March 29, 2015

HOLY WEEK PRAYER

          Lord Jesus,

          this week we walk with you into Holy Week:

          Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday.

          Holy Thursday: we hear Last Supper words

          of love and bearing fruit,

          as well as hints of denial and betrayal.

          With washed feet we receive you:

          bread and wine, body and blood.

          We walk with you one last time,

          this time hearing the call for Garden prayer.

          We fall asleep unable to watch and pray one hour with you.

          We run away from you, as you are being betrayed by a kiss.

          Dark Friday: we hide there the next day in the shadows,

          trying to get glimpses of you,

          crucified on wood with words and spit and nails.

          You die -- bleeding words of thirst, forgiveness and letting go.

          Empty Saturday: we sulk there in the silence,

          filled with doubts -- doubts that any of this has any meaning,

          not yet knowing resurrection. 

          We began this week with palm branches and Hosannas;

          we end this week with anxious empty silence.Our upper rooms, our minds,

are filled with fear and lack of peace.

          Sunday: we walk backwards talking only about yesterday,

not yet knowing the meaning of today! 

          Amen! Come Lord Jesus!

          You break through our walls;

          you walk into our thoughts;

          you stand on our shores;

          you break bread and words with us again. 

          Slowly, the whole story begins to take on meaning. 

          Slowly, we rise from our sleep,

          beginning to know that all of this had to happen this way. 

          We begin to see that life is celebration and Hosannas,

          passion and pain, death and resurrection. 

          Life is love and bearing fruit;

          life is betrayals and denials;

          life is death and then the hope of resurrection. 

          Amen! Come Lord Jesus!

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2015

March 28, 2015

UNTRANSLATABLE

My life, my house, my parents, my brother and sisters, discovering Santa Claus was like the stork, playing baseball for the Bay Ridge Robins and I sat on the bench - except for one inning  the whole season, going to my first baseball game  to see the Dodgers playing at Ebbets Field and  seeing Jackie Robinson in the summer of 1947, Coney Island - the summer of 1948, what my first year in high school was like,  how I felt when people made fun of a cake I made and nobody would eat it, Bliss Park [a park we went to in Brooklyn as kids], being a priest, failing my first drivers test, passing my second drivers test, getting a book published, diving off the high board for the first time in Sunset Park Brooklyn, seeing the movie Doctor Zhivago, a day I had 2 years ago, missing the taste of Butter Almond ice cream - now that I'm a diabetic, not being able to understand what you're feeling right now as well.

                                                   © Andy Costello, Reflections 2015

March 27, 2015

ART MUSEUM

From time to time we nag ourselves,

“One of these days, I gotta get me 

to an art museum. A little culture …. 

I need some more culture.”

In the meanwhile we can close our

eyes and see our ten top paintings

or open our eyes and see all the

beautiful sights surrounding me.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2015

March 26, 2015

FAT  PEOPLE 

Sitting there with a fat person,

it hit me that they are carrying more than

pounds. Me too. I keep remembering

what an overweight friend once told me. 

“Don’t talk to me about weight

and a great diet you have. Don’t

you know that fat people are beating

on themselves every day about their

weight and other things and keep 
telling themselves, “Oh my God, 
I gotta go on a diet! I gotta go on a diet.”

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2015

March 25, 2015

ANNUNCIATION

 MOMENTS

        

        Annunciation moments ....

        Some wonderful, so marvelous to hear:

                       a pregnancy, a birth, new life,

                       a marriage, new wine, a new beginning.

        Some terrifying, so devastating to hear:

               a death in the family, a loss of faith,

               a divorce, crushed grapes,

                       young children involved.

        Some unsure, unknown, unclear to hear:

               yet Mary said, “Yes, be it done to me

                       according to your word;”

               and Jesus said, “Father, into your hands

                       I give my spirit.”

 © Andy Costello, Reflections 2015

OSCAR  ROMERO 

HAVING  CONVICTIONS  AND

HAVING  COURAGE 

The title of my sermon for today is, “Oscar Romero: Having Convictions and Having Courage.”

Today, March 24, 1980, in the evening, Bishop Oscar Romero was shot saying Mass in a San Salvador Carmelite sister’s chapel – part of a clinic cancer ward where he lived.

It was a funeral Mass for Dona Sarita, the mother of a friend – also connected to an Independent newspaper.

In our life time we might see the beatification as well as the sanctification of Oscar Romero.

Thanks to Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict,  the cause for Oscar Romero has advanced. And Pope Francis stresses how he sees Romero as a prime inspiration in his life.

If you saw the movie Romero or read anything about his life, what’s your take and what’s your inspiration from his life?

To me the main message would be to have the courage of our convictions.

When made archbishop of San Salvador, the rich and those on the right were very happy. Oscar Romero didn’t rock any boats – so those with power were happy – especially the upper military.

He began to rethink everything – especially after a friend Rutillo Grande – a priest was murdered – then others, then others.

He started to name names – on the radio – of those who killing the poor, catechists, nuns, those who spoke up and spoke out.

To me – a country like ours – is sometimes a beacon on a hill or a light on the mountain.

However, some of our behaviors make me ashamed of our country. A country like ours that started as a revolt against taxation and freedom – didn’t side with the poor of El Salvador and Nicaragua, etc. A country like ours that almost split in half over freedom for blacks who were slaves – etc. etc. etc. didn’t back the poor and the colored of South and Central America.

He wrote a letter to Jimmy Carter, president of the United States about not sending money to arm the military in San Salvador even more.  He was against  the School of the Americas – here in the U.S. at Fort Benning, Georgia – where many of assassins of so many people in South America were trained. Check School of Americas in Google for more information about what I’m getting at.

After his change, Romero became a marked man. 

Questions are out there now – whether he was killed because of political reasons or religious reasons.  This brings us to the issue of faith and justice.

I know priests who spoke up on these issues could be blackballed and snubbed.

I know that there are those in the Vatican who are not happy with Oscar Romero and his cause – in becoming named a saint and a martyr.

Pope Francis told his opinion when he declared Oscar Romero a martyr this February3, 2015

I’ve always heard that the money is to the right. There are life issues that some people don’t back and withdraw their money.

There are many ways to read the scriptures – to be challenged or as W. C. Fields said when seen reading the Bible – looking for loopholes, just looking for loopholes.

Today is the day Oscar Romero was shot in the heart – right at the consecration of the Mass.

I often wonder what are the issues I’m called to speak up and out about.

I like to be liked and I rather have paper in front of me that is smooth and not abrasive – like sandpaper. Here we are in Lent and it ends with Jesus being executed for speaking up – where do I need to be challenged? That’s what the life of Oscar Romero says to me so far.

March 24, 2015

COLD  WAR

At some point in everyone’s life, everyone realizes

that Dostoevsky was right: the history of the world

is War and Peace. 

Hot wars are obvious. We can hear shells bursting

and exploding – guns firing – and fear and fire and

fury are screaming and yelling all around us.  

Then comes peace – then comes parades – then

comes treaties and paper signing and dancing in

the streets.

At some point in everyone’s life, everyone realizes

that sometimes there is a cold war going on  - a war

between two people in a family, in a relationship –

and when it’s me against you – or you against me –

then we’re in foreign territory. There is stealth drones

dropping verbal bombs and comments – and past

mistakes on the other. Then we wonder in smokey

aftermath, “Why do we do this to each other?” Why?

Then once more the hope for long, quiet, lasting peace

starts to appear in our soul. It’s then we finally realize

the reality and the beauty of the old words, “Let there

be peace in the world and let it begin with me.” Someday….

© Andy  Costello Reflections, 2015