June 6, 2015

SELF TEST  #  16
SOME PEOPLE

Some like to stand by the edge.

Some like to stand in the center.

Some like to stand on the right.
Some like to stand on the left.

Some like to take risks.

Some like to stay safe.

Some like to listen.

Some like to talk.

Some like the old.

Some like the new.

Some are open.

Some are closed.

Some are stuck.

Some bend their way out of slavery.

Some know themselves.

Some know others.

Some don’t know themselves.

© Andy Costello, Reflections, 2015

BOOK  OF  TOBIT 

 INTRODUCTION

The title of my thoughts for this 9^th Friday in Ordinary Time is, “The Book of Tobit.”

We read The Book of Tobit as the first reading during the 9^th Week in Ordinary Time, every other year.

OPEN UP THE TREASURES OF THE SCRIPTURES FOR CATHOLICS

In the documents of Vatican II, in the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, it states that we are to open up, “The treasures of the Bible more lavishly, so that richer fare may be provided for the faithful at the table of God’s Word.” [Chapter II, # 51.]

So non-Catholics can no longer complain that Catholics don’t know or read the Bible.

This is the 50^th Anniversary of Vatican II - and the past 50 years there certainly has been some significant changes in Catholicism.

More Catholics reading the Bible certainly has been a significant change. This is not to say, we didn’t before.

With a broad generalization for authority, many Protestants would say they have the Bible - and some would stress private interpretation - and Catholics would stress the Pope - and to follow his and the Church’s teachings.

Since Vatican II there have been in the Catholic Church - Bible study groups - e.g. the Little Rock Arkansas program.  I went to a few conferences during the summer and there were lots of lay people as well as nuns and priests making the program. Catholics and Protestants read lots of books about the Bible, etc. etc. etc.

At Masses we go through the whole Bible every 2 years on weekday Masses and much of the Bible during Sunday Masses.

Priests had to preach on many more readings. Some sermons changed - and were now called Homilies.

I’m sure you have thoughts about all of this - talk to each other.

Catholics use Missalette like The Magnificat  and Give Us This Day - at home and at Mass - and if the sermon is poor, they like the commentaries in those missalettes.

WHERE TO BEGIN THE BIBLE

If someone wants to read the Bible, I learned to say, “Start with James.”  If you don’t get James, uh oh!

With computers one can type into Google the name of any book in the Bible and read what comes up.

You’ll get literal and liberal comments and interpretations.

Read a section at a time and read homilies on a text. Like James 1: 13-15.

Take your time and new life will come.

THE BOOK OF TOBIT

This week - Monday to Saturday - we have The Book of Tobit - chopped up like a dinner on a plate to cut with knife and fork - and chew on.

It’s a strange document - a novel for some - a series of folk tales for others.

I find it fascinating - a guy getting cataracts from bird droppings. A woman who was married to 7 different husbands - all of whom died their wedding night - before consummating the marriage. At the end of that story - there’s a nice marriage story about the 8^th marriage - the one that makes it - because the demon of lust is destroyed. It talks about healing with fish oil. Very interesting stuff.

RESEARCH

Some didn’t think it should be a book in the Bible. Some did. The Bible from Alexandria - the so call Septuagint has it.  The Bible from Jerusalem doesn’t.

They had at least 4 versions of the story. Fragments of Tobit were found in the Dead Sea Caves. They are in Hebrew.

Some date the book to the 4^th century B.C.; some date it to around 180 B.C.

The more research - say as a hobby - the more one learns.

CONCLUSION   

Go for it.

June 5, 2015

REWRITING 

When I write a poem

I rewrite it at least 16 times.

Realizing that I like to say,

“Writing is rewriting.”

Then I realized this poem, this

book, called me, is a rewrite.

I’m editing my life stories inside

my mind - to make them fit me.

I’m making me sound better or

worse to myself all my life.

Is that bad? No! Unless I start

to believe my lies to myself.

Maybe the last stage of life

is the real edition: the real me.

© Andy Costello, Reflections, 2015

June 4, 2015

GOD’S MOUTH

Surprise! God does not have a mouth!

You’re kidding?

No, I’m not.

I  hear God laugh at times

at all the comments people

say God says. This is me now
who's speaking.  I hear God

frustrated - cringe - feel crushed

at all the things we think

God would want to say.

Maybe the solution is to slip

into what someone said of God,

“We are made in the image

and likeness of God.” 

When I hear that,  I hear God 

saying, “Oh my God, are 

you serious? Do they really 

believe that? They got to be

kidding."  

Silence!

And, I hear God laughing 
at all this and saying,
"Ooops I am God 
and I don't have a mouth,
so I couldn't have said that,
but if you want to be 
my image and likeness,
be silent because 
I am silence. Listen." 

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2015

June 3, 2015

GLISTEN

As I cross my morning and evening bridge,

on my way to and from work - sometimes

that water to my right - on my way out - 
and that same water to my left - on my way home - it glistens, it gleams, it screams with liquid light - shaking and shaking - watery 
fabric - and that scene becomes my morning prayer: “Lord, let this day be a day of glisten - that I may see you in the eyes of those with whom I'll meet and work! And I know Lord, 
on the way home after a long day - a day 
I didn’t glisten like I’d love to. Work 
sometimes is too tough - too rough, too much. But -  but, but, Lord, I still have 5 minutes 
to glisten again, before I drive up our 
driveway and open up our door and 
announce to my glistening one,  "Honey,
I’m home! Hello! Hi! Missed you."

© Andy Costello, Reflections, 2015

FAMILY  FIGHTS 

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 9 Tuesday in Ordinary Time  is, “Family Fights.”

When we drive down the street - any street - in any town - we can assume that family fights go on from time to time - behind those closed doors.

More or less….

We pray for the less….

We pray people get over their fights, spats, irritations and disagreements …

We pray that forgiveness is on the menu.

We pray that a couple knows whether they have a short fuse or a long fuse - and how to difuse a lit fuse.

WEDNESDAY NIGHT FIGHTS

When I was a kid there were more boxing matches on TV than today.

If I remember correctly, there used to be Monday Night Fights, Wednesday Night Fights, and Friday Night Fights.

When I was a kid - and my parents were kids - and their parents were  kids - way before TV - generation after generation, families had fights now and then - not scheduled for Monday, Wednesday and Friday - but I’m guessing they are over the same thing - over and over and over again. Déjà vu fights…. About strictness, about lateness, about chores, about not carrying one’s load - about drinking, friends the kids hang out with, etc. etc. etc.

I remember visiting a couple once and in the opening conversation just inside the door, the husband said when the wife went into the kitchen, “By the way, you walked into the middle of a fight. We didn’t plan it, when we invited you over.”  I thought to myself, “Now what do I do?”  Then when he went to the bathroom, she said, “In case you didn’t notice, we’re in the middle of a fight right now.”

Surprise.

I wondered as I was driving home from being in that house, if I would have noticed a fight was going on - if they didn’t tell me.

FLORA DAVIS

Flora Davis once wrote, “Almost all married people fight, although many are ashamed to admit it.  Actually a marriage in which no quarreling at all takes place may well be one that is dead or dying from emotional undernourishment. If you care, you probably fight.”

I’ve also read that all couples fight. It’s the making up that makes the marriage work - that is, if folks learn how to make up well.

Now I don’t know if this is true of fights of parents with their kids.

And I don’t know if this is true of fights of parents with adult kids who have married or are graduated and live elsewhere - or have come back to the nest. It’s cheaper.

The Marriage Problem List that made sense to me down through the years was one I noticed in the New York Daily News when I first got out of the seminary. “The three biggest problems in every Marriage are: money, sex and in-laws.”

But not always….

The fight between Tobit and his wife Anna in today’s first reading is about a goat. He gets her goat - by accusing her of stealing the goat. She shoots back with the “holier than thou” label.  I wondered as I read that - how many times that fight and that labeling took place in that marriage.

When I read that, I thought to myself also: “That’s a good idea for a sermon.”

CONCLUSION

Fighting, nitpicking, setting up for a fight goes on in life. We heard it in the gospel. I wonder if these fights against Jesus - were things these Pharisees and Herodians we heard about in the gospel - showed up their families and in their homes as well. I’ve always noticed much of life is déjà vu  - over and over again -  same basic fight - different situations - different actors. Amen.

June 2, 2015

AIRPORT ROSES

I was sitting there in an airport waiting 

for my plane. A guy with a great smile 

and a dozen red roses just walked by. 

He stopped to look at the arrival and departure scoreboard. He checked his watch for the exact time - and then sat down - some 10 yards across from me. 

I was sitting there far enough away

to read his novel. A page turner?

A love story? A mystery? Whom was

this woman  he came to catch? Where was

she coming from? Is this their home?

I prefer reading these stories to books

in the airport magazines, books, last

minute gift stores. I am a people reader.

He looked 30. The white tissue paper that

wrapped the red roses was the cover of his novel. Will I be sitting here long enough to read the end of this chapter, this scene? 

He stood up to walk over to double check

ARRIVALS once again. Just then the door

on the other side opened and out came

a crowd of arrivals. Which one was she?

I watched - loving the feeling of the moment on my face. And then he rushed towards the redhead in the wheel chair. He presented her the dozen red roses. 

He got down on both knees to hug 

and kiss her. She couldn’t get up. Wow. What’s that all about? What happened? 

Is this her for life - in a wheelchair?

Wait a minute. How did he get in here? 

He's not a passenger. Are they headed 

for another flight? I sat there watching him wheeling her away - straight down 

the center of the concourse. 

Well, that’s another chapter. And I won’t be able to finish the book. Ugh. Bummer.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2015