April 24, 2015

WHAT’S IMPORTANT?

The teen-ager couldn’t wait for summer,

couldn’t wait for all those summer mornings

he and his grandfather

went fishing, went talking.

“Grandpa, what’s important?”

(LONG PAUSE)

“Well, you’ll have to sit back and listen to people

for the answer to that one.

“Or better, you’ll have to watch people.

Watch their hands, their faces,

but especially watch their eyes.

People always tell you

what’s important with their eyes.

“Why I once had a man tell me that his wife

was dead 3 years and 44 days

and he was still counting,

and his eyes were still crying

“Or listen to your grandma next time you take

her shopping. Listen to the things

she brings up -- the things she talks about

when she meets her friends.

I know you always find shopping

with her boring, but watch her

as she takes out her pictures of you

and all her other grandchildren

to show them to her friends.

“Watch people watch their watches.

They’re telling you an awful lot.

And yawns . . . Notice yawns.

They’re always a dead give away.

“Listen to the sounds behind words, behind voices . . .

what people get angry at,

when they get mad.

Then you’ll know when someone is stepping on somebody’s values or somebody’s nerves.

Then you’ll know that someone is going beyond

somebody’s ‘No trespassing. Private property’ sign.

“And don’t worry too much about people’s answers.

Listen to their questions.

Questions always tell you a lot more.”

(LONG PAUSE)

“By the way, why did you ask that question?” 

(c) Andy Costello

April 23, 2015

PRESENCE

Let’s be honest.

We all know about presence,

whether a person wants to be with us

or whether they feel trapped,

like a prisoner in our presence.

The baby knows.

She knows even when she’s sleeping

whether her parents want her or not.

The old people know.

They know which of their children

are only a phone call

or a visit away.

The team knows whether the cheer leaders

have to cheer or want to cheer.

They know when the crowd

is with them or not.

They know. They can sense it.

The people in the church know

whether the preacher

wants to be in the pulpit or not.

The wife -- the husband -- they both know

whether their marriage

has become a trap -- people living,

people dying in separate prison cells,

or whether their marriage

is an ever expanding universe,

an ever expanding move towards God.

I am.

God is present and we know it.

Presence:

we know these truths about presence

even when we deny them.

And all is touching.

All the cells of the universe

are touching each other,

present to each other,

cheering each other on.

All is present to all.

All is circular.

Everything is present to everything.

Everyone is present to everyone.

Everyone is present to God.

God is  present to everyone and everything.

The universe is a sign

of the ever expanding presence of God,

like the baby to the parents.

My life is touching your life

Life is touching life.

Life is touching God.

Yet some people feel trapped.

They feel like they are dying,

in a closed prison cell,

unable to open up to the presence of another person,
to the presence of God.

And the truth will set you free.

And all cells will be opened. 

(c) Andy Costello

April 22, 2015

COULD BE BETTER….

The weather, could be better ….

My health, could be better….

My spouse, could be better ….

My life, could be better….

My faith, could be better ….

The weather, could be worse ….

My health, could be worse ….

My spouse, could be worse….

My life, could be worse ….

My faith, could be worse …

Me - you tell me - am I better
or worse than expected....

THE  MASS AS A MEAL

Check out the following video's - on the Question of the Mass as a Meal.

UNDERSTANDING  THE  MASS

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 3rd Tuesday after Easter  is, “Understanding the Mass.”

It takes a lifetime - and then some - and then till we’re celebrating the eternal wedding feast - for us to have a better and better understanding of the Mass.

Here’s a few threads about the Mass.  maybe you can sew them together.

THE TABLE

As you know, as you realize, Christianity revolves around a table.

As you know, after Vatican II,  50 years ago -  our understanding of the Mass expanded and evolved - as well as returning to its roots.

If you don’t accept evolution and revolution - and change - you’ll miss the meanings of the Mass.

We change. Life changes. Life evolves. Look at a baby’s skin and compare it to an 80 year old person’s skin. Evolution…. So too the mind….

Life happens. Life keeps on revolving. The earth is on a roll. The earth has been revolving while evolving around the sun for 5 to 10 billion or more years now.

REVIEW

Some of us saw the Catholic Church turn the tables.

The priest spoke the language the people spoke. The Mass became a face to face experience. There was supposed to be a move to a more bready bread taste to the bread. We have seen it change colors - from bright white - plastic look alike bread to more and more tan wheat bread color. Some churches have tried bigger pieces of bread - but to feed 500 - with bread left over - and some brought to the sick - heavier and  more bread looking  like bread - crumbles easier.

Have some wine. Have some wine that tastes like Palestine. But wine is more difficult to work with.

This is difficult with crowds. That’s easier with just the bread.

This 6^th chapter of John - which we heard part of today - should be read and read, chewed on, chewed on, digested, digested. If there is anything Jesus does, it’s his nourishing us. It’s getting us to think and mull over life.

This memory and memorial of Jesus is a meal. Come and eat. Come and get it. Share. Chew and listen. Do this in memory of me.

At any good meal, we don’t just eat and drink, we talk and listen.

We are in communion with each other.

We become what we eat. We become what we drink. We become what we talk to each other about.

SO THE MASS IS A MEAL

We know meals. We know food. Cook books are up there with the best sellers when it comes to books.

We know eating. We get that from day 1.

Jesus cooked up a great experience with his Mass.

Everyone eats.

Everyone is becoming.

Everyone is passing over.

Everyone has roots.

Everyone is part of a story.

So there are readings of that story at every Mass - just as at every time we sit down to eat we remember our stories - re-membering every member of the family.

It’s not good to skip out - to miss a meal - to drop out of the family - like Judas did - like so many have - by skipping meals - by not being there for the family meal - at least on Sundays.

It’s not good to be alone.

It’s not good to eat alone.

Yet even when eating alone we are remembering our days, our moments, our lives . We’re talking and listening to each other - in our upper room - in our skulls. It’s better to be eating and talking with each other.

Give us this day our daily bread. Give us this day, “How was your day?” “What’s happening?”  Haven’t seen you all day. Haven’t seen you in a while? Is everything okay.

It’s good to talk after Mass.

Of course communion is difficult.

It’s hard to hold and listen to and hold onto -various conversations during a meal. Someone on my right says something interesting. Someone on my left or across the table says something. It’s hard to hold onto two or three conversations at the same time as well as conversations going on in our heads about something that happened yesterday or what we’re going to face today.

Who said we can’t have distractions?

A meal is all about distractions. Jesus who is going to betray you today.

Life has it’s rock throwers - its traitors.  Hey Saul wanted Stephen out of the community.  Life is filled with all kinds of better and worsers.

CONCLUSION

We have to move on. Finish meals. Move on. And we can continue this life and another meal tomorrow. 

[Painting on Top: Coming out of Mass by Jose Ferrer Miro]

April 21, 2015

RED CORVETTE 

Driving up West Street, 4:30 P.M
or so, the traffic was building up.... 
I spotted a red Corvette, waiting
to step out, from a side street,
right turn - going in the same 
direction as I was heading.
He spotted my hand gesture to,
"Come on out. Get ahead of me."  
He did. Great smile. How long was 
he stuck there? I'm now behind him. 
On the next street,
and on the next street,
and on the next street,
and on the next street,
he did what I did.
He let 4 people out "Wow!" I thought. 
"Love begets love." Each time he put
a smile on my face. I touched that
smile and could feel it on my skin.
Did he still have his original smile?

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2015

SEEING  THROUGH 

WHAT  WE’RE  SEEING 

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this Monday in the 3^rd Week of Easter is, “Seeing Through What We’re Seeing.”

To give credit, where credit belongs, I got the idea for this sermon from a woman named Kathy Coffee, mother of four kids - a speaker and a writer. [1]

In commenting on today’s two readings she talks about Jesus in today’s gospel seeing through the motives of the crowd who are looking for him not because of his signs - but because he gives out food (John 6: 22-29). And in today’s first reading, the crowd will attack Steven - because underneath everything they want to kill anyone who is following Jesus (Acts of the Apostles 6: 8-15).

COMMON EXPERIENCE

It’s a common experience to experience someone who puts up a smoke screen or what have you - simply because their bottom line is to get us.

They think they know our underneath and they don’t like it. Meanwhile their underneath is loaded with mixed motives or fake motives.

At times I’ve met people who want to attack someone’s motives - or what they assume to be another’s motives.  Sometimes they do it with clenched teeth or jaw. Sometimes they do it with a smile.

We see this happening all through the scriptures.

We see this happening all through our lives.

The history of the world seems to be war - when life would be so much better - and sweeter -  if we all worked to be instruments of God’s peace.

A MOUSE IS MIRACLE ENOUGH

In her commentary on today’s readings Kathy Coffee quotes something Walt Whitman said. I have never heard or noticed it before. Whitman said, “a mouse is miracle enough”.

People jump when they see a mouse. Whitman stopped and realized what a miracle a mouse is. I had never thought of that. I get it, because I have been amazed while looking at birds and squirrels. They climb and fly so amazingly.

Toy dogs and cats need batteries. Humans and ducks, cats and dogs, move because they have the miracle of life.

Don’t we pause at times and feel our pulse and know our heart is working - pumping blood and life through our systems.

Miracles surround us.

Miracles abound.

Amazement should resound in us.

Doesn’t that get us to see through what we’re seeing and we see God in the unseen.

I love that quote from Walt Whitman about the mouse.

It’s sort of like the quote I used in my homily yesterday from Mary Ann Evans - better known as George Eliot - who in her famous must read book, Middlemarch, said, “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.”

CONCLUSION: A SUGGESTION

The title of my homily is, “Seeing Through What We’re Seeing.”

As a conclusion here’s a suggestion.

Practice going underneath.

Ask inwardly, “Are you saying what you’re saying or are you saying something else?”

Ask inwardly, “Are you seeing what you’re seeing or are you seeing something else?”

We see this in kids. They want the cookie or the cake or the candy. The rest is staging for the treat.

We see this in adults - but it’s more complex. They are getting back for something we said last week that they didn’t like. They don’t know that’s what they are doing.

Didn’t Jesus say from the cross, “Father forgive them because they don’t know what they are doing”?

We need to practice seeing what’s going on underneath.

To avoid judgment - ask others, “Are you saying what you’re saying or are you saying something else?”

To keep the peace - in a warlike moment - ask, “What are you seeing going on here?”

I see this happening in many interactions in the gospels between Jesus and his adversaries.

I read once about a  little girl who said at the dinner table, “Nobody ever tells me they love me.” 

Her mom said, “Your aunt said she loved you at dinner the other night.”

Pause….

Then the little girl after thinking said,  says, “No she didn’t.”

Silence.

Then she said to her mom,  “When did she tell me that she loved me?”

Her mom answered, “When she said, ‘Don’t eat too fast’”

To be open our eyes - to open our mind - we need to go to the other side of silence and hear the roar of love and amazement that’s going on underneath the bread and the wine and the words of our lives.

So that’s the gist of this homily entitled, “Seeing Through What We’re Seeing” or hearing or doing.”  Amen

NOTES

[1] Page 276, “Unrelenting Graces” by Kathy Coffey, in Give Us This Day, April 2015