MOTHERHOOD AND APPLE PIE

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 3^rd Sunday after Easter is, “Motherhood and Apple Pie.”

This week - starting with today - is Earth Week and includes Earth Day as well.

Question: does naming a day or a week or a month or a year - for some special cause or occupation -  have any impact?

Translation: does it work?

How about Secretary’s Day or Week,  also labeled “Administrative Professional’s Day or Week?” That day or week takes place in April every year  in the United States. It’s this week - by the way. Are bosses better to their secretaries that day or week? Does that improve life in the office?

Answer: each of us has to know - look - and ask ourselves: “Does a special day or week have any impact on us? Do we treat others - mom, dad, secretary, whoever -  whenever  a special day, week or month is declared for them to be noticed - appreciated - and thanked?”

BUCKMINSTER FULLER AND BATHROOMS

At least 30 or 40 years ago I was watching TV and Buckminster Fuller was being interviewed. I knew he was an architect and an engineer - but I didn’t know about his way of thinking. I didn’t know his attitude towards earth and our universe. He’s the guy who called our earth, “Spaceship Earth.”

During the interview he began talking about public bathrooms and how messy and ugly they can be. He said that he tries to leave a bathroom cleaner and neater - than when he walked into one.

I heard that message loud and clear and I have tried to do that ever since. With just that simple message, he preached a better sermon than I could for Earth Day or Earth Week. 

Does that challenge or impact you? 

I’m sure in our lifetime we’ve seen many messy bathrooms along the highways of life - especially in gas stations. “Hey, I had to go.”

What’s a bathroom in a spaceship like? Type into Google that question and you’ll see a picture of a $50,000 dollar toilet that’s on exhibit in the National Air and Space Museum.

If one is messy, there would be very few to blame on an space station.

How about the next person who uses a bathroom in a 757 airplane after we just finished?  They are small and hard to go in - while flying in the friendly skies.

How well am I taking care of Spaceship Earth - while I’m on earth or in the skies above it?

Will all the stuff spoken and written about earth today and this week have an impact on this earth - Mother Earth.

TITLE OF MY HOMILY

Once more the title of my homily is, “Motherhood and Apple Pie.”

I’m reading and hearing that our Pope Francis - is coming out with a key letter on the earth - and ecology -  in a month or two or three.

I’ve heard people po po all this earth stuff - as nonsense - as political stuff. I’ve heard people make fun of tree huggers - and all that.

The Catholic Church is stereotyped as off on abortion - and we’re mocked for that at times. I’m happy to see in the last bunch of years - prolife issues including all of life issue - from A to Z, from abortion to zoology,  from the ecology to the environment to capital punishment to war to the air and the oceans - health - cancer - etc. etc. etc. - all of life.

Awareness can lead to action - and hopefully more and more people will take action to make our air - our waters - our bodies - our spirits - our inlook and our outlook - healthy and heavenly.

What’s your take on all this? Does it sound like “motherhood and apple pie?”

Translation: it's a cliche. It's soft. It's blabber.

BAPTISM

I did a baptism yesterday - Saturday -  at 1 PM - another at 6 PM  - and had another this afternoon at 3 PM - and I had a wedding yesterday at 3 PM. These are life moments, sacred moments  - babies and brides and bridegrooms - motherhood and fatherhood - moments. We hope the best for all.

In the baptismal ceremony the deacon or priest baptizing the baby - puts oil on her or his forehead - and rubs it in. While doing this this new born person is being called - anointed - to become prophets, priests and kings.  If the baby is a girl, I add prophetess, priestess and queen.

During these baptisms I think about all that’s going on here: with skin, life, oil, water, words, gestures - symbols - etc. etc. etc. All are used.

Take prophets: we are all called to be prophets. It means to call out - speak out - against unfairness. When I see someone drop a soda can or a wrapper,  I sometimes yell out - “Hey - [whistle] - you dropped something.” I have the can or wrapper in hand and I try to hand it back to the person who dropped stuff on our living room floor - the sidewalks of our world. I’ve only done that while wearing a t-shirt or jeans.  Most people reject my prophecy - but sometimes I surprise them and they take their garbage back.

I like to see kids having fun with skateboards, but I hate to see skate boarders damaging property. For example I’ve seen them trying to jump with their skate boards onto the head of the Alex Haley statue in downtown Annapolis. 

So I don’t dislike skateboarding because a kid might break their head or leg. I should. I worry about their possible defacing  the bronze skin of Alex Haley and the bronze kids listening to him at the edge of the water where slaves came into Annapolis.

Speaking up is the call to be a prophet. We’re also called to be priests - all of us - to treat all as sacred - to thank God for all the good around us.

Years ago I was reading the works and words of the French Jesuit priest, Teilhard de Chardin. Some theologians in Rome and around the world wanted his theology condemned. It wasn’t. Some wanted him silenced. He kept writing. 

He died on Easter Sunday - 1955 in New York City. 

His grave is in Poughkeepsie NY - right on the grounds of the Culinary Institute of America. I stood at this grave at least 1 dozen times and thanked him for his insights and impressions and challenges about our world. I noticed that Pope Benedict praised him in various words - and that helped change people’s take on him.

When I say Mass and I lift up the host at the consecration I often think of a moment in Teilhard de Chardan’s life when he was in a desert in China and he had no bread - so at one sunrise he stood there and grabbed the rising sun and held it up and offered all the planet - all the earth back to God who created it all. You can find this in his book: The Mass of All the World.

Listen to these words from that book, “Since once again, Lord — though this time not in the forests of the Aisne but in the steppes of Asia — I have neither bread, nor wine, nor altar, I will raise myself beyond these symbols, up to the pure majesty of the real itself; I, your priest, will make the whole earth my altar and on it will offer you all the labors and sufferings of the world.

Over there, on the horizon, the sun has just touched with light the outermost fringe of the eastern sky. Once again, beneath this moving sheet of fire, the living surface of the earth wakes and trembles, and once again begins its fearful travail. I will place on my paten, O God, the harvest to be won by this renewal of labour. Into my chalice I shall pour all the sap which is to be pressed out this day from the earth’s fruits.

My paten and my chalice are the depths of a soul laid widely open to all the forces which in a moment will rise up from every corner of the earth and converge upon the Spirit. Grant me the remembrance and the mystic presence of all those whom the light is now awakening to the new day.

So we’re called to prophets and priests - prophetesses and priestesses

We’re called from our baptism to also be queens and kings of all the earth.

Kings and Queens - this kingdom - this earth is ours - and all of us are called to be the type of kings and queens of this kingdom that Jesus called us to be - servants. Give us this bread on earth our daily bread  as it is in heaven.

POETS

The poets get this and April is Poetry Month.

I love the prayer and the poem, God’s World by Edna St. Vincent Millay. Listen to how she begins her poem.

GOD’S WORLD

By Edna St. 

Vincent Millay

O world, I cannot hold thee close enough!

   Thy winds, thy wide grey skies!

   Thy mists, that roll and rise!

Thy woods, this autumn day, that ache and sag

And all but cry with colour!   That gaunt crag

To crush!   To lift the lean of that black bluff!

World, World, I cannot get thee close enough!

I also love a line in the poem Ulysses by Alfred Lord Tennyson:

“I am a part of all that I have met”

We are part of all that we have met.

Our mom ate the fruits and vegetables, meat and potatoes, apple pie and peanut butter of the earth while forming us.

I am part of all that I have met.

Stand next to a person who is downwind and is smoking.

Go by a house whose front yard is spring perfect - or it's a junkyard. Get in touch with how the good, the bad and the ugly impact us.

I am part of all that I breathe, see, hear, taste, and touch.

APPLE PIE

Carl Sagan - scientist - who could be rather poetic, wrote the following words in Cosmos: “If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.”

If you get that, you get, you see the connection - the communion - of all with all.

A motorcycle at 2 AM    wakes us up and connects us with the driver, the noise, the whole of life.

A piece of apple pie can do the same - connecting us with the maker - Maker with a big M - meaning God - and maker with a  small  “m” - its maker and baker.

An apple pie can put a smile on our face - can get us to ask for a second piece. It can put a smile on our mother’s face - seeing our face -  and God’s face as well - and  we sit there at table enjoying communion with each other - not rushing away from the table and into the night like people rushing out of church - missing a chance to connect with folks here in closing prayers and some words as we head for our cars.

CONCLUSION

The title of my homily is, “Motherhood and Apple Pie.”

This week is earth week. Look around.

Become silent and listen and let me close with these words of George Eliot from her novel, Middlemarch.

“If we had a keen vision and feeling of all ordinary human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow and the squirrel's heart beat, and we should die of that roar which lies on the other side of silence.”

April 19, 2015

NOT FOLLOWING MY SCRIPT

Life never seems to want

to follow my script.

Life is mixed messages.

Life is ambiguity

Life is a “Yes” that ends up

being a “No” without telling me.

Okay, life is green leaves in summer

and broken brown leaves in the fall.

This I know: I expect a safe trip.

I don’t expect a crazy car crash.

I don’t like losing my job.

I don’t like being misunderstood.

I didn’t like the unexpected death

or cancer and she’s only 29.

I don’t like the bad guy converting

and the good guy falling.

I don’t like changes in the script

especially when I wrote it. 

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2015

April 18, 2015

THOUGHT POLICE

There’s the food police - watching,

commenting on what people are eating.

There’s the clothing police - watching,

checking out what people are wearing.

There’s the thought police - watching,

listening to what people are saying,

writing, preaching - ready with rocks

in hand, Letters to Editors in mind

or to authorities, heresy hunters,

wanting to nail to the nearest cross

those who think differently.

Uh oh! I better be careful. I better

not offend the thought police.

© Andy Costello Reflections, 2015

April 17, 2015

LUCKY MOVE    

She wanted to tell me

her life story - so I dropped

in to see her. I listened.

I heard her. I saw her

smile as she spoke. A week

later she died. Was that

the same smile I was looking

at as I was looking at

her face in the casket?

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2015

April 16, 2015

BIRDS

                                                            E

                                                  A    K

                                            T  

                                                                          A        

                                                                         L  O  

                                                                                  O 

                                 E                                                    K

                  A       H   

                     T  T

                      

                                        B           S

                                           I     D

                                              R

                                                                          R

                                                  O                  I

                                                        F          A

                                                             T   E

                                                                H

© Andy Costello, Reflections, 2015

April 15, 2015

SKULL

Bone beneath the skin,

skull beneath the scalp,

death you are always

stalking, walking with me.

Is there anything I can do

to outwit and outlast you?

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2015

SHOUT  OUTS

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 2^nd Tuesday after Easter  is, “Shout Outs”.

Sometimes in a homily - I give a so called, “Shout Out” and sometimes someone in the back of church says after Mass, “Thanks for the shout out.”

At first I didn’t know what a “shout out” was.

Now I do.

HOMILIES

In a homily, I might nonchalantly say, “It’s wonderful to meet people who volunteer for the ESL program – the English as a Second Language Program - here at St. Mary’s.” Or I might say, “I’m amazed at all the people here at St. Mary’s who volunteer to serve in the St. Vincent de Paul Society. I open the door to go down to the office to check for a Baptism on a Monday evening or a Wednesday afternoon and the corridor is filled with folks needing assistance. They  come here for help and our people are helping them.”  Then someone says after Mass, “Thanks for the shout out.”

I know it helps a parish or any organization to publicly thank the ushers or collection counters or coffee and donut volunteers – or to have on the walls of a business or school or hospital – “Employee of the Month.” – “Teacher of the Week” – “Nurse of the Month”.

Did you notice how neat the floors and the flowers here at St. Mary’s are this Easter?

TODAY’S READINGS

Today’s first reading from the Acts of the Apostles is a shout out for all  these folks in the early church who shared their time, their resources and their capital for the needy.

At the last part of today’s first reading there is a wonderful story – which is a shout out for a man named Joseph – who sold a piece of property that he owned – and brought the money and put it at the feet of the Apostles.

Down through the centuries - I’m sure this reading from the Acts of the Apostles – Chapter 4 – verses 32 to 37 – especially this story about this guy named Joseph –– has urged folks to give to the poor and the needy.

Then the gospel gives a shout out for a man named Nicodemus who comes to Jesus in the night looking for answers. I assume it’s a shout out for all those with faith questions to come forward – even if they have to do it on the sneak – or in the dark.

Today’s gospel is also a shout out  - a warning about what can hurt us – the snakes around us that can bite us. John quotes Jesus telling everyone to see their demons, their snakes, their problems, their addictions – hang them on a tree – scotch tape them to a wall - keep them on a refrigerator door in their mind - and keep one’s eye on them.

Did you notice on TV – these ads – with their powerful anti-smoking ads?

SHOUT OUTS

Shout outs work – even though there could be hesitation to use them.

To build a church or a hall, money is received and plaques announcing pledges and donations go up on walls. They are shout outs. So too stained glass windows named for people or families. Anyone involved in fund raising knows this. It keeps the money coming in – but we know Jesus also said, “Don’t wave your pledges like a flag with your name on it in public. Some do that. They have had their reward.”  Yet we also know they encourage others to do the same. Life can be complicated and a paradox.

CONCLUSION

The title of my homily is, “Shout out’s.”  Maybe the best comment – and attitude would be: “Make one’s good works get other people to also work to help the hungry and house the homeless – and forget about oneself.”