WHAT HAPPENED

TO THE PILLOW?

INTRODUCTION: PILLOWS

The title of my homily for this 13th  Tuesday in Ordinary Time is, “What Happened to the Pillow.”

We’ve all had the experience of saying sometime in our life, “What happened to the pillow?”

It fell off the bed and our head wants that pillow. Someone else is sitting in our favorite seat and is sitting with our favorite pillow - as if it were their lap dog. Or someone reached for our favorite pillow on our favorite couch or chair as if it was for anyone - just anyone - to take. Or someone borrowed it and went upstairs or downstairs with OUR pillow.

What happened to our pillow?

CAN I GET YOU A PILLOW?

We also have had the experience somewhere along the line when someone said to us, “Can I get you a pillow?”

That’s one of those little things in life - that makes life sweeter for the other person.

It has never happened to me, but I find it a nice moment to be on a plane and the steward or stewardess or airline attendant says to someone, “Can I get you a pillow?” Nice.

It’s a nice moment to be watching a football game or a movie and one is on a couch or an easy chair and someone says to someone else, “Can I get you a pillow?” Nice.

It’s a nice moment when visiting someone - and they give you a room for the night - and they say to you the next morning, “Did you have a good sleep?” Then, “Were the pillows okay?”

I always say, “Great!” I can’t tell the difference between one pillow and another, any more than I can tell the difference between spaghetti and spaghetti - and chicken soup and chicken soup. There are people who can taste and tell differences, etc. There are people who know that St. John Neumann Church has cushions and St. Mary’s doesn’t. I was talking to a woman last night who thinks St. Mary’s benches are a torture device - made that way to provide penance for people for their sins. There are some people who always sit in the same seat in church and know the difference. Amazing.

This question about, “Were the pillows okay?” is very interesting and intriguing to me - and I notice it because I have gone on about 20 + retreats with our high school kids and have given over 100 h.s. retreats in my life - and there are always kids getting off the bus with their own pillows. Is it their security blanket or what have you?

We have a family story. My brother and my sister were talking once at our mom’s house. Mom was somewhere else. Somehow the conversation of the pillow in the guest room came up. My brother said, “That pillow is really hard. In fact, it’s horrible.” My sister Peggy said, “When I sleep here I also find it hard and horrible - but guess what? Once I told mom about it and she said, ‘Billy likes hard pillows!’”

Isn’t life fascinating? Don’t the little things in life, make life interesting?

I was going to entitle this homily, “Can I Get You a Pillow?”

However, “What Happened to the Pillow?” has more of a hook or a grab to it. I’m hoping someone is saying, “What has this pillow talk to do with today’s readings?”

TODAY’S GOSPEL

We heard the story about Jesus crossing the lake in today’s gospel.

Jesus is sleeping in the boat. A storm comes up. The disciples panic and wake up Jesus - who calms down the weather - and says, “You guys don’t have much faith!?”

In Mark and Luke the same story appears - but Mark has one detail that Matthew and Luke leave out. Mark says Jesus was asleep in the boat with his head on a pillow. The Greek word in Mark 4: 38 - on a pillow or cushion is proskephalaion. Notice the Greek word kephale. It’s the word for head. The English word “cephalic” - which is not used that often - might be familiar. It’s a word used to refer to the skull or the head.

Now every time I read the story in Matthew and Luke, I ask, “What happened t the pillow?” How come they left out the pillow?

Answer: I would assume that that detail was not important to Matthew and Luke.

We know that there are people who miss the little things that make life sweeter for the other person. And there are some people who are very aware of the little things in life - what another likes and doesn’t like, what bothers people - what makes one’s day - what drives one crazy - what comforts another.

So a message for today: Think pillows. Think little things. Think thinking about little things like pillows.

Thinking people think of the next person.

CONCLUSION

When my sister Mary and her husband were celebrating their 50th Wedding anniversary, one of their daughters, Monica, gave everyone a favor - a tiny something as a memento. I had just finished this homily last night, and I noticed it on my bookshelf. Let me close with a reading of this small piece entitled, “Little Things Mean a Lot.” It’s a song written by Edith Lindeman and Carl Stutz (1953). You might have heard it somewhere along the line. Come to think about it, it’s much better than this sermon 1000 times over. Amen.

LITTLE THINGS MEAN A LOT

Blow me a kiss across the room

Say I look nice when I’m not

Touch my hair as you pass my chair

Little things mean a lot

Give me your arm as we cross the street

Call me at six on the dot

A line a day when you’re far away

Little things mean a lot

Don’t have to buy me diamonds or pearls

Champagne, sables or such

I never cared much for diamonds and pearls

'Cause honestly, honey, they just cost money

Give me your hand when I’ve lost my way

Give me your shoulder to cry on

Whether the day is bright or gray

Give me your heart to rely on

Send me the warmth of a secret smile

To show me you haven’t forgot

For always and ever, now and forever

Little things mean a lot

IT'S NOT GOOD

TO GO IT ALONE!

Quote for Today - June 28,  2011

"Traveling together is a great test, which has damaged many friendships and even honeymoons."

Rose Macaulay, The Towers of Trebizond, 1956

MOTHER

OF PERPETUAL HELP

Today, June 27th, we Redemptorists celebrate the Feast of Our Mother of Perpetual Help - or Our Lady of Perpetual Help.

We were given this picture of Mary way back in 1866 by Pope Pius IX, who said, “Make her known.”

And we Redemptorists have certainly done just that.

I grew up in Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish in Brooklyn, New York and as a kid during the 1940’s saw lots of people coming to the Wednesday Novena - praying for Help.

At the time I didn’t know that Perpetual Help novenas on Wednesday were taking place all around the world. They were especially helpful for people’s prayer life and spirituality during and after World War II - which was certainly a world war.

Becoming a Redemptorist I’m aware that many of our parishes have that name, Our Lady or Our Mother of Perpetual Help. I am aware that the icon of Mary can be found in Redemptorist parishes and centers in the 77 countries around the world where we are located. I am aware of the great novenas to Mary in Singapore and in the Philippines - and in various other places in the world.

I am aware that several pictures of Our Mother of Perpetual Help sent from Rome for various churches in the United States went down with the Andrea Doria in 1956.

I am aware that Mary under this title is the patron saint of Haiti - a country that recently had a horrible earth quake - as well as years and years of poverty and horror.

Help.

One thing I wonder about at times is what would happen if the island of Crete would demand back this picture - which was stolen back before 1500. It’s in our headquarters church in Rome - where it had been for a couple of a couple of hundred before we bought that property. Then it disappeared after the church where it was enshrined was destroyed.

It’s a small picture - 17” by 21”.

I’ve often wondered what has made it so popular.

We Redemptorists certainly helped do that - being missionaries all around the world. I wonder if it became so popular because the picture has eastern and western characteristics. I wonder if it’s popular because it’s the classic image of a mom and her baby. I wonder if what helps is that it’s a picture story - a child scarred runs to his mother and in the running his sandal starts falling off. I wonder it became so popular because of the word, “help” in its title. Who of us doesn’t need help?

I assume that this image of Mary is a place to come to - to run to - when we need mommy, when we need help.

Today we celebrate the Feast of Our Mother of Perpetual Help.

Suggestion: after Mass today - visit her shrine - and thank Mary for help received and ask her for help needed.

Be like Abraham in today’s gospel - haggling God down from 50 to 10. For example if you’re praying that your kids return to church 52 Sundays a year - ask for 10 Sundays.

Be like Jesus in today’s gospel - who says he has no place to rest his head. Recall that in this picture or Icon of Mary, Jesus is resting his head on her shoulder - and when Jesus was taken down from the cross his head is rested on her once more.

Mary, you are our perpetual help from womb to tomb. Thank you. Amen.

**************

Picture on top: The original Our Lady of Perpetual Help picture at San Alfonso, in Rome.

MOTHER OF PERPETUAL HELP

Hail Mary, Full of Grace,
I picture you as one who gracefully
steps into the picture of anyone
who needs help - anyone whose
marriage has run out of the wine of life
or someone who needs a pair of sandals -
or anyone who screams for, “Help!”


Hail Mary, Full of Grace,
help me to picture myself as one
who gracefully steps out of my frame
and becomes at least a momentary help
to someone in need, especially those
carrying a heavy cross - or to stand under
their cross and hear their screams for “Help!”

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2011

EXAMPLE 

Quote for Today - June 27, 2011

"Example moves the world more than doctrine."

Henry Miller [1891-1980], The Cosmological Eye, 1934

FEED ME

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this feast of Corpus Christi - now called, “The Feast of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ” - is, “Feed Me”.

I’m sure we’ve all seen a poor person by the side of the road - or on a sidewalk  - with a child in hand - or cradled in their arms - with a sign around their or their  kid’s neck - “Feed Me!”

The world’s population is or is estimated to hit 7 billion people this year: 2011.

Question…. Key question for this homily: Does every person on the planet - all 7 billion of us - have a sign on our forehead or on our face or in our eyes that says, “Feed Me.”

HUMAN HUNGERS AND HUMAN THIRSTS

Is every human being saying, “I’m hungry and thirsty for more - for so much more!”

Is every human being like the kids in Oliver walking around with bowls in hand saying or singing, “Please sir, I want some more.” Is every kid singing and crying I want more than gruel. I want, I need, I sing for, “Food glorious food.”

Is every child crying for their parents' time - attention - games - reading - presence?

It’s obvious in church when we hear the beautiful scream of a child - who is singing, “Feed me!”

It’s not so obvious is us older kids - who are here in church screaming inwardly about what's going on in our lives. Church is a time to get in touch with our human needs - our human screams - as well as those around us here in church - but especially all those out there - whom we’ll meet today - whom we’ll meet this week.  And I’m not just talking about those who would like a hand out - but those in our own families or work place - that we  put our hand out in peace to them. The sign of peace at Mass is not just for those we’re at Mass with - but for us to be signs of peace all week.

Is every human being saying:  Feed me with love. Feed with respect. Feed me with food. Could I have a drink of cool clear water? Please listen to me. Please hold the door for me. Please acknowledge me. Please recognize me. Please give me a job. Please give me an education. Please give me a seat at the table. Give me a chance.  I need clean water to swim in, clean air to breathe in. Don’t dump on me. Please be aware of the needs of the generations to come. Let’s get our economic, our ecological, our spiritual, our educational, our cultural houses in order.

LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS

Those of you who channel surf - or like to watch old TV movies - probably have seen the old movie, “Little Shop of Horrors.” It came out  way back in 1960. That’s 50 years ago. And it features a singing plant - a big singing plant in a florist shop - that sings, “Feed Me!”.

It’s a comedy - it’s a farce - it’s dark humor - it takes a while to get used to it and into it - but it has a fascinating message. Is every person singing that song, “Feed Me”?

I found it interesting that the movie had a budget of $30,000 - and that it was shot in 2 days - using movie sets from another movie. It was a b movie - part of a double feature - for a time with the movie, “Black Sunday” and then with “The Last Woman on Earth.”

Then it stood on it’s own two feet - the dream of every human being.


It slowly became a cult film. It helped that Jack Nicholson had a small, small part in it. As an aside, let me mention, that I once found in a retreat house basement an old vocation movie put out by the Franciscans that had Jack Nicholson as a young man playing the part of a young man thinking of the priesthood. I watched it a few times and yep it was Jack Nicholson - about to burst into the vocation of being a star movie actor. I left that 16 mm. movie on a shelf there in that basement and it disappeared. I always thought it would make a big splash if it was put on TV - and in the meanwhile still get someone to think Franciscan - and think priesthood.

By mentioning this in my sermon and then on my blog - I’m getting it out there and maybe someone will track it down - and do just that.

FEED ME

In this homily - and on this feast - the theme I’m pushing - is that every human being is screaming, “Feed Me!”

We and lots of people are in church this Sunday because we are hungry people - hungry for God, hungry for Jesus’ Body and Blood, hungry for meaning, for a good word, and hungry to do all this with others.

A key text in the Bible for me has always been Genesis 2:18: “It is not good to be alone!”

It’s from the most primitive and earliest part Genesis - that is an amalgamation of various stories and texts from different eras of Israel’s traditions. So God creates the animals. Man then gives each of them a name - but dogs and cats and birds and beasts are not enough. One is not enough.

It’s a great story - with great psychology and anthropology and humor - so God puts the man into a deep sleep - and takes out one of his ribs and sculpts it with flesh to make a woman - so the man will no longer be alone.

And when Adam wakes up and sees woman for the first time he says, “This is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. This is to be called ‘woman’ - for this was taken from man.” It’s funny stuff here. There is a cute play on words in the Hebrew. “Ish” is the word for “man” and “ishshah” is the word for woman.

Using English words, I like Bill Crosby’s play of words in his presentations on Genesis. When Adam saw this one for the first time he says, “WOOOOO MAN!”

Human beings need each other and feed off each other. It is not good to be alone.

Women and men, we need each other. Feed me.

We need relationships. Feed me.

We need to see our connections - rib to rib. Feed me.

This early story in our Bible brings us back to the basics.

It is not good to be alone.

This is the most basic human story.

I would hold that this story is also telling us that God realized, “It’s not good to be alone.”

God is saying, “Feed me!”

God is saying, “Talk to me!”

God is saying, “Walk with me!”

Want summer reading? Read the Book of Genesis - or just the first 5 chapters up to the flood and you’ll hear the human story.

Space and stuff is not enough.

God needed us and we need God. Feed me.

God needed audience and we need audience.

Is there anyone on the planet who knows I am on the planet?

How many times have we sat on a plane seat in an airplane or a plain seat in the mall or in a restaurant and wondered who is this person in walking by - with that interesting t-shirt or hat or shoes or pocketbook or what have you?

Talk to me. Talk to each other. Listen to me. Feed me.

We’re driving along and there are 2 people walking along in the cool of the evening - walking and talking - or there is someone walking alone but they are talking to someone miles away - on one of those phones in the ear attachment. How is that different from the scene right there on those early pages of Genesis where we read that God walked with Adam and Eve in the Garden in the cool of the evening - that is till they blew it - and they hid - and in their nakedness they had to admit to God they disobeyed him and ate the forbidden fruit?

They were discovering what every human being has discovered: sin separates. Sin breaks the human covenant. Sin fractures family and friendships and marriages.

They were discovering that we sin because we want more - we want to be fed with more, more, more. It's tempting to reach for forbidden fruit. We want to be like God - so we want it all - and we are not God - but mysteriously - we can have it all - if we are with God and work with God and share with God and each other.

But no that is not enough. Ugh. This is the naked human condition.

As W. H. Auden put it in his words in his 1971 book, A Certain World: A Commonplace Book,  “All sins are attempts to fill voids.”

Isn’t that the truth?

Isn’t that another way of saying, “Feed me”?

Isn’t that what Augustine says big time in his great book, Confessions?  The Confessions of Saint Augustine is dated to around 400. We all know his words, “I was in love with loving.” “Give me chastity and continence, but not just now.” “Too late I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient and ever new! Too late I loved you! And behold, you were within me, and I out of myself, and there I searched for you.”

And Augustine tells us about all his searching and his dealing with sex - philosophies - various religions - till he hits bottom and discoveres Christ.

It’s the same as the old saying in Alcoholics Anonymous, “We were looking for God in the bottom of a bottle!”

Isn’t that why we have so many broken bottles in church parking lots and along so many streets - and why we have so many young people walking down West Street and so many different streets on Saturday night - and don’t know what they are looking for is God who can be found in so many churches on Sunday morning - and in healthy good relationships.

CONCLUSION

Today is the feast of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ!

Today millions of the billions on this planet will walk up the aisle of Catholic churches wanting to be fed by the Body and Blood of Christ.

Feed me!

The Catholic Church proclaims and teaches that we receive the Body and Blood of Christ in each communion - whether we just take the bread or the wine or both. It would be nice to have the option here at St. Mary's on Sunday of receiving from the cup like we do at every Mass at St. John Neumann. On Saturday evening and Sunday we only receive the Bread because the aisles and space for Eucharistic ministers and people would be too backed up.

We  also have the wonderful tradition in the Catholic Church of being able to drop in and sit in the presence of Jesus in this Blessed Sacrament in our churches or in Eucharistic Chapels. Our Eucharistic Chapel is closed right now with the renovations in this church - fixing up the heating system - but the church at St. John Neumann is open during the day.

I love walking into Catholic Churches any place I find myself - and walk in and just be - and surprise there is usually someone over there sitting in the afternoon quiet - behind a column - in the semi-darkness in prayer and I can sense them saying, praying, “Feed me!”

And I would think they come back because they are fed - but they also go out from church - from Mass - from prayer - and feed others - giving others their body and blood - a listening ear, a helping hand - word of wisdom - a walk in peace. Amen.

SILENCE 

LEARN THE SECRET!

Quote for This Sunday - June 26, 2011

"Silence is the best substitute for brains ever invented."

Senator Henry F.Ashurst, Quoted by Leon Harris in, The Fine Art of Political Wit, 1966