FALLING

Falling on ice – unfortunate,
but so often, so obvious ….
Ooops – slipping, sliding,
feet shooting out - then
finding myself flat on my back.

Falling into sin – unfortunate,
but so often, so oblivious ….
Ooops – slipping, sliding,
life falling apart – then much later,
realizing I've fallen flat on my face.

Just one more drink, a flirt,
pocketing someone's money,
laziness, not thinking,
slow procrastination,
slow self delusion… sleep….

Resurrection – rolling away
the stone – getting out of
the hole – the obvious call,
but I’ve become so oblivious
to Sunday morning alarms?

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2011

HUMANITY 

OFF TUNE AT TIMES

Quote for Today - February 11. 2011


"There is an army barracks in the neighborhood where the soldiers practice playing the bugle every morning and every evening, without much sign of progress. I have heard other people say that the sound is pure torture, that the exercises grate on the ears, but somehow the noise doesn't bother me at all. Great music stands alone as a bequest to the world, belonging like all perfect things to a superhuman realm. It is only in the realm of perfect technique that the ever-tangled and tired human element is allowed a moment of rest. When one's technique has yet to be perfected, struggle, anxiety, disorder, and adventure predominate, and the human element remains strong. I like the sound of humanity because its 'always about to reveal itself.'"


Eileen Chang, Written On Water, translated by Andrew F. Jones, Weatherhead Books on Asia, Columbia University Press, New York, 1968, 2005, page 63

e-mails last forever

Quote for Today - February 10,  2011


"Things printed can never be stopped: they are like babies baptized, they have a soul from that moment, and go on forever."

George Meredith [1828-1909]


Or as the ancient Romans put it, "Verba volant, scripta manant." In English, "Words spoken, fly away; words written, remain." Attributed at times to Titus Caius Silius Italicus [25-102] - Roman poet and politician. Oooooops! What about spoken words that are caught on tape?

WALLS  AT  BORDERS 

Quote for Today - February 9,  2011


"Of all the Russian czars, Nicholas II (reigned 1894-1917) may have been the most intensely nationalistic. He allowed only Russian to be spoken by his ministers, read only Russian authors, attended only performances of Russian music. Determined to keep the czardom off-limits to European thinking and culture, he once proposed erecting an electrified fence around Russia. Aides talked him out of it."

Bruce Felton, What Were They Thinking, The Globe Pequot Press, Guilford, Connecticut, 2003, page 36


Painting by Ernest Lipgart - 1900s

Questions:

Are you in favor of walls at our borders?

Did you celebrate when the Berlin Wall came down?

What was the Great Wall of China all about?

IS  THERE A SOUND 

OF MUSIC 

IN YOUR LIFE?

Quote for Today - February 8, 2011


"A movie-theater manager in Seoul, South Korea, decided that the running time of  The Sound of Music was too long. He shortened it by cutting out the music."

Bruce Felton in his book, What Were They Thinking? The Globe Pequot Press, Guilford, Connecticut, 2003, page 93.

ROBOTIC  RELIGION

Quote for the Day - February 7,  2011


"Any religion ... is for ever in danger of petrafaction into mere ritual and habit, though ritual and habit be essential to religion."

T. S. Eliot [1888-1965], Selected Essays, 1927

ON BEING 
AND SEEING MYSELF
AS AN ADVERTISEMENT

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “On Being and Seeing Myself As An Advertisement!”

Me? An advertisement? I’ve never thought about that.

Tonight we have the great mass of Americans – watching the Super Bowl. For many, unless you root for the Packers or Steelers, the TV advertisements are what to look at.

It’s estimated there are only about 8 minutes of actual play time in a pro football game. I never saw estimates of the commentary and advertisement time. So Super Bowl and advertisements have become synonymous.

Advertisement firms know this very well – so some put out some Super Bowl ads early – to advertise them and to find out which ones are really going to go over – with the hope each will become a big hit on YouTube, etc. - much to the delight of their clients.

I read that the price is 3 million dollars for 30 seconds on TV during the Super Bowl. To recoup that cost, as the market people put it – one has to sell a lot of what is being advertised. Diamond of California has to sell a lot of Emerald Nuts and Pop Secret pop corn or what have you. They have a neat 30 second commercial for this year’s Super Bowl – I think it’s going to be featured in the 4th quarter.

So one of the goals is to come up with advertisements that people know about beforehand – enjoy them when they see them – and then talk about them on Monday morning.

Then there is the long range hope: people will remember specific ads a long time afterwards – better what they are advertising. Where’s the beef? I can’t believe I ate the whole thing. Talking babies can be quite techy when looking for stock tips.

SERMON ON THE MOUNTWe heard the beginning of the Sermon the Mount last Sunday with the Beatitudes and here today we have the next section of the Sermon – the Salt and Light message.

And here it is 2011 and that message is still being heard – still being spread.

Now that’s advertising. That’s spreading the news. That’s getting maximum exposure – full coverage. That’s one smart, smart, smart, move by Jesus.

And Jesus is telling us in today’s gospel to be ads – advertisements – for the Good Life – the Christian life – to be salt, to be light for each other and for our world. Salt sells peanuts and potato chips! Everyone wants to be enlightened and meet people who light up their life.

So when we are salt and light – we are being good advertisements for the Christ’s Way of Life.

Jesus is saying, “Christians don’t lose your taste for being good. Christians don’t hide your light under a bushel basket.” “A city on a mountain can’t be hid…. Your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father.”

That’s a very simple ad – a very simple message. It’s takes less than 30 seconds to tell – and here I am preaching for 10 minutes. Hello!

DARTH VADER VOLKSWAGON AD
Someone sent me an e-mail this past week that included the Super Bowl Volkswagen 2012 Passat Car Advertisement. It begins with a little kid in a Darth Vader costume and cape. It’s 1 minute and already has over 10 ½ million hits on YouTube – and that’s all for free. It’s going to cost them 6 million to show that add this evening during the Super Bowl.

Over 100 million or so will watch the Super Bowl – but how many will be in the bathroom or getting pop corn or peanuts or turnng away to laugh at something else when that commercial comes on?

Since this ad is already out there – I am about to use it for a sermon message. Sorry if I ruin it for you, if you’re planning to watch the Super Bowl this evening.

My hope is you might say, when you see it tonight, “Hey the priest mentioned that in his homily today.”

Better still maybe I can get you to look it up on YouTube and watch it a few times next week – and in the future – and think about it.

The little kid in the Darth Vader costume – you never see his or her face. I think he’s a he. He keeps on putting his hands out like this [hand gesture] at a treadmill, at his dog, at a washer / dryer, at a doll – but each time nothing happens. He gets to the kitchen and his mom makes him a sandwich. Then the dog barks. You see a car – it’s his dad – who is pulling into the driveway. The kid runs outside towards the car. His dad begins to reach for a hug home – but no, the kid in Darth Vader costume goes running past him heading right for the front of the car.

He stands there and puts his hands out like this [hands gesture] and you can sense him hearing or saying the famous Star Wars movie line – which is in every Star Wars movie in some variation: “May the Force be with you.”

Suddenly the car starts and the kid jumps back. It’s a great scene – and then there is an even greater scene – dad is in the kitchen looking out the window with his wife and you see that he was the one who started the car from the kitchen with the remote starter. Then he gives his wife a wink-smile – no words. Great scene. End of a great commercial.

THE MASSPeople who see it will comment out works like, “cute” and “neat”.

I hope fathers will bring that commercial into their consciousness and bag of tricks and then do great tricks for their kids.

The kids gesture – hands extended – [hands gesture] – came into my consciousness this way.

The gesture the kid uses – [hands gesture] – is the exact spreading out of the hands that the priest uses at Mass over the bread and the wine.

I assume all of us are here - because we keep coming back Sunday after Sunday – believe that something happens when the priest puts his hands over the bread and the wine – that something happens to the bread and wine – when the priest says, “This is my body…. This is my blood.”

In the commercial we see it’s the father who makes the car start.

In our religious imagination – as well as in our religious faith – we see Jesus is the one who changes this bread and wine into his body and blood. I assume that Jesus does this with the blunt force of his choice, his voice, his will, his keeping in mind his Father's plan at the Last Supper . I assume this is all being done together - the Last Supper - along with his sacrifice and death on the cross the next day. I assume he is giving us a memory – that he’s asking us to do this over and over again in memory of him.

This is quite an act of faith.

Catholics at this Mass believe a lot more about this bread and wine we have come here to receive today in communion than most other Christian Churches.

It is this belief that brings back a lot of Catholics to the Catholic Church - Catholics who have dropped out of the Catholic Church and gone shopping for a church with better sermons and better music and a more welcoming feeling.

There I said it.

There is something to chew on here. I hope that comment has some salt on it and some light in it.

By being here – by singing "Amen!" - "Yes!" "I agree!" "I believe!" after the Eucharistic Prayer – by coming up for communion – by saying “Amen” to the Good News from the Eucharistic Ministers, “Body of Christ!” we are making quite an act of faith.

I want to say that loud and clear today.

Now this does not mean that we don’t have doubts – that we don’t have questions – that we might have dropped out of the Catholic Church for a while. As priest I’ve stood there at the altar at times and said to myself, “What am I doing here? Is this all real? Is this all make believe?” When that happens I find myself saying the prayer of Thomas the Doubter, “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.”

I also have thought and prayed about this. There is great security in that we are not alone if we believe in the Real Presence of Jesus in the bread and wine of the Mass. We are here together. So we have a common faith. We are also here with Christians who have gathered together over and over again for this Sacred Meal for the past 2000 years. That’s a lot of people. That’s a lot of Masses. That’s a lot of acts of faith. I have also come up with another significant realization: many people have walked away from this belief – and become agnostics or members of churches that don’t believe in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. Then it hit me while reading the 6th Chapter of John: the same thing happened in John’s Community – for which the Gospel of John was put together. Members of his community stayed or walked away on this belief. We’re here. We’ve stayed. We keep coming back for more.

BUT DON’T STOP THERE – GET BACK IN THE GAME
While watching TV, the advertisement, the message comes to an end. We’ve ate some food and drink, and then we’re back to the game.

Mass – what we’re doing here right now – is a word that comes from the end of the Mass. It comes from the Latin word, “Missa” meaning “Sent!” It means. “The Mass is ended – go in peace – go to serve.” You’re now being sent to go to be salt and light to our world.

If we don’t do that – if we don’t get back to our Monday mornings – if we don’t get back to our work and relationships and our family – then being here might be just a game.

Isaiah’s words in today’s first reading on how to be light – is the challenge – is the calling.

Let’s hear those words of Isaiah 58:7-10 again:

“Thus says the Lord:
Share your bread with the hungry,
shelter the oppressed and the homeless;
clothe the naked when you see them,
and do not turn your back on your own.
Then your light shall break forth like the dawn
and your wound shall quickly be healed;
your vindication shall go before you,
and the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.
Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer,
you shall cry for help, and he will say,
Here I am!
If you remove from your midst oppression,
false accusation and malicious speech;
if you bestow your bread on the hungry
and satisfy the afflicted;
then light shall rise for you in the darkness,
and the gloom shall become for you, like midday."
CONCLUSION
The title of my homily is, “On Being and Seeing Myself As An Advertisement!”

Do we see ourselves that way?

Do we see ourselves as salt and light?

Do we see ourselves – under our masks and costumes – actually having the powerful force of Christ and his love and his grace inside of us – that we can change this world – that we can be salt and light - that we can do all those things Isaiah calls us to do - simply by walking with the Lord and being our best selves each day. Amen.

++++++++++++++++++++++++

Painting on top: The Incredulity of Saint Thomas (c,1601-1602) by Caravaggio [1571-1610]