BEYOND JUST SEEING
April 3, 2012
Quote For Today
"I am always humbled
by the ingenuity
of the Lord,
who can make
a red barn
cast a blue shadow."
E. B. White [1899-1985]
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Monday, April 2, 2012
THE ELEVATOR RIDE
Life - it’s like an elevator ride.
You get on. Sometimes you go up and sometimes you go down.
Sometimes you end up on the wrong floor. You weren’t thinking or someone misunderstood you and pushed the wrong button.
Life - it’s like an elevator ride.
Some long for the good old days - when there was someone standing there in an uniform ready to serve you - someone to ask with a smile, “What floor!” To push the buttons … To say, “Please step back!” To say, “Ground floor” or “Fifth floor” when they bring you to your floor - and then to say as you exited the elevator, “Have a great day!”
Life - it’s like an elevator ride.
Sometimes you’re all alone.
Sometimes someone says, “Hello!”
Sometimes someone pushes the button for you.
Sometimes there is someone who loves to start a conversation or make a comment.
Sometimes everyone is so - so quiet.
Sometimes you recognize your neighbors.
Life - it’s like an elevator ride.
Sometimes you get stuck. Sometimes it’s stuck.
Sometimes you have to wait.
Sometimes it’s crowded.
Life - it’s like an elevator ride.
Some people leave such a sweet scented perfume - even when they are long gone.
Some people leave a sour odor - and there are no windows to air them out of your life.
Some people - you’ll hardly or never know, they were there.
Life - it’s like an elevator ride.
Some people take the stairs - whenever possible.
Some people make odd comments about those who take the elevator - but the day might come - when they are in a wheel chair - or their legs are failing - and they too will take the elevator. Then they’ll know.
Some people bring you up; some people bring you down.
Life - it’s like an elevator ride.
© Andy Costello, Reflections, 2012
[This is an image that hit me when I read today’s gospel - for Monday in Holy Week - John 12:1-11. Jesus was invited to a dinner at the house of Lazarus, Martha and Mary - and “Mary took a liter of costly perfumed oil made from genuine aromatic nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and dried them with her hair; the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil.” Open up your Bible. Read John 12: 3. Put your nose to the words. Your nose will still grab the scent.]
Sunday, April 1, 2012
HE SEEMED
SO ELSEWHERE
[This is a Palm Sunday Reflection for 2012.]
I stood on the side - on the edge of the crowd that day - wondering what was going on.
I looked at Jesus’ face - better his eyes - as he came up the road that day. He seemed so elsewhere.
Sitting on a donkey: what was that all about? Crowds waiving palms - praising him: what was that all about? He seemed so elsewhere.
Where was his mind? What was he thinking? What was he wondering about? What were those standing there that day thinking?
I know I’ve been there - at a meal - and I was a hundred miles away. I was chewing lamb, but in my thoughts - I was chewing on something else - planning something else - wanting to be elsewhere.
As the crowd along the road waved palms and shouted, “Hosanna!” I could spot a few of his enemies - tight faced - angry - planning something else.
I watched him all that week - a week that was to be different from all other weeks.
Weeks and months before this week, I heard him say - he had to get to Jerusalem. So I knew he was in Jerusalem long before he got to Jerusalem that day.
I knew he knew - this was to be his destiny - so here he was - but he seemed to be so elsewhere.
Life can often be what we didn’t plan it to be. We know what we want till we get what we want. And then we realize it wasn’t what we wanted.
That Thursday evening, I was close to the end of the table for that supper. I watched his hands. They were tapping the table at times. I watched him eyeing the bread - wincing as he broke it. I saw him tasting the wine slowly - and his face seemed to be sensing - that he knew he was about to be crushed.
I heard him say, “This is my body….” with the bread. “This is my blood ….” with the wine. I heard him say, “This is the beginning of a New Passover, a New Exodus, a New Covenant, a New Life.”
I knew this was his last supper with us. I just knew that when I saw Judas slip out into the night. Something was wrong with Judas. He also could be so elsewhere.
At that meal I listened carefully. Jesus told us about loving one another. After he the shepherd would be slaughtered like the Lamb for the Passover Supper - we would be scattered. What was that all about? He was passing over too many steps that we hadn’t taken yet. After he's gone, he reminded us to remain together like branches on the vine - because separated we’d have no life within us. He told us to produce much fruit and in the meanwhile - to wash feet. He kept on talking about his Father - coming from and going back to him - sending a Spirit to us. None of us are scribes. Yet I wished there was someone who was taking this down.
I saw Jesus’ face tighten as he too went out into the night.
We followed him - bundled up together - in fear and in the dark.
He didn’t ask me to join him in prayer. Once more it was just Peter, James and John. However, I was watching - watching John in particular. It seemed that he was sensing something that Peter wasn’t. James? I am not sure. John always seemed to be taking it all in - seeming to be so elsewhere - at times.
I could hear Jesus’ frustration with Peter - not staying awake - but sleeping - while he Jesus was deep in prayer, deep in worry, deep in scare - deep in fear.
Silence. Night. What’s next?
Then I heard the soldiers coming with torches - burning bright torches - probably to arrest Jesus. I saw Judas’ face in the light. I saw the kiss. Jesus looked right at Judas. Judas turned away. And as they dragged Jesus away, Judas’ face fell. He seemed so elsewhere.
I stayed on the edge. They rushed Jesus to places behind big doors - strong gates - big walls. I couldn’t get inside. But I heard that they were beating and making fun of Jesus inside - with no clue what they were doing.
That Friday I heard the crowd screaming for Barabbas - screaming for crucifixion - and I thought I spotted in the crowd some of those I saw last Sunday who were praising him. I guess people can be like that.
I watched him being forced to carry his own cross on the way to Calvary. I think he caught my eye once - but I looked elsewhere. I didn’t know what to do.
I stayed at the edge of the crowd at Calvary. I saw some of his blood squirt from his hands when they nailed him to the cross - right onto the skin of a small boy who carried the bucket of nails and the hammer to Calvary. That was ironic because some cried, “His blood be upon us and upon our children.”
I heard him cry from the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
God seemed so elsewhere - so it seems - sometimes.
Jesus hung there for what seemed like hours.
Jesus seemed so elsewhere when he died.
I kept saying to myself, “Now what? Now what? Is there a next or do we all go back home - to all the elsewhere’s we’ve been thinking about the past three years - to all these elsewhere’s we all left behind?
THE DONKEY
When fishes flew and forests walked,
And figs grew upon thorn,
Some moment when the moon was blood,
Then surely I was born.
With monstrous head and sickening cry,
And ears like errant wings,
The devil’s walking parody
Of all four-footed things.
The tattered outlaw of the earth,
Of ancient, crooked will;
Starve, scourge, deride me: I am dumb,
I keep my secret still.
Fools! For I also had my hour;
One far fierce hours and sweet:
There was a shout about my ears,
And palms before my feet.
G.K. Chesterton [1874-1936]
Saturday, March 31, 2012
MARRIAGE 101
Quote for Today
"To maintain a successful marriage,
according to research
by psychologist John Gottman, Ph. D.,
husbands and wives must offer each other
at least five acts of love and kindness
to balance each single act of spite or selfishness.
You may walk around carrying negative incidents
like daggers in your heart,
ignoring the thousands of positive things
that happen to you every day."
page 68, "In Praise of Rose Colored Glasses", O Magazine, September 2011
Friday, March 30, 2012
WHISPERS
OR STONES?
OR STONES?
INTRODUCTION
Which hurt more: whispers or stones?
The title of my homily for this 5th Friday in Lent is, “Whispers or stones?
TODAY’S READINGS
Today’s first reading from Jeremiah 20: 10-13 begins with
Jeremiah hearing “the whisperings of many….”
Today’s gospel from John 10:31-42 begins with these words,
“The Jews picked up rocks to stone Jesus.”
That’s where the thought for this homily came from.
Then the question: “Which hurt more: whispers or stones?”
CHILDHOOD SAYING
Children were taught to say to those who taunted or bullied
them with words as kids, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will
never hurt me.”
But the adults who taught their kids to say that knew that names hurt both kids and adults - often much worse than sticks and stones.
Kids learn fast that the rule on the bus and the playground
is: “Bully rather than be bullied.”
There are 2 kinds of people: those who bully and those who
are bullied.
There are many articles and comments on talk radio shows
lately about this issue of bullying. The goal is to cut down bullying - even
stop it - if possible.
I don’t know about what your childhood was like - but I know
that kids don’t know what they are doing - but they can be challenged to learn
to know what they are doing. I know I joined the pack to pick on those who were
different: those who were overweight, had glasses, pimples, or big ears. If we
got past the stage of our mom bringing us to school (we could walk in our day),
and some other kid didn’t, we might pick on that kid as a “momma’s boy”.
ADULTS
We know that once a person is accused of something - if it was a false accusation - it’s hard to put mud back into the puddle - it’s hard to remove graffiti from a person’s reputation.
In small print we read from time to time about someone who
was accused of sexually abusing a kid - commits suicide - and sometimes the
accusation is false.
Jeremiah goes down in history as the man who was in the
pits. That’s where his accusers tossed him.
Jesus goes down in history as the man whose whispers against ended him up at Calvary. Jesus goes down in history as the man who died on the cross
- with spit on his skin - along with blood and bruises from falling and being
beaten.
CONCLUSION: GOLDEN RULE
I’m still learning - because I still whisper and sometimes spit or spurt out a comment about another - getting a laugh from the others - but a
pained look - if I look - on the face of the person I throw a word rock or stone at.
I know if I take the time to pause before I open my mouth -
for a whisper or a shout - and ask, “Would I like it, if someone did this to
me?”
I believe the Golden Rule is another saying parents teach kids - along
with “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me.”
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