does it happen when we die?

Do we all move in a crowd towards God?

Thomas Merton pictured crowds of people

like prisoners or displaced people being

moved from station to station from far

countries - all those people who died this

night from all around the world. He

pictured Hemingway - walking that walk -

shuffling those steps - after he shot himself.

How does it happen? What happens next?

Do all these little kids crowd

around Adam Lanza and hold him till he

lets go of whatever it was that killed him

and them. I don’t know how all this

horrible stuff happens. Like everyone

I don’t know how someone could kill a child

or anyone else, including themselves.

How does it happen? How, God, how?

© Andy Costello, Reflections, 2012

   AN ELEGY FOR ERNEST HEMINGWAY

Now for the first time on the night of your death

your name is mentioned in convents, ne cadas in

obscurum.

Now with a true bell your story becomes final. 
Now men in monasteries, men of requiems,

familiar with the dead, include you in their offices.

You just stand anonymous among thousands, 
waiting in the dark at great stations 
on the edge of countries known to prayer alone, 
where fires are not merciless, we hope, 
and not without end.

You pass briefly through our midst. 
Your books and writings 
have not been consulted. 
Our prayers are pro defuncto N.

Yet some look up, as though 
among a crowd of prisoners

or displaced persons, they recognized 

a friend once known in a far country. 

For these the sun also rose 

after a forgotten war 
upon an idiom you made great. 

They have not forgotten you. 

In their silence you are still famous, 
no ritual shade.

How slowly this bell tolls in a monastery tower 
for a whole age, and for the quick death 
of an unready self!

For with one shot the whole hunt is ended!

- Thomas Merton ©

JOYS AND SORROWS

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “Joys and Sorrows.”

The title was just “Joy” - till the news out of Connecticut on Friday.

TODAY IS JOYFUL SUNDAY

This Sunday we celebrate Joyful Sunday - Gaudete Sunday - the half way point in Advent.

We heard in the first two readings and the Psalm  the theme of joy and rejoicing, giving thanks. We also heard the theme of motive for rejoicing: it’s new life - change - and we heard this especially in today’s gospel -  with the preaching of John the Baptist - to various groups.

This morning a question: On a scale of 1 to 10 am I a joyful person? 

I think I’m usually a 9 or a 10 on that. So I think I am a joyful person.

However, others have a voice, a vote, about that vote. They have to deal with me. Each of us experiences each of us.

Everyone has to ask at times: “When I walk into a room, do I get a ‘Yes’ - an ‘Oh good’ vote or an ‘Oh no!’ vote?”

That’s an “Uh oh!” if I get an “Oh no!” vote.

And if I give myself an, “Oh no” vote when it comes to being a joyful person - being a person who  brings joy to the world - when, where and how can I change?

CHILDHOOD EXPERIENCE

I like to say that everyone has the following experience I once had. I’m playing stickball as a kid on 62^nd Street in Brooklyn, New York and the pink Spaldeen ball goes into the man up the streets front yard. He’s sitting on the stoop. He won’t let us get it. He’s a grouch. What happened? I’m standing there watching him yelling at us kids and I say to myself, “I don’t want to be like that when I grow up.”

Each of us has to ask, “Have I?”  I think everyone has that kind of an experience and I hope everyone chooses to be a joyful person. Have I?

A CHRISTMAS CAROL - BY CHARLES DICKENS

I saw A Christmas Carol again Friday night put on by the Colonial Players of Annapolis - up at the Colonial Players theater on East Street.  Once more there were lots of little kids there. Did any one of those kids consciously or unconsciously decide, “I don’t want to be like Scrooge  when I grow up.” Once more I had to look at myself and ask: “Have I become a Scrooge?”

As I looked around the theater - before the play - which they put on every other Christmas -  I noticed lots of little kids. It’s an every other Christmas event for some families. This time it was extra significant - because I noticed all the little kids there.  It was just like these kinds of kids who were killed on Friday in Sandy Hook School in Newtown, Connecticut. A prayer, “Oh my God, no!”

I was doing what millions of Americans were doing - aware of little kids a lot more - since the shooting. Last evening I got an e-mail from a friend of mine in Ohio. She wrote, “Today - Saturday -  I went with Marilyn and her family - including her 3 year old granddaughter Phoebe - to see the Toledo Ballet/Symphony perform ‘The Nutcracker’. Most of the dancers were professionals, but they did incorporate around 20 children dancers from the Toledo area. It was delightful. I enjoyed it so much. But, a few times, when the young children were dancing, I thought of the little ones who lost their lives yesterday in Connecticut, and the tears began again.”

Life like the rosary beads has the sorrowful mysteries along with the joyful ones. I prefer joy.

REVIEW OF THE WEEK

We come to Sunday Mass and in our moments here - 50 to 60 minutes -  we do what the Sunday morning talk shows do. We look back on our week and we look forward to a new week.

How was your last week? What would it sound like to each other on a Sunday morning talk show? What are your hopes for this week - 9 days before Christmas?

To practice what I preach, I looked back on last week.  

Last Sunday night we went out to dinner - Date night - as a community to Adam’s Ribs. We toasted Father Blas who was leaving on Tuesday morning for home - for Paraguay - to celebrate his 25^th Anniversary a priest. Nice. It was joyful. He was looking forward to seeing his brother Gustavo who was recovering from cancer. That was sorrowful.  We find out when the bill came, someone paid for it. Woo. Thankful. Nice.

I was on duty - and no calls came when we were in the restaurant. Good. The Giants had won that day. It was joyful.  I was rooting for the Ravens to beat the Redskins - which would help the Giants. It wasn’t meant to be. I learned long ago not to let sports results dominate my spirit. I made that decision when the Baltimore Colts beat the New York Giants way, way back, in 1958 - in Sudden Death - 23-17. Bummer. I was stuck in a convent that day in Scranton, Pennsylvania visiting my sister Peggy a nun. And there was a TV set in the big room we were sitting along with lots of families. Bummer. I didn’t find out they lost till we got back home to Brooklyn. That got to me. Somewhere along the line I said, “I won’t let that sap my spirit like that ever again.”

I got a call to the hospital that night - a lady was dying of cancer. I anointed her and I prayed with her for her - along with her family. She said, “I’m ready!”  Translation: I’m ready to go home to God. It was a sorrowful moment for me - triggering more sorrow than joy.  Each of us is our own translator of life’s moments.

Early Monday morning I got another call to get to the hospital - a baby was dead - stillborn. The duty guy is on till 8 AM. This was 6:35 AM. That was a sorrowful mystery. Why God? Why? 33 weeks old. We prayed. I baptized the little girl Alexa - and prayed with and for her parents - and grandmother. A sorrowful - sorrowful mystery.

I found out when I got back from the hospital last Monday morning that Father Blas had just found out that his brother Gustavo had died. Ugh. That was a sorrowful mystery. What would that be like planning on flying home on Tuesday morning to celebrate - and to see one’s family - and to find out on Monday morning - one’s brother had died.

I had Mass with the whole St. Mary’s high school on Wednesday.  It was a wonderful Mass. The psychic energy - was calm and mellow. Sometimes the kids seem so elsewhere. Sometimes they seem noisy and upsetty. Last Wednesday morning it was a joyful - prayerful Mass. Mystery. Mystery. Mystery.

Thursday morning I was at the School of the Incarnation for the Sacrament of Reconciliation - confessions. They had lined up 8 priests - so that made it easier to hear all those confessions. The kids come face to face. The kid walks over to one of the priests who is sitting there and the kid sits. We begin with a greeting and a sign of the cross. Kids sins are mentioned and a penance is given. I usually ask the kid to do something nice for mom or dad or brother or sister. Then there is the pardon and absolution prayer and Go in Peace.

I think this way of confession is much better than we were kids - going into the box and sometimes making up numbers and sins. I like it that a little kid has the experience of talking to an adult for a moment and you can see their face picturing moments - usually at home - talking back to parents, skipping homework, fighting with siblings - Amazing they use a word like “sibling”. I never had siblings when I was a kid. I had a brother and 2 sisters.

A thought hits me. I see a kid’s face. Is this the kid for life? A smile? A worry? Joyful? Sorrowful? What will become of this child? I pray that the kid has a great life. Since they are mentioning a moment when they did a negative, a so called “sin”, I like to ask, “What are you good at? A sport? A subject in school? Soccer. Social studies. Music. Lacrosse.

I drive back to St. Mary’s after a second session with the kids after lunch and get back just before school gets out: a joyful moment.

Friday I turn the radio on while driving back from the 12:10 Mass and hear the first sounds for me - about the horror in Connecticut.

People will want us clergy to pray for the kids and the folks up there and parents and teachers everywhere.  People will want us to say something that helps. Uh oh!

Translation: will they be angry when we say, “Horrible. Don’t know what to say. Scary? Terrible”?

I see the last name of the killer. Sounds Catholic. Always wish that our faith would challenge and help us not to make such horrible decisions - do such horrible actions.

Want to know motive - like the rest of people.

Want to say: presidents cry. I cry. God cries?

Could say: there is evil in life - in people.

Could say: there is sickness in people - craziness - mixed upness.

Could say: there is sorrow in people - as well as joy.

Could ask: does Christmas really mean - Christ’s Mass - and does each Mass - or at least Christmas Mass have any impact on the lives of those who are there?

Could say: Joy is the echo of God within us - as someone put it.

Could ask: if that is true, does sorrow mean, God is absent - from the minds and hearts of some people?

Yes at times. That night in the garden and that afternoon on the cross Jesus screamed, “My God, my God, why have your forsaken me.”

Felt some joy last night when that priest, Monsignor Robert Weiss up there in Newtown or close by spoke some words that this is horrible and we just need to be with each other in moments like this.

Recalled one of my lifetime learnings: “Teach thy tongue to say, ‘I do not know.”

As someone said on TV last night: at a moment like this, some people need words - some people need silence. What do you need? If it’s silence, take some good walks this week. If you need words, talk and listen to each other. Communion with Christ doesn’t just mean 5 minutes here in church on Sunday morning.

CONCLUSION

Christmas is coming. It’s going to be different in the lives of a lot of people this year because of this tragedy.

Christmas comes every year - and every year we sing, “Joy to the World the Lord Has Come.”

And Jesus keeps coming into a world where are plenty of moments of sorrow and moments of joy - and hopefully most of us choose to be people who bring joy to our world - at home - at work - at school - on the roads.

Each week - each day - we have lots of experiences - and it’s our choice to bring joy, light, hope, a good word to that experience.

Each newspaper has good news and bad - its  announcements of births and deaths, victories and defeats, ads and arrests, cartoons and crossword puzzles - along with Sudoku.

Our move. Of course tragedies kill us. Ugh. Every death is our death. As John Donne [1572-1631] the preacher and poet said, “Every time that bell tolls it tolls, don’t ask for whom? It tolls for thee.”  We are all related toe each other. We are all God’s children. We are all sisters and brothers - siblings. Hopefully, we will be resurrection, hope and joy to others as well. Hopefully we hear Jesus’ call to us to “Go into the whole world and bring Good News to others. Amen.”

LOVE EQUATED 

WITH JOY, BUT .... 

Quote for Today - December 16, 2012

"I wonder why love is so often equated with joy when it is everything else as well. Devastation, balm, obsession, granting and receiving excessive value, and losing it again. It is recognition, often of what you are not but might be. It sears and it heals. It is beyond pity and above law. It can seem like truth."

Florida Scott-Maxwell, The Measure of My Days [1972]

VIOLENCE

Quote for Today - December 15,  2012

"To whom can I speak today?
Gentleness has perished
And the violent man has come
down on everyone."

From, The Man Who Was Tired of Life, c. 1990 B.C., translated by R. O. Faulkner

EITHER OR - 

LIGHT OR DARKNESS

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “Either Or - Light or Darkness”.

That’s the thought that hit me this morning - when working on a homily for the Feast of St. John of the Cross - today December 14^th.

SOME PEOPLE

Some people don’t like “Either Or’s”. They like one’s. They like singular answers. Some people like variations. There’s more than one way to skin a fox. There are options.

We have a family story. We were in a restaurant with my mom somewhere along the line and she ordered salad and the waitress asked, “Blue Cheese, Vinaigrette, Russian, or Thousand Island?” And she said, “Yes!”

It didn’t make any difference to her. She would put on her salad whatever dressing she pulled out of the refrigerator at home - or put two or three on - depending on the amount left in the bottle or what have you.

JOHN OF THE CROSS

John of the Cross preferred the Apophatic Approach to God - that is the removal of all images. There’s a whole tradition in spirituality about this approach. The opposite is the way of light - the way of images - the way of pictures. It’s called the Kataphatic Approach.

So John of the Cross wrote about the Dark Night of the Senses and the Dark Night of the Soul.

Either Or or Both And can bring us to God.

Sometimes we experience God when looking at a great sunrise or sunset.

Sometimes we experience God in the deep dark of the night. You might have heard the often quoted words of F. Scott Fitzgerald: “In a real dark night of the soul it is always three o’clock in the morning.”

Sometimes when we can’t sleep, we turn to God.

Sometimes people only experience God or come to a God awareness moment when they lose everything - and they are in the dark about what’s next. A spouse dies. A spouse leaves for a younger partner. Kids go haywire. A home is lost in a storm or fire. Someone is fired.

Sometimes we experience God in the midst of light - and joy - and celebration. I was just sitting there at Thanksgiving in this big, big room that had all kinds of sections. I was off to the side - before the big dinner - and there were about 30 people in that big, big room, laughing, playing cards, playing Boggle, playing Scrabble, - all in different areas. A few were just talking. There  was laughter and joy everywhere. I was  thinking: all these people are here because my brother met and fell in love with Joanne, my sister-in-law. Thank You God. Thank You.

Either - Or - we can meet God.

Good Friday is good - so too Easter - so too Christmas - so too Advent.

CONCLUSION

In today’s gospel - Matthew 11: 16-19 -  Jesus goes after the Pharisees. They are not happy whatever Jesus does. If he would call for fasting like John the Baptist or if he was having a great meal, either way they would be unhappy. They are like kids in the market place. You sing a sad song, someone complains. You sing a joyful song, someone complains.

Life is morning and night, the joyful, sorrowful, glorious and light bearing mysteries. Someday when I’m made pope, maybe I’ll propose that we have the dark bearing mysteries as well?

OOOOOOO

Pictures and Paintings

On top: Interior of Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Spain - 2011.

Near Bottom: Drawing by John of the Cross of the Crucifixion and  then the famous Corpus Hypercubus [1954] by Salvador Dali - inspired by the drawing by John of the Cross.