LISTENING  #12

Quote for Today  - September 9, 2012

"Be careful what you say before a wall,
as you cannot tell who may be behind it."

Sadi, Gulistan: Rules for Conduct, Number 12

LET IT GO!

Quote for Today  September 8,  2012

"Women and elephants never forget an injury."

Saki [Hector Hugh Munro 1870-1916]



Questions:

Do elephants really remember?

Do men ever remember?

Do elephants forgive?

Does anyone forgive and forget?

Do men cry?

COMPARISONS:

THE OLD AND THE NEW

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 22 Friday in Ordinary Time is, “Comparisons: The Old and the New.”

Today I’d like to briefly reflect upon three things: comparisons, the old and the new.

We think and deal with all three every day.  

All three  have their pluses and their minuses.

All three have an, “It all depends.”

TODAY’S GOSPEL

I thought about all three as I read today’s gospel [Luke 5: 33-39].

The Scribes, those who could write, the educated, and the Pharisees were always finding fault with Jesus didn’t like his “new!” They compared what he was saying with their “old”.

They weren’t happy campers.

So Jesus gives a great comparison. Look at people faces at a wedding and look at people’s faces when it’s a religious season of fasting. Compare faces. My disciples are celebrating life. I’m the bridegroom and this is a time of celebration.

Then he talks about new cloaks and old cloaks.

You don’t cut a piece off a new cloak to patch an old cloak.

Nope! Old goes with old and new with new. You find that out when you wash either.

It’s the same with wine: there’s new wine and there’s old wine. There’s new wineskins and there’s old wineskins. Don't mix them up - otherwise you'll have leakage.  Old people in old skin must have laughed when Jesus said this!

I don’t know wine, but I’ll accept what Jesus is saying.

THE NEW AND THE OLD

How are you with the new and with the old? For starters the answer has to be, “It all depends.”

For the sake of transparency, I’m old. I’m 72. Do us old folks tend to favor the good old days and keep saying, “It ain’t like it used to be”?

I prefer a new car to an old one. I’m not into collecting antiques.

I like the new High Definition TV monitors. I don’t like the new translation of the prayers into English.

When I go out to eat, I like what I like. I remember going on vacation in the late 60’s with my mom, dad, and my sister Peggy. We went out to a restaurant every evening - 6 nights straight. 6 nights straight I got veal parmesan. I like veal parmesan - and I was comparing how it came out in 6 different restaurants.

Somewhere along the line I also discovered Cobb Salad - so if I see that on the menu, that’s what I’ll get.  Cobb Salad has a plan: bacon bites, bacon bites, bacon bites, hard boiled egg slices - ummm!

Some people when they eat out get the same thing every time; some people listen to the waitress or waiter giving the house specials - and often risk taking something they have never had before.

COMPARISONS

A beautiful woman walked into a room and I said to her husband, “Who’s better looking: this gal or your wife?”  He paused, smiled and said, “No comparison.”

Perfect answer.

Let me go deeper than skin.

Comparisons can crush. Comparisons can challenge us to move it and be more creative.

We can miss out on a decent veal parmesan meal or Cobb salad, because we’ve tasted better.

We can sit there in traffic or at a dull sermon, because we’re comparing what we’re experiencing with the best or a traffic free trip.

Do people with long faces - non-looking like they are at a wedding faces - crush themselves because they are comparing being in the present moment with a non existent other moment?

A wedding is not a funeral.

Be where you is, because if you be where you ain't, then you ain't where you is. 

CONCLUSION

The title of my homily is, “Comparisons: The Old and The New.”

Take a few moments when you have a few moments to reflect upon these 3 realities: comparisons, the old and the new.

Compare your life to the life Jesus calls us to. Compare both. Feel the call to the New and go for it. And in time, the New will become old hat. Amen.

TROUBLE

Quote for Today - September 7, 2012

"Oh, a troubles's a ton, or a trouble's an ounce,
Or a trouble is what you make it,
And it isn't the fact that you're hurt that counts,
But only how did you take it."

Edmund Vance Cooke [1866-1932], How Did You Die? Stanza 1

THE WORLD WAS 

MY CLASSROOM*

If Jesus lived to 90, what would he have been like? If Jesus lived to 90, how would the story unfold?  If Jesus lived to 90 what would have been his observations? How different would his comments, his teachings be from what he told us at 33?

We don’t know the answers to these questions, but we can know what he knew at 33 by reading the gospels.

One thing I think Jesus would say would be, “The World Was My Classroom,” so that’s the reason - for this theme for this homily.

I love to read the gospels and then ask what happened, what did Jesus see, to trigger what he just said.

I think he walked his world, worked in the family carpenter shop, did village and home repairs, went to the synagogue, stepped back in the market place and observed what he observed,  learned what he learned.

He must have seen a pearl merchant searching for fine pearls - found one - sold all he had and bought that pearl at any price.

So too the man he saw who found a treasure in a field - pooled all his money - and bought that field.

He must have studied grapes and saw that one farmer pruned his vines - and had greater grapes and greater wine - and another vine grower didn’t prune and his yield was nothing like the first vineyard owner.

He must have heard about a vineyard owner who hired workers all day long and paid each one the same amount - because everyone needed a days’ wage like every worker does.

He must have had a sense of humor when he called Matthew a tax collector to give up everything to follow him - and Matthew did. In fact, he threw a party for Jesus to meet his friends - and this really taxed people and their take on Jesus.

He must have sat down near the sea shore and watched how hard working fishermen were - and said, “These are the types I’m going to need. These are the types I’m going to call. They know where the fish are and they are the ones who try, try and try again - even when their nets come up empty.

He must have heard about a woman who lost a coin - searched everywhere for the lost coin, finally found it and threw a party in celebration - without worry about the cost in coins.

He seems to have liked parties and celebrations, bread and wine - lots of bread - lots of wine.

He must have seen some people praying to be seen and heard - and some people who loved hiding in the back or behind pillars - so as to be near Our Father.

He must have heard about lost sheep and lost children and lost lives.

He must have walked by a cemetery and then walked by the Pharisees and said to himself, There is no difference. Both are dead, It’s just that these ones  - who look like white washed tombstones - haven’t been buried yet.

He must have seen mothers and fathers giving their lives  - giving their body and blood in sacrifice - for their children.

He must have seen a rich man dressed up big, big time - a man who didn’t see the poor man at his gate -  and then Jesus laughed when he saw the birds of the air or the flowers of the field - and laughed - because birds of the air and the flowers of the field as far more beautiful - than all those best dressed folks strutting down Fashion Street.

He must have realized when he watched folks in the market place, “I’m sure there are people who are like merchants. One is stingy, exact, a penny pincher, and the other is totally generous - and there’s a message in here somewhere. Amen.  He must have said many, “Amens” as he realized, "The World is My Classroom. Amen! Amen! Amen!"

OOOOOOO

* Homily at St. Mary's - for Thursday 22 Thursday in Ordinary Time © Andy Costello, Reflections 2012

BECOMING  THE  BRIDE

Quote for Today - September 6, 2012

"As Gregory of Nyssa pictures it,
He entered paradise bringing with
Him His bride, Humanity, whom
He had just wedded on the Cross."


Jean Danielou

NEXT QUESTION

Quote for Today - September 5, 2012


"That is not the question."



A line in Shakespeare's play, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act. 1, Scene 1, line 227

Question:

Could you say to someone when they ask you a question, "That is not the question"?

What would happen next?

How many times have you been asked a question and you know or you sense or you guess the other is really is trying to get at something else?