July 19, 2015

A LIGHT IN THE WINDOW

Come to think about it, I don’t ever remember

stopping outside my house in Brooklyn as a kid

to see if a light was on for me. Did I? Does

everyone stop to see if there is a light in

the window for them - to let them know,

“All are welcome in this place,” as the church

hymn puts it? Well, I don’t remember ever

not be welcomed. So is it only when a light

was not on that we notice lights in the window

for us? Maybe it’s only the negative that we

notice - the solid dark - and that long afterwards.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2015

On top is a painting by Andrew Wyeth. It’s entitled, “Evening at Kuerners”. Andrew Wyeth did over 1000 paintings and drawings of buildings, people, and objects on this farm in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. It was about a mile from his home growing up.

Next, I found the some comments about his painting by Andrew Wyett. I found them in another blog - Bloffinger by Paul Goldfinger.  Here are Andrew Wyeth’s comments about this painting,

 “There are few studies for this because that was the year that Karl was very ill. Many evenings with the light burning there quite late, I had a foreboding that this might be the end. I’d go over there evening after evening and just watch. I’d hear the water and see that light in Karl’s room, and I’d lie in bed at night thinking about that square house sitting in that valley with the moonlight casting such a strange liquid light on its side. The light in the window, which is pure paper, by the way, seemed to me to be Karl’s flickering soul. For me it’s very emotional picture. I saw Helga for the first time when I was doing this.” Andrew Wyeth

Comments about that light in the window triggered this piece for my blog.

July 18, 2015

7 BILLION PORTRAITS

How would I be portrayed -

if a painting of me is hung

in a grand art museum 100

years from now? Would it

be a picture of me at the

check-out counter in a

supermarket or sitting in a

church in the late afternoon

with red vigil lights burning

in my face? Would it be a

picture of me at the opera,

with pearls and beautiful skin

or would it be a picture of me

as an old wrinkled beggar

lady with a shopping cart on

the corner of 6^th and Main -

not seeing the world go by?

© Andy Costello, Reflections, 2015

July 17, 2015

WHAT HAPPENED?

How could I have been so stupid,

so unthinking, so unaware, not to

have said “Yes”? Instead I said

“We’ll see!” - which has always

been for me a definite, “No!” But,

we’ll see if this time will be different.

I guess I'll have to listen to myself

more as I move into our future. I

guess I might have to finally change.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2015

July 16, 2015

SUNSET

Well, it’s over…. Finally.

The clock did its job.

The sun did its job.

We did our job.

Time's up. Pull in the

tables and the chairs.

Hang up the aprons.
Check the ovens.

Lock the restaurant doors.

Walk the cobbled streets

till one is finally home.

“It’s over!”

Sometimes those are the

most beautiful words one

hears at the end of a long day - 
a long life - that is, 
unless one is a pessimist.

© Andrew Costello, Reflections 2015

Panting on top: Cafe la Nuit, Arles, Van Gogh 

July 15, 2015

CLAWS

Some claws are obvious,

like those on lobsters

and crabs. The ones you

gotta really watch out for

are the ones that can grab

your soul, heart, and spirt.

You gotta watch out for those

babies. They grab onto you

and they can drain your soul.

© Andy Costello, Reflections, 2015

WHO’S IN  YOUR  AUDIENCE?

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 15th Tuesday in Ordinary Time  is, “Who’s In Your Audience?”

Sub-title: “Who’s Watching to Find Out What Would Happen to You?”

BOOK OF EXODUS

We’re in the Book of Exodus now. Jewish baby boys were to be killed - as a way of stopping the Israelite presence and influence in Egypt. This is before the Exodus. In fact it will be part of the reason for the Exodus.

So this little boy is born. He’s hid for 3 months. His mom puts him in a papyrus basket - made it water proof - and then put it in the water and pushed it towards where the pharaoh’s daughter would bathe. Good story.

Then notice the sentence. The baby’s aunt “stationed herself at a distance to find out what would happen to him.”

That triggered my wondering comment for today’s sermon: “Who has wondered what was going to happen to us?”

I assume that’s the background of Shakespeare’s famous line: “All the world’s a stage.”

I assume we all had someone at our birth and our baptism sitting there like an audience in a theater watching us - up there on the stage of life - and wondering what’s going to happen to this baby - called “me”?

Our parents certainly did. Is it less watching and wondering for the 4^th child than for the 1^st child?  There’s always the comment: the camera didn’t come out as much for the last child compared to the first child.

Growing up in the 40’s and 50’s - I never saw parents in the stands at Little League games.  I don’t remember my parents being there for the first Mass I served as an altar boy. Yes for my first communion and confirmation and graduation from Grammar School.

Come to think of it - on a contrary note - once I did go with my brother-in-law to see my niece Monica play in a basketball game. She was this high [make gesture] so it had to be around the 4^th grade. The score was 0 to 0 at half time.

GOD SETS US SAILING

Using our imagination what would it be like to picture God sending every one of us down the stream towards our parents and they pick us up? What would it be like to picture God cherishing us - marveling at us - amazed at us - like all people - hopefully.

PS! What would it be like to hear, “PSSSSST! God is in the audience?”

RADIO

While driving along the other day I heard on the radio that a Jazz Musician had died. He had been left on a porch - I think I heard it was Pittsburgh - when he was born and someone picked him up.

Like Moses did anyone watch and wait to see if someone found him?  Did anyone wonder what ever became of her baby?

I tried to find out who it was on Google and couldn’t determine who this musician was?  But I did find the names of about 5 jazz musicians this happened to.  I also found out that someone put a baby with a note on her and left it at Dolly Parton’s doorstep.  So too a priest. So too a lot of people.

I also found out that this story of Moses - they knew his parents - is a story in many literatures of the world - Oedipus for starters.

CONCLUSION: HOW ABOUT US?

Last Sunday I preached on that wondering about how we’re doing as a theme to think about in the summer. Once more that same theme - wondering about our lives - in the context of:  Who’s in our audience? Do we see God in our audience?

July 14, 2015

JOY

Joy, not an itch, nor a flood, 

not the ocean running towards

the shore - but maybe the sun
rising or slipping into the ocean.

Joy, it’s the key turning in the lock,

the garage door opening - the

knowing another is content in being

home. It’s seeing a daughter on her

graduation day or her wedding or a

child taking her first step or playing his

first varsity game and he made the

key play and the coach congratulates

our son. We won! And the feeling

leaning back into a chair: "It was 

all worth it. It was all worth while."

© Andy Costello Reflections, 2015