SO WHAT YOU'RE 
REALLY SAYING  

IS THAT YOU WANT 

TO BE AN ONLY CHILD?

Quote for Today - October 14, 2012

"If you want to have a perfect sister or brother you must resign yourself to being an only child."

Italian Proverb

IF WE ONLY HAVE
LOVE FOR ONE ANOTHER

Quote for Today  October. 13, 2012

"It is sad not to be loved, but it is much sadder not to be able to love."

Miguel de Unamuno [1864-1936], To a Young Writer

OOOOOOOO

Questions: 

Who loves you? Name some names.

Whom do you love? Name some names.

Is it true that there would be someone who is unable to love? If you answer yes, could you hazard a guess, why? What happened?  Could they recover if such a person existed?

How would you describe love or define love?

THE CURSE [KATARA] 

BE WITH YOU!

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 27^th Friday in Ordinary Time is, “The Curse [KATARA] Be With you”.

KATARA is a Greek word that appears in today’s first reading from Galatians. One English translation is “The curse”. This word and idea  shows up in Galatians 4 times: 1:8; 1:9; and in today’s first reading in 3:10 and 3:13. In looking at this I noticed that it’s a rare idea in the New Testament in today’s sense of the word. The only two other places we see it is in First Corinthians 16:22 and Revelation 22:3.

In the New Testament people curse at each other here and here - but not in the sense of KATARA here in Galatians. Paul is talking about something that shows up more in the Old Testament. You read about people from time to time who seem to be walking around with a curse on them or in them.

Based on that in the Old Testament the reality of “The Curse” seems to be very much part of people’s thinking. If you eat this or drink this water, you’ll be inflicted with “The curse.”  If you cheat on others in the marketplace, you’ll receive “The curse.”  If you don’t care for your parents, you’ll receive “The curse.”

In the Mediterranean Basin - or in Anthropology courses on primitive peoples, you’ll hear about “The Evil Eye” or “Putting a curse on someone”.  I think I’ve overheard women talking about “The Curse” at times.

EXAMPLES

So I’m sure you have heard people refer to “the curse” from time to time. For example, bad things keep on happening to someone and someone says, “It’s as if he had a curse put on him.”

Or for example, someone makes a big mistake and they say out loud in frustration, “I’m cursed.” Or “I seem to be cursed.”

In general this is not the thing people confess when they say, “I used curse words.”

No. This is heavy duty stuff. Someone hurts a child or a wife or a parent - and someone in deep anger prays, says, screams, “I hope God punishes you. I hope God puts a curse on you.”

For example, someone grabs their parents’ money - without any consideration of their parents’ wishes for the rest of the family - and someone says, “Well that money is cursed.”

That’s roughly what Paul is talking about here.

THE CROSS

Now let me give the Good News….

Paul is saying that because of Adam and Eve, because of the Sins of our world, because of personal mistakes, because of selfishness, because we live with the consequences of our sins - mistakes - cheating - sometimes our life is “gicked up” - “messed up” “a disaster” and we feel cursed. The Good News is Christ comes along and becomes the curse. He takes the curse off us and puts it on himself. He dies on the cross for us - to take away the effects of the curse on us.

He takes away as they say, “the doom of sin.”

CONCLUSION

I don’t know if that hits you, but that hits me. It helps me understand today’s gospel. People in the Middle East know about demons - inner demons.  They can drive us nuts. Sometimes they can get worse. We’ve been cursed. We need Jesus the Prince of Peace to come and create order - peace - the kingdom inside us.

Hearing all this should help me say at Mass and then understand the meaning of, “Lamb of God you take away the sins of the world - the curse of the sins of our world” better. This should  help me understand the prayers, “Lord have mercy!” and “My soul shall be healed” better.  Amen.

OOOOOOOOOOOO

Picture on top: The Father's Curse: The Unagrateful Son, by Jean-Baptiste Greuze, French, about 1778.  Brush and gray wash squared in pencil.

COLUMBUS DISCOVERS AMERICA

Quote for Today  - October 12,  2012 - The day Columbus saw land in this hemisphere.

"The America of  Moctezuma and Atahualpa,
the aromatic America of  Columbus,
Catholic America, Spanish America,
the America where noble Cuauhtemoc said:
'I am not a bed of roses' - our America,
trembling with huricanes, trembling with Love:
O Men with Saxon eyes and barbarous souls,
our America lives. And dreams. And loves.
And it is the daughter of the Sun. Be careful."

Ruben Dario [ Felix Ruben Garcia-Saramiento], 1867-1916, Cantos de Vida y Espearanza [Songs of Life and Hope] [1905], a Roosevelt (To Roosevelt)


Picture on top: 1993 replicas of the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria.

         YEAR OF FAITH PRAYER

Lord,

some doors have a sign on them, “Pull!”;

some doors have a sign on them, “Push!”

May we see at every door

an invisible sign saying, “Pause!”
Then during this year of faith

before we make our entrance or our exit,

may we pray this simple prayer:

“Lord, may I bring peace to all in this place

I’m  about to enter: home, school, store, work;

and when I’m going out, “May I bring peace

to everyone I meet out in our world today. Amen.”

© Andy Costello, Prayers 2012

WANT FAITH,

GET IN TOUCH 

WITH YOUR DOUBTS

Quote for Today - October 11, 2011

"Faith which does not doubt is dead faith."

Miguel de Unamuno [1864-1936], The Agony of Christianity.



Picture: Blue Angels going over St.Mary's Church Annapolis, Maryland

Question: Do you agree or do you have doubts about that statement by Miguel de Unamuno?

TREADMILL OR MACADAM?

INTRODUCTION

The title of my thoughts for this 27^th Wednesday in Ordinary Time is, “Treadmill or Macadam?”

That’s the thought that hit me when I read today’s first reading from Galatians  2: 1-2, 7-14.

Paul writes that he does not want to “be running, or have run, in vain.”

Don’t we all?

TREADMILL OR MACADAM

I try to get some walking in 4 times a week. Depending on the weather and depending on how much time I have, I go out the front door and take a 45 minute walk through downtown Annapolis and then through the Naval Academy or I go downstairs and spend a half hour on the treadmill.

On the treadmill I watch TV. Going through downtown Annapolis and then walking along the water in the Naval Academy around 4:00 PM - I see Navy folks practicing on big flat green fields, running, moving fast - as well spotting silent sail boats on the bay. 

Madam: there is a difference between treadmill and macadam.

THE NEW TESTAMENT

When I walk through the gospels - as I read the New Testament - I get the sense that there was a bad bit of infighting - insider fighting - inner rock throwing - going on.

I sense that the Early Christian Communities that Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, Peter, James dealt with - had their share of Pharisees and Scribes - just as Jesus had in his day. 

Sometimes dealing with some church folks - the complainers - the letter writers - the angry - the mind made upperers - the rigid - the non-listeners - the Law Keepers -  the I got an agenda types - I get nowhere. I get what Paul felt with Peter in today’s first reading as well as some others in the early Christian communities.  I’ve been on this treadmill before. I want to run away from them. They make me realize my agenda - I want to escape - not listen - be rigid - hide - I want to walk along the water and see Christ walking on the waters - as well as calming the sea.

So what else is new?

JESUS BRINGS THE OLD TO THE NEW

The old is ever old. Life is déjà vu. Jesus is ever new.

In the midst of the rumble and the rant of those with different positions in politics and theology - in the channeling of TV treadmill same old same old - attack after attack after attack - I close my ears - and like Jesus head for a garden or a deserted spot or the quiet mountains - in my mind - and ask Jesus the age old question voiced in today’s gospel from Luke 11:1-4 - “Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples."

And I hear him say, "When you pray, say:

Father, hallowed be your name,
your Kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread
and forgive us our sins
for we ourselves forgive everyone 

in debt to us,
and do not subject us to the final test."

CONCLUSION

Then I get back on the treadmill and hit the macadam - and life goes on. Amen.

O+O+O+O+O+O

P.S. This is a written homily - not given in church - but only on my blog - because if spoken from the pulpit - it might sound like the shrill I can't stand from the TV box or pulpit. On a blog, in print, one can slowly reflect upon someone else's comments. Morever, it might cut down on letters of complaint about what one priest preached. Don't we all scream: "Enough already"?