METAL  DETECTORS,  

MEMORY  DETECTORS   

We see them - during the summer - on
the beaches - in the parks - men - yes
it's almost always men - men who love
gadgets - men with metal detectors - 
men who love to fish - fishing - 
searching for metal.

We see them with head phones – waiting to hear the bing, bing, bing sound that there is metal below - ready to find rings and things – hoping to find coins and bracelets – hiding in the sand – lost in the grass – in and under the dirt…..

One hand holds the metal detector – the old hand holds a light rake or pick on a stick – to dig through the sand or the dirt – for where the metal signal is coming from.

Of course there are big machines and drills - and big metal detectors – with plows and shovels to dig away the ground – and find and dig up precious metals – that have never been discovered before. I’ll stop there with that one, because I know little about mining.

We’re all searchers – dreamers – wanting to find the precious beneath our feet.

We all have our collection of class rings, ear rings, wedding rings, pins and trophies - buried treasure from long ago….

Pause and think about your collection.

Bing, bing, bing, goes the metal detector.

We’ve all had the experience at airports  - going through those telephone booth type metal detectors. They go bing, bing, bing or buzz, buzz, buzz, when they tell us about our metal belt buckles… or what have you.

The title of this reflection is: “Metal Detectors, Memory Detectors.”

Will someone come up with a memory detector? All those rings – all those bracelets, - all those coins  - all those pins  tick off a metal detector. Well, what about the story behind the ring or the bracelet or the coin that are found in the sand at the beach or in the woods?

Who was the person who wore this class ring? What are the memories behind this ring – St. Mary’s High School – Dartmouth – Elon – Loyola? How many places did someone search before they gave up the search? Was there a romantic story in the story? A guy gave this ring to his gal – in 1954. Then the ring was lost. What happened to both of them?

The rings and things we still have – when noticed or discovered trigger stories … memories. They are reminders  - that ring in our memories all our lives – in all our loves…..

Stuff – the stuff of life – there is a lot of it – everywhere – buried in the earth – buried beneath our skull….

Stuff – some mementos – some  trinkets – in our top drawers, bottom draws, in boxes in our basements and our attics – are loaded with the past.

A memory detector?

Is there such a thing as a memory detector?

Yes.

It’s us.

Stop once and a while and look around.

Look around your rooms and your homes once and a while.

Talk to each other?  Mom – dad – did you have class rings way back when?

Do you still have them?  Can I see one? Tell me what thoughts and memories they trigger. What happened?

Memories: is there such a thing as a memory detector?

No.

Is that why Jesus said, the important thing is not the thing but the person behind the thing – the person wearing the ring.

Treasure the ring, treasure the treasure – but above all, treasure what we take beyond the beyond, eternal life.

[This was a short reflection for St. Mary’s High School Junior Ring Ceremony we had in St. Mary’s yesterday, January 30, 2015]

January 30, 2015

PIANO CONCERT

The lights lower.

The concert congregation

becomes quiet.

The pianist walks out

onto the stage.

It’s a liturgy. It’s worship.

It’s sending sound and spirit

Into the hearts and minds

of all those present.

The piano, the altar,

offers us up -

music, mood, melody -

that will linger and loom

in the car ride home -

people speaking in a lower voice,

at least for the rest of the week

and possibly into the rest

of one’s life. Amen. More!

© Andrew Costello, Reflections by the Bay

January 29, 2015

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE GLASS

I’m walking in the city. Wait a minute,

I better add, it’s on the Upper East Side

of New York City. It’s evening. It’s January.

It’s cold. I go by three of four restaurants.

I look in and see young couples encased

in glass - doing inside chatting – she pointing

with a fork – he listening with wine in hand –

both seemingly unaware of any of us,

inches away, passing by on the other side

of the glass. The low lights, the candles,

the bread, the wine, their eyes, their hands,

their knees, their feet touching each other.

I saw all this poetry  all this in one grab

of a glance, and I was all alone,  hungry,

envious and all alone. I wanted to be

on the other side of the glass. Don’t we all –

all of us walking and talking to ourselves on

this cold and empty other side of the glass?
Question:  Were they in there because last year

they were out here walking in the cold all alone?

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2015

January 28, 2015

TAKE   10 

TO MEDITATE 

Take 10 minutes each day to pause.

Take 10 minutes each day to calm down.

Take 10 minutes each day to be in a quiet place.

Take 10 minutes each day to sit and simply breathe.
Take 10 minutes each day to not hear inner uproar.
Take 10 minutes each day to meditate.
Take 10 minutes each day to be aware of God.
Take 10 minutes each day to disappear.
Take 10 minutes each day to reappear made whole.
Take 10 minutes each day to come home without fear.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2015

THY  WILL  BE  DONE 

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “Thy Will Be Done.”

The idea of the Will of God appears in today’s first reading, today’s Psalm Response and today’s gospel.

We say that prayer – “Thy will be done” in the Our Father  - sometimes with little thought  – sometimes with deep depth.

The air traffic controller and the greatest theologians in the history of our world have tossed around what they think that phrase means.

I don’t know about you – but I hesitate to say I know for sure what “God’s will be done” means – but of course like everyone – I think I know what’s best for everyone else in the family and in the world.

Oooops! I take some of that back, because I assume God’s will is that we forgive one another, love another and respect and honor and are generous to each other. Okay: timing is everything

I don’t think God has a check list of people who are to die today. I don’t believe that God zaps people. I believe that God cries when babies die and are with loved ones is with their loved ones as loved ones die.

I don’t think God wants some football team to win the Superbowl and some team to lose the Superbowl.

Just before a high school basketball game, I was standing there with our team.  We were praying to win. I just happen to look at the faces  of  the other team. They were also praying. At that moment the insight hit me and this is not the way God works.  So  I say to God – “I don’t think you determine who’s going to win a certain basketball game nor do you have favorites and all that.”  Yet the fans of some teams think that’s what happens with their team every year.

TODAY’S READINGS

I noticed in the Letter to the Hebrews that we’re dealing with folks  who have struggles with the Law. The main message seems to be – that we struggle to say “Amen” – especially  the Great Amen - to what God seems to want and what God does each day.

I know that when I say to God, “Thy will be done, I am saying, ‘God I have no clue at times how all this works. Help me to let go of my trying to be you and control the universe – as well as other people’s lives – and God “God, what does it mean that you control the universe?”

 I also say many times each day – the words Jesus said from the cross, “Father forgive them for they don’t know what they are doing.”

I say that one a lot. You don’t have to live with the priests I live with.

But most of all - that prayer in the Our Father and in today’s 3 readings about God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven triggers for me the best funny prayer of all time: “My will be done.”

That’s the prayer I’m thinking lots of times. It’s underneath all my complaints about others and life and how things go. I wish so and so wouldn’t say that – or drive like that – or get jam in the peanut butter.

It takes a lifetime to laugh at oneself about how I want the world to go round.  If I was the engineer I want God to be, uh oh. I find it difficult to move backwards with the car in Reverse in a parking lot.

I’m sure whoever came up with the line, “If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.”

I would think it would make a very funny movie if everything people wanted on the spot happened. Some one says, “I wish it wasn’t so cold – and the temperature shoots from 29 to 92 – and then someone says, “It’s too hot. Dang it. It’s always too hot around here and the temperature shoots down to 43.” Then some kid says, “I wish it was just a little bit coldler – and it snowed – so we didn’t have to go to school.”

Chaos would reign as rain switches to snow.

CONCLUSION

In fact a good time to pray and say and laugh the, “Thy will be done!” prayer is when we’re actually saying, “I want it my way.” Or when we’re thinking and praying, “My will be done.”

January 27, 2015

TAKE 10

Talk to me.

Listen to me.

Forgive me.

Look me in the eye.

Laugh with me.

Sit with me.

Worry about me.

Be fair with me.

Say, “Thank you.”

Say “Please.”

Do these 10 times each day

and watch your gift of awareness grow.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2015

HAND-ME-DOWN  FAITH! 

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “Hand-Me-Down Faith.”

For starters – there’s a great short prayer: “Hand me down faith, O Lord. Hand me down faith, O Lord ”

LOTS OF HAND-ME-DOWNS

When it comes to clothes – I’ve heard complaints about hand-me-downs from the younger kids in a family.

However, much of life consists of hand-me-downs.

We speak the same language as our parents…. We all have family proverbs that are part of our family language. We all have knickknacks from way back from earlier generations.

Check out the old furniture. Nobody is complaining about having a small family table from the 1800’s. Grandmother’s Singer Sewing Machine is in a prominent place in some homes. So to piano’s.  I’ve done baptisms and the baby’s white garment is from the 1800’s.

If we take a good look at faith – we’ll have to admit – our faith is not only a gift from God – but it’s also a gift from others.

Faith is a hand-me-down gift.

LOIS AND EUNICE

I hear that message from Paul in today’s first reading from this letter of Paul to Timothy.

Listen again to his words,

I yearn to see you again, recalling your tears,
so that I may be filled with joy,
as I recall your sincere faith
that first lived in your grandmother Lois
and in your mother Eunice
and that I am confident lives also in you.

I think that’s a wonderful message sandwiched in there in this short – [It’s only 4^th Chapters long] -  2^nd Letter of St. Paul to Timothy.

If we stop and think about it, who are our Lois’ or our Eunice’s?

Name the people who gave us the gift of faith?

If we dropped out of faith, Church, at some time in our life, was there one person who gave us the example to come back.

Paul names names. Name names.

Would anyone name us?  Would anyone put us on their list?

Names are good. Details in our faith story are good. 

Last year, I had someone call me up after a funeral . Having  heard the eulogy about the person who died, the caller said, “I didn’t know so and so went to church and did all those wonderful things in his life. I want some of that. Can I see you?  I’ve been away from the church since the 1960’s.  I talked to this man and I have seen him in church ever since. Those kind of details make my day.

TODAY’S GOSPEL

Today’s gospel talks about people with demons. Today’s gospel tells us that sometimes we can be divided.

Surely people pick up demons and addictions and lack or loss of faith from others. Hand-me-down bad habits or language.

In this homily I’m stressing – picking up faith – as well as that wonderful list of good stuff in today’s first reading: grace, mercy, peace, gratitude, prayer, self-control, and love.

CONCLUSION

At this Mass thank God for the people who gave us good example and faith – and pray that our faith – which has been handed down to us – often by parents, grandparents, great grandparents – don’t stop with us. Amen.