February 8, 2015

COLD

Cold  - like 20 below freezing cold -

can be so silent, so sneaky, so tight.

Cold can creep into every stone,

into every bone in my body.

Cold can grab every outside metal

banister – as I stand there freezing.

Cold can stand there with me on the

top step – as I ring the bell – no answer.

Cold eases the cold as I knock, knock

on the sold front door – but nobody’s home.

Cold rushes with me as I rush home

to get inside and rub into a hot radiator.

Cold – I see myself being so cold when

someone wants me – wants me to open up.

Cold – I am too, too cold – I am so non-Samaritan,

when someone stands at my door and knocks.

Cold – it’s so much harder to be a Christian in the

cold, when I want my comfort and my warmth.

© Andy Costello, Reflection by the Bay, 2015

February 7, 2015

MOTIVE #1?

Does everything we do - have to have a motive?

When I watch NCIS or other detective TV program,

it usually begins with a crime. Then the lead

detective arrives and they begin asking, “Motive?”

Don’t we detectives say the same thing every day, “Motive?”

“Why did she say that? “Why did he do that?”

“What’s going on here?” “Why did I do what I did?”

Motive? Motive? Why? Why? Motive? Motive?

Then - when - we start thinking, we find out,

behind that inner why, that inner cry, is the

simple answer, “Something was missing.”

When empty, we want to be filled.

Is that the most basic motive in life?

Something’s missing. I’m hungry.

I’m thirsty. I need. I need. I need.

So we fill ourselves, with food, drink, others,

fun, answers, stuff that stuffs us.

We try to control what we can’t control - so 
in anger or frustration - we snap - we hurt.

So we spend our days sending out

555 texts and 333 tweets – our attempts

to fill up our emptiness and loneliness –

because we’ve discovered we can't do it all.

We can’t be it all. The more is elsewhere.
The control is elsewhere. We scream.

Then comes the double whammy:

we find out that all this reaching out 
for more drains and strains us. We discover
that when our net is full – we’re dragging -
we break - we lose what we thought we had.

We find out there is the morning after,

the hangover, the headache, the heartache,

and then the triple whammy, we have

the deeper itch - angst and agita –

because of our dumb moves . 

Then, if we are lucky, we’ll confess what Augustine confessed in his Confessions: “Too late I loved you, 

O Beauty ever ancient, ever new! Too late 
I loved you! And, behold, you were within me,

and I out of myself, and there I searched for you.” 

Good News! We have finally learned what the Psalmist whispered, “Be still and know that I am God.” [Psalm 46:10] Being still, stepping back can
get us in touch with our motives - our desire
for God. Isn't God the real motive for life? Isn't 
God the Eternal Scream, the Eternal Whisper?

© Andy Costello, Reflections by the Bay, 2015

THE LORD IS MY LIGHT 

AND MY SALVATION 

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 4^th Friday in Ordinary Time is, “The Lord Is My Light and My Salvation.”

FLASHLIGHT

My sister Mary told me a cute story. Her husband, Jerry, was a money counter along with 6 other retired guys at their parish church.

One Monday – after coming home from working on counting the collection money - he tells my sister the following. “Mary, you are not going to believe what the topic of conversation was amongst our guys this morning?” It was, “What kind of flashlight do you use for when you have to go to the bathroom all those times you get up during the night?"  

PSALM RESPONSE

Great story.... It fits in perfectly with today’s psalm response which we said, 5 times at least: “The Lord is my light and my salvation.”

A light saves our footsies from being hit and banged when getting up to go to the bathroom during the night.

We need lights to manage our lives through the dark.

Christ is the light of the world. We need his light to navigate through life – especially when we are in the dark.

TODAY’S READINGS

We can read today’s readings and find lights and insights on how to live life to the full.

Here are ten found in today’s 1^st reading and today’s gospel.

The first light is hospitality. It's right there in today's first readings from Hebrews 13: 1-8.  Make  sure we practice hospitality. Hospitals heal. Hospitality means treating others sweetly. It’s doing the extra for others. Whoever we are, hospitality is the sprinkling of the extra on our guests – as well as making sure everyone has the  essentials to life. On a scale of 1 to 10, how am I as a host? Ten being the highest.

The second light is to treat prisoners well or those who feel that way – for example someone who has had a stroke or has to take care of a parent – or feels trapped in grand parenting as a baby sitter or is in a wheelchair. Listen – support - help – treat right those who are not being treated well.

The third light  - if you’re married, make your marriage and your marriage bed sacred – as sacred as the altar.

The fourth light – don’t let money blind you – or control your life.

The fifth light  - is being content.  It's not that easy, but if we learn contentment,  we’ll have an easier life – at home, in restaurants, stores, traffic and with weather, and health.

The sixth light is being with and seeing Christ in all this – in our lives.

The seventh light is stop bragging.

The eight light comes from today’s gospel: enough with the grudges that end up like a heavy back pack on our backs.

The ninth light – also from today’s gospel – don’t let young flesh – seduce our old eyes.

The tenth light learn to say, “I made a mistake. I can’t do what I promised.”

CONCLUSION

There they are 10 different lights to help you get through the dark.

February 6, 2015

WAKE UP!

I met a man – an old man – who said,

“Every morning – when I wake up,

I wiggle my toes – and if they wiggle,

I say to God, “Thank You God

for another day of life.”

He had a great smile on his face

when he told me this wonderful news.

I’ve been doing the same thing ever since.

Why do they close a person’s eyes

when they die? I’ve often wondered why?

Is it because down deep it’s an act of faith

that the inner eye or the so called, “Third Eye”

of the person who has died is now waking from

sleep – wiggling their inner being to a new day.

Do most of us spend most of our life sleep walking

and sleep talking and wiggling our toes without

knowing what we’re doing in the here and now.

We live and breathe and have our being in the

here and now. Wake up! Be born again in

the here and now – each day becoming

more and more ready for resurrection

and new life – in Christ and with all the people

who ever lived – without knowing we are one

with each other – and one with the universe

for ever and ever, Amen!

© Andy Costello. Reflections in the Bay, 2015

February 5, 2015

SAVE  THE  DATE

We get them from time:

a “Save The Date” notice.

It’s usually an announcement

for an upcoming wedding.

The more we talk to people

the more we discover we all

have several dates we save –

saved joyfully with love and memory.

But then there are the dates we save -

sorrowfully with tears and stabs

in the heart, jabs of hurt and pain.
These are the dates on which 
we lost  a child or a spouse, 
a mom or a dad, brother or sister.

We can’t plan them, we can only 

endure them circled on the calendar, 

like a crucifix, on the wall of our mind.

© Andy Costello, Reflections on the Bay 2015

February 4, 2015

ION’S

From the Dictionary: “Ion”, noun [Greek,

neuter of ion, present participle of  ienai to go]

(ca.1834) 1: an atom or group of atoms

that carries a positive or negative electronic

charge as a result of having lost or gained

one or more electrons  2: a free electron

or other charged subatomic particle”

There are always lots of ions in the air –

negative and positive ion’s. Check them out.

They are in and around us. They surround us –

and it would be wise to be aware of them.

Intuitions, affirmations, anticipations,

congratulations, occupations, actions,

negations, rejections, frustrations,

stagnation, alienation and dejections.

We are what surrounds us. We are what we breathe.

The atom doesn’t fall too far from the tree.

© Andy Costello, Reflections by the Bay 2015

GOD IS IN THE DETAILS

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 4^th Tuesday in Ordinary Time is, “God Is In The Details.”

We’ve all heard that comment as well as the proverb, “The devil is in the details.”

Is either one quote better than the other quote?

LAST LINE IN TODAY’S GOSPEL

I thought of that when I read today’s gospel. Mark is the shortest Gospel – but he might be the best for the tiny details.

For example,  today’s gospel reading from Mark has Jesus saying, “Keep all this quiet” and then the additional detail: “And give her something to eat.”

I love that tiny detail from Mark 5: 43 about Jesus telling folks to make sure this 12 year old girl get some food. Mark doesn’t tell us how long she was sick – but Jesus had an idea. Now that was a key detail.

The same story in Matthew 9:18-26  and Luke 8: 40-48 do not have that detail.

Mark is also the earliest of the 4 gospels. Why does he put that detail about giving the girl something to eat and Matthew and Luke don’t.

I don’t know – only that I was taught that Mark is the detail guy. For example in the story of multiplication of the loaves to feed the crowd in Mark 6:39 – we find out that Jesus has the apostles have the folks  sit down on the ground in squares of hundreds and fifties. For example, Mark – but also Matthew and Luke – have the detail about the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law by Jesus – and she gets out of bed and waits on the boys.

I’m not a detail person so I don’t notice these things. I have to work on that.

DEVIL OR GOD

So is it God or the devil who is in on the details?

For someone like me, make it the devil, because I mess up by laziness in not attending to the details. Or I don’t notice key details and as a result things don’t work right.

For those who are great at hospitality – make it God who is in the hard work of details. We could also add that love is in the details.

I’ve noticed that some waiters and waitresses know who wants just water,  who wants water with a slice of lemon, who wants water with ice.  

I like waitresses and waiters who know I like a lot of water and drink a lot of water and they are watching and waiting to serve the customer well.

I like that little detail in the gospel of Matthew 10:42 when Jesus says, “…whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple – truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.”

I’ve wondered how many people down through the last 2000 years got a cup of cold water – thanks be to Jesus for that little detail – especially cold water.  I’ve been suggesting getting that cold water font down the corridor here fixed for at least 4 years now. It used to have nice cold water like the 4 fonts at St. John Neumann. I keep hearing that it is not broken and it is cold water. I suggest that they take a sip of water from the fonts here and then try the fonts out there. Picky, picky, picky…. Details, details, details ….

CONCLUSION

God is in the details. Love and thinking of others is in the details. Jesus noticed someone touched him – in a big crowd – and a woman who had a blood problem for a dozen years – was healed – so too the young girl of a dozen years – was healed.

In the long run, I’d say love is in the details. Whenever I visit my godchild Patty and a few other friends - I luck out at times – because they offer me sugar free cookies. Nice.  So too when I was preaching on the road – I noticed it when the pastor would show me where the silverware was – along with extra toilet paper – along with how the remote works and what have you. Amen.