STUDENT’S PRAYER

Lord, help me to see the big picture,
help me to see that going to school,
studying, reading, research, doing papers,
are not parents and teachers
ways to keep kids busy and out of trouble,
but they are all part of the process
of making people better:
bringing people together who want to make
this a better world for everyone in it,
with better medical care, engineering, recreation,
businesses, economies, schools, families,
so that God can look at the world each day
and say over and over again, “It is good!”

© Andy Costello, 2007

MARRIED COUPLE’S PRAYER

Lord, like most couples
we need more time, more laughter,
more little talk, more big talk,
better arguing, better love,
less spending, less worry,
but in the meantime
in the rush and crush of time,
help us to support each other
in the better and the worse,
the richer and the poorer,
till death do us part. Amen.

© Andy Costello, 2007

STUCK IN THE MUD

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “Stuck in the Mud.”

FIRST READING

I’m sure many preachers in churches around the world using these three readings for today – will reflect on the interesting image in today’s first reading – that of Jeremiah being thrown down into a cistern – a cistern without water – only mud. (Cf. Jeremiah 38:4-10.)

What a powerful image! Stuck in the mud – being surrounded with mud – being imprisoned in mud.

And then a court official named Ebed-melech – (What a great name! – It means “Servant of the king.”) – goes to the king and says, “An injustice has taken place. The men who put Jeremiah in the cistern are at fault. He’s going to starve to death down there – for there is no food in the city.” And the king orders Ebed-melech, the Cushite, to take three men with him and pull the prophet Jeremiah out of the cistern filled with mud before he dies.

What a great image to picture. If you like to doodle or draw, if any of you paint, picture this image of Jeremiah in the cistern – stuck in the mud.

Kids get out your crayons.

CANVAS

I can’t paint – but if I could, I would put a lot of newspapers on the floor. Then I would put a brand new blank canvas on the floor on top of the newspapers. Then I would put a coffee cup down in the center of the bottom of the canvas. Next I would take a dish towel and roll it up like a tube and lay it on the canvas from the top of the canvas down to the coffee cup. I would tuck one end of that towel under the coffee cup. Then I would take all the tubes of different shades of dark brown paint that I could find and squeeze all the paint out of the tubes in blobs and globs onto the canvas. Then with a stick or those big strong paint brushes, I would mix and move, squish and twirl all that paint around and cover the whole canvas – being careful not to move the towel or the coffee cup. The idea would be that the brown gunky, twirly paint would be very 3 dimensional and messy. Then when the painting dried it would look like a scene of ridges and hills and small mountains of mud.

Then while it is drying I would carefully remove the cup and the towel so they would not get stuck on the canvas. When that dried I would take yellow and white tubes of paint and slop it into where the towel and the cup were. Then I would use a delicate paint brush to smooth it out and make it very one dimension – like a bright yellow valley of light from the top of the painting to the blank spot on the bottom where the coffee cup was.

Then when that was dried, I’d would paint a tiny figure of Jeremiah on the bottom in that yellow and white blank spot where the coffee cup was. I’d have him looking up the light shaft to the sky above.

I don’t know if I would entitle my painting “Hope!” or “Help!”

TWO POINTS

Let me make two points:

(1) Being stuck and (2) Needing an Ebed-melech to come to our rescue.

FIRST POINT: BEING STUCK

If we look at the chapters of our life, we’ve all experienced what Jeremiah experienced in this 38th chapter of his book: being stuck.

Speaking up can land us stuck in the mud.

That’s what got Jeremiah the Prophet in trouble in the first place.

That’s what Jesus is talking about in today’s gospel. If you were Jewish and you started to follow Jesus, that’s an “Oh no” or an “Uh oh” for many people in his day. Jesus is saying, “Fathers and mothers and daughters and mother-in-laws are not going to like it if you follow me. So as a disciple, expect division.” (Cf. Luke 12:49-53.)

We all know that religion can be messy, muddy stuff. Today in many families it can be just the opposite from today’s gospel – the not going to church – or leaving the Catholic church for another group. Or the situation could be kids living together and not being married – or not having kids baptized or this and that.

Or people can be stuck in a family fight – and there is mud slinging.

Or people can be stuck in a job that’s going nowhere, but a crummy job is better than no job – when one is stuck in muddy, money struggles or financial situations.

Or people can be stuck in a marriage – where one feels like it’s walking in mud and your boots keeping coming off – and the sucking of your energies can be heard as you try to tip toe around a dead spouse. It’s hard to tip toe in mud.

So people get stuck – as in mud.

MOVIES

Recently I realized that a lot of movies use the plot where people are stuck – kidnapped, held hostage, trapped – and like the men in the mine in Utah, we hope that somehow they will be rescued – by the cavalry or Clint Eastwood or Batman or Jackie Chan or Uma Thurman.

There is this horrible movie that I’ve never seen completely on TV. It’s entitled, “Unleashed” – where a young man named Danny was raised from childhood to be like to dog and fight and kill others – and the scenes are a thousand times worse than this pit bull fighting story that’s in all our papers recently. This little boy named Danny saw his mother, a piano student, killed before his eyes – and then he’s raised to become a killing machine. Horrible.

And the owner of Danny put a collar – a metal and leather leash around his neck. Horrible.

And he is saved, unleashed – thanks to car crash – and he crawls out of the overturned car. But he’s also saved by music and Morgan Freeman – a blind piano tuner – and a young girl who is in London in a piano competition. It’s a brutal story – but a powerful story of redemption.

As a Redemptorist, I spot these themes of redemption.

As a human being, I spot this reality that people can be stuck – sometimes by their own mistakes – sometimes by the cruelty and sin of others.

SECOND POINT: EVERYBODY NEEDS AN EBED-MELECH

Everyone needs a blind piano player – or someone to speak up for them – someone who will get ropes and send them down the cistern to save us.

Help is available. We thank God for laws that protect not just dogs, but human beings.

We thank God that there are people who are dedicating their lives to come up with cures for cancer and a thousand other physical and mental problems. In this parish, we have lots of doctors and nurses and staff people who help the sick. We have people who work for NIH and have benefited from their clinical trials.

We thank God for the generosity of people who give time in ESL programs – English as a Second Language – that helps people get started in a new country. We thank God for dedicated teachers – who are gearing up for another school year – preparing kids to make this a better world.

We thank God for counselors and therapists – lawyers and public servants – who protect us in fires and accidents and disasters and unwanted lawsuits, etc.

We thank God for whistle blowers – when it comes to helping those who are dealing with injustice.

We thank God for our service men and women around the world who are where they are to help people who were stuck in the mud of unjust crazy governments.

We thank God for those who raise questions on why we are where we are – and how we can get out of the mud – without causing greater trouble down the line – for the people we are trying to help and for those doing the helping.

We hope for debate on all these issues - debate that is based on justice and not the ballot box and to get votes.

So there are Ebed-melech’s around – servants of the king - who are willing to speak up – who are willing to help those who are stuck – to try to make everyday life the Kingdom – the Dream of God - that Jesus is talking about – the Jesus that is proclaimed in today’s second reading. (Cf. Hebrews 12: 1-4)

ONE THING MISSING

However, as I was reflecting on this, I realized there is one aspect of redemption, escape, freedom, release, that is not part of the Jeremiah story in today’s first reading.

Sometimes there is no escape – unless an outsider intervenes for us.

Sometimes there is a way to escape. In some stories, the spotlight is put on what the person who is stuck in the mud has to do. Jeremiah could have screamed. But that’s not in the story.

In escape stories, in freedom stories, we often see the person who is trapped doing something to become free. We can crawl out of the overturned car. We can head towards the music in the distance.

I like the Hindu story of the baby monkey who fell down the well. The mother monkey reaches down the well to see if she can grab hold of her baby – but she can’t. The baby monkey has to reach her arm up to the mother if she wants to be saved.

As the old saying goes, “Pray for potatoes, but pick up a shovel.”

When we’re stuck, we have to use our brains to see if there is something we can do to get out of the mud. Can we scream? Can we ask for help? Is there a 12 step program – that can help us work out of an addiction? Can we go for counseling? Can we put the foot to the pavement or the pedal to the metal and go out there and search for a better job? Can we talk to our children or our spouse? Can we make some noise? Can we go on strike? Can we use creative passive aggression or silence? Can we reach out for help? Can we paint a ladder along the wall of our painting – that goes from the top of the cistern down to bottom where we are stuck in the mud?

IN CONCLUSION

Preaching on this topic is very difficult – because I’m describing the problem and the pain much more than the solution.

Preaching on this topic can be very muddy – very “iffy” – because some of you who have been stuck in a muddy mess for years don’t see a ladder along the side of the wall. You don’t see that magical wonderful shaft of light coming down from the top of the tunnel. You don’t see people up there sending down ropes to get you out of your muddy mess – because you feel your painting – your life - doesn’t have that shaft of light - that way out. Instead, you feel you were shafted.

On the other hand, preaching on this topic can be very easy. All I have to do to escape is say, “In conclusion!”

CONGRATULATIONS

Looking for a neat Christmas gift? Margaret Wohlgemuth Burroughs of St. Mary’s Parish, Annapolis, has finished her labor of love – the book: Close-ups of History. It contains marvelous black and white photos by her late husband, AP Photographer, Henry Burroughs. It also has anecdotes and memoirs that Peg and so many others encouraged him to write down after his retirement and before his death in 2000.

You might have seen Peg’s picture and the front page story about the book in the Lifestyle section of last Sunday’s Annapolis Capital (August 12, 2007). The story was entitled, “A Focus on History” by Staff Writer, Theresa Winslow.

It would make not only a good coffee table and waiting room book, but also a book to sit on a couch with – going through the history of seven presidents of the United States from 1944 – 1974. I could picture lots of people doing this – alone or with a kid or grandkid.

When I mentioned the book to Evelyn Phelps of St. Mary’s – who has an astute eagle’s eye when it comes to editing – her first question was, “Who published it?” I told her, “University of Missouri Press.” She said, “I am impressed. They are top notch when it comes to historical books.” I said, “I didn’t know that.” She said, “Stick around kid and you’ll learn a lot more.”

Get this book and you’ll learn a lot more.

Last Sunday after Mass I got my first Christmas gift for 2007 – an autographed copy from Peg. Thanks Peg. I plan to buy some copies at our local book store for gifts.

WHAT’S IMPORTANT?

The teen-ager couldn’t wait for summer,
couldn’t wait for all those summer mornings
he and his grandfather
went fishing, went talking.

“Grandpa, what’s important?”

(LONG PAUSE)

“Well, you’ll have to sit back and listen to people
for the answer to that one.

“Or better, you’ll have to watch people.
Watch their hands, their faces,
but especially watch their eyes.
People always tell you
what’s important with their eyes.

“Why I once had a man tell me that his wife
was dead 3 years and 44 days
and he was still counting,
and his eyes were still crying

“Or listen to your grandma next time you take
her shopping. Listen to the things
she brings up -- the things she talks about
when she meets her friends.
I know you always find shopping
with her boring, but watch her
as she takes out her pictures of you
and all her other grandchildren
to show them to her friends.

“Watch people watch their watches.
They’re telling you an awful lot.
And yawns . . . Notice yawns.
They’re always a dead give away.

“Listen to the sounds behind words, behind voices . . .
what people get angry at,
when they get mad.
Then you’ll know when someone is stepping on somebody’s values or somebody’s nerves.
Then you’ll know that someone is going beyond
somebody’s ‘No trespassing. Private property’ sign.

“And don’t worry too much about people’s answers.
Listen to their questions.
Questions always tell you a lot more.”

(LONG PAUSE)

“By the way, why did you ask that question?”

© Andy Costello

WHY IS EVERYONE LAUGHING?

The title of my reflection for this feast of the Assumption is, “Why Is Everyone Laughing?”

Jack was still in a daze - standing there on the line – outside the gates of heaven. A lot of people had died that day. And it was a fairly long line – as everyone was heading towards the big main gate. And yes, he noticed, the gates were golden.

But he could see inside – through the fence. He could see these great, green fields – with high, high grass, waving in the bright sun. And he could see some people inside running and playing – and they all seemed so young – and everyone was laughing, laughing, laughing.

He felt old – but as he began to look at himself – he could see his body was young again. This was confusing - very confusing. He had just died at the age of 93 – and these last two years – were years of coughing too much, aching too much – feeling out of it too much.

He remembered he was scared to die – not knowing what was on the other side of life – whether there was really anyone or anything beyond death. Oh, he believed in God. He went to church much of his life. He tried to be a good guy; but there was always the wondering if there was anything beyond the grave.

Jack finally got to the main gate and walked in. Peter was there – greeting everyone personally – welcoming Jack – with this big smile on his big bearded face.

“Welcome into the Kingdom of Heaven.”

Jack was stunned.

“You made it!”

Jack said, “Okay” – but very hesitatingly.

“Go and enjoy yourself,” Peter said. “And by the way, there’s a whole group of people waiting over there for you – wondering when you were going to show up.”

Jack looked. There was his wife, his three sisters, two brothers, his daughter, his parents, grandparents, tons of friends – all young, brand new, laughing and laughing and waiting and waiting for him. It was a great moment of reunion. In fact, with each hug, he found himself saying, “This is heaven?"

And he began to laugh.

In fact, he stepped back and laughed and laughed and laughed. He said to himself, “If I knew it was going to be like this, I wouldn’t have worried about this down deep through the years.”

And everyone laughed with him – saying, “We know what you’re feeling. We know what you’re thinking. We went through what you’re going through right now.”

“Wow!”

And then his wife, his young wife, - and his sisters and his brothers, and their wives and his daughter, and his parents and their parents and their parents, all took him on a grand tour of heaven. No cars. No buses. Just walking and running, and laughing, in this vast paradise – with billions and billions and billions and billions of people from way back to just now – people of all races, languages and ways of life.

And then he met God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit – and what a welcome. He fell to his knees – but they lifted him up and embraced him laughing and what an embrace.

And weeks and weeks went by – but not weeks – because this was eternity – but it was some kind of time going by, but he didn’t know how to describe time that wasn’t time, and eternity with ever changing moments.

And each day Jack and those with him would meet new people – and the story telling was wonderful – and he met thousands and thousands of people – and every once and a while he would meet someone he had heard about or read about in his lifetime. Wow.

One day he met this beautiful young woman. She had this most amazing smile on her face. No wrinkles. Just a warm wonderful smile. And she was singing and laughing to herself. Jack had seen her sitting there, so he went over introduced himself to her.

She said her name was Mary.

"Where were you from Mary?”

“Nazareth.”

“Nazareth, Pennsylvania, near Bethlehem, Pennsylvania?”

"No,” she laughed. “Nazareth, Israel, a good distance from Bethlehem, Israel.”

“Oh,” Jack said. “Did you have any children?

“Yes, a son,” she said.

What was his name?”

“Jesus,” she answered.

Then came the moment of shock on Jack’s face.

“You’re the Mary! Wow!”

“I wasn’t a Catholic – so tell me why Catholics hold you so dearly?”

And she told him the story and he laughed and she laughed – and they laughed so loud – that people going by stopped and said, “Oh, once again, Mary’s telling him what Catholics knew about her and we didn’t know till we got up here.”

And everyone laughed.

And Mary said, "Would you like to take a walk? I'd like to introduce you to my cousin, Elizabeth. She has a son with the same first name as you."

FAITH IS RISKY BUSINESS

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “Faith is Risky Business.”

Today’s three readings urge us to reflect upon the issue of faith in our lives. And when we do, we often find out, “Faith is Risky Business.”

Hopefully, we also say, “It was worth it!”

· To get married takes faith.
· To stay married takes faith; to stick to one’s vows, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, in good times and in bad, for 5, 10, 15, 25, 50 years, takes faith.
· To have a baby takes faith.
· To be a priest or a nun or a religious for 10, 20, 25, 50 years takes faith.
· To sell a house or in these days, to try to sell a house and move takes faith.
· To take a job – or to switch jobs takes faith.
· To communicate – to talk to each other takes faith.
· To volunteer takes faith.
· To come to church takes faith.
· To become a religious drop out or an agnostic or an atheist – takes faith – different from what we consider faith, but it takes a kind of faith.
· To return to our faith or become a Catholic takes faith.
· To go in a car with some drivers takes faith.
· To get out of bed in the morning takes faith.

Faith is risky business.

FIRST READING

Today’s first reading from Wisdom refers to the night of Passover – the great Exodus – the great exit of the Jews out of Egypt – to leave all and to follow Moses – to move from the know into the unknown – with only a promise and a dream of a land of milk and honey.

This country is a country of people from all over the world who made exits from elsewhere to experience new life here.

SECOND READING
Today’s second reading from Hebrews presents Abraham as the Father of faith. He obeyed God’s call and moved into the unknown.

Today’s second reading is one of the classic texts in the scriptures on faith – especially because it gives several great examples of faith.

The author of this Letter to the Hebrews says that faith is a hope in something using evidence that we can’t see. Faith is a test – and we don’t know the outcome.

TODAY’S GOSPEL

Today’s gospel continues the theme of faith. Jesus asks his disciples to let go of what they have for a treasure they cannot see. Faith is waiting for the Lord – without knowing when he is coming. In the early Church there was a strong belief that Jesus was about to return almost immediately and the world would end – so, “Be prepared.”

It didn’t happen. Christians kept waiting. But it wasn’t happening. Maybe Jesus meant something else. St. Luke begins the Acts of the Apostles asking, “Why are you still looking up? Go back to Jerusalem and start listening to how you are called to go into the world and reshape it in Jesus’ Spirit.”

FAITH

So faith has to do with the here and the hereafter.

Faith has to do with everyday decisions and eternal decisions.

Whether the here or the hereafter, faith has to do with the future.

Sometimes we have to practice blind faith; sometimes we have time to think things over and get a second opinion.

In fact, it’s smart, it’s wise, it’s prudent, to step back before we leap. It’s wise to see our options. It’s good if we can say, “No” as well as “Yes!” It’s called freedom.

Then knowing the pool has water in it, we climb the steps to the diving board. We head for the end of the diving board. If we can’t dive, we can hold our nose tight and jump, closing our eyes on the way down – then come up out of the water to the clapping of our family or friends on the edge of the pool. We did it – or we can turn and go back down the ladder – red with embarrassment – with support from our family and “chicken” from our friends.

Faith is a leap!

Someone said faith in life is like you’re holding onto the trapeze bar and you're swinging and you have to let go – if you want to make the show go on – and you have to believe the other will catch you.

The image I like is this: It’s winter. You’re walking. You come to a street corner. To get to the other side of the street you have to step off the curve. However, there is all this slush and water and ice. You hesitate. You look up around to see if there is a better place to cross. You decide: this is it. To leap or not to leap. You can simply step into the slush and icy water – but you’re not wearing boots. So you decide to jump. You can do it. You’ve done it before. Oops, sometimes there’s a catch. You have to do all this in the dark.

That’s faith.

We have to make acts and actions of faith when we’re experiencing relationship decisions - health decisions – job decisions – raising kids issues – money issues, life decisions etc.

Faith is risky business.

DEATH

The biggest leap is the leap through death. When we die, we are totally out of control about whether there is anything after death or not. Is there a God in the aftewards? Will there be this person called "me" in the afterwards? If there is a God, will God be there to catch me?

Death is the moment of the great act of faith. Make great acts of faith now, and often, so when you have to really make it, you’ve practiced, practiced, practiced.

FAITH IS A JOURNEY

But before we get to death, let’s look at life.

A great message from Jesus is, “Life is a journey.”

Jesus calls people to hit the road with him.

Jesus tells his disciples, “I am the way, the truth and the life.”

By being here today, we are saying to each other and with each other, we’re all in this together – making this journey through life with each other – with Christ as our leader and model and presence.

TWO EXAMPLES

As I was thinking about this yesterday - I remembered two moments from long ago.

COLORADO – ESTES PARK – ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK

The first example that hit me was a vacation we made – 4 priests – one summer – probably around 1980.

What were your best vacations? You only know looking backwards from a distance.

A vacation is an act of faith. It sounds good on paper – you map out the possibilities. You talk to each other. You say, “Let’s do it!”

We had back packed 4 years in a row in the presidential range of mountain peaks in New Hampshire. Someone suggested the Rocky Mountains in Colorado.

We started from our church in the Bronx, N.Y. We looked at our watches on the George Washington Bridge. Then we drove 32 hours to Colorado – switching drivers every two hours automatically – rotating seats counter clockwise – stopping just for meals and bathroom breaks.

We got our camp sites from the Park Rangers and started climbing at 8,000 feet. One of our goals was to climb to the top of the continental divide. We chose Mount Alice – 13,310 feet high. The first assault failed. We didn’t know how close we were, but two guys went down a good bit and took a picture of two of us up there from below. We didn’t know till we were home and got the pictures back how close we were to the top.

The next day we did it. We chose the most direct way which was pulling ourselves up by hand – rock by rock – like climbing a ladder against a building. I thought the top would be just a narrow peak. Surprise it was a boulder field – the size of two football fields.

Looking back all these years afterwards, I still have fond memories of that day as well as that trip

Great vacations take great faith – and smart risks.

SECOND EXAMPLE - HANNAH HURNARD

As I was thinking about all this yesterday another memory came floating back – something I had completely forgotten.

Before that trip to the Rocky Mountains in Colorado someone suggested that I buy a paperback book, Hinds Feet on High Places, and read it when I was in the high places.

I paged through the book a bit on the trip out – and it seemed "smaltzy maltzy" - but I didn’t really read it till we were in the mountains.

Looking back now – years later – the book as well as that vacation were significant moves for me.

The book, Hinds Feet on High Places, (1955) by Hannah Hurnard, is an allegorical novel about a young woman whose name was "Much Afraid". She had two physical handicaps. She had a crooked mouth and her feet were a bit crippled – which made walking difficult.

She took care of sheep and lived in a valley – the Valley of Humiliation.

The book is a true allegory. Like the medieval play Everyman, the names of people and places tell the audience about the person or place.

Well this young lady, Much Afraid, had to deal with a lot of negative relatives and neighbors: Craven Fear, Bitterness, Resentment and Self Pity.

Things changed when she would meet the Shepherd at the watering hole and he suggested she climb to the High Places. Being Much Afraid she expressed her fears and doubts about being able to do this to the Shepherd – especially being crippled.

The Shepherd says she can do it – that her feet will become like hinds feet and she’ll be able to climb to the High Places.

So with faith she makes the journey. She has to go through a desert and then through the Forest of Danger and Tribulation – and then up into the mountain.

As she climbs she grows in strength. She needs Grace and Glory which she meets and receives in each step she takes.

Then after having a high – in the high places – with the great Shepherd, she is called to go back to the Valley of Humiliation. However, she’s a new woman, transformed, changed.

CONCLUSION

That’s what a vacation should do for us. It’s also the stuff of faith in the journey of life – here and hereafter. Today is a nice day. It's cooled off a bit. Take some time to look at your life – to look at the moves you’ve made, the trips, the vacations, the decisions, the choices of a lifetime.

Not every move was smart. Mistakes are made. But celebrate the great leaps of faith you’ve made – and the gifts you’ve received. And dream new dreams and great vacations – and great life moves.