September 6, 2015

GETTING ATTENTION

If they aren’t noticing you,

smile or sulk or smirk.

Make your face say something.

That will get them thinking.

That will get them wondering

about the world within you   -

that they didn’t know existed.

How about yourself? Have

you ever taken a trip down

your rivers - and got off

and visited your within.

Do that and then they

will really notice you.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2015

Painting on top by Mia Bergeron

HEADS  UP! 

EYES,  EARS,  TONGUE 

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 23 Sunday in Ordinary Time [B] is, “Heads Up! Eyes, Ears, Tongue.”

We just heard this Sunday’s 3 readings.

3 different people stood here and voiced sounds with their tongues. 

We heard from Isaiah, James and Mark. We heard from ______, ______ and Andrew. We saw them get up out of their seats and walk to this pulpit. Did we hear them - what they said?

Did they trigger any inner speech and thoughts, insights or questions?

If they did, voice those thoughts for yourself.

Next,  talk to each other in the car after this Mass or at the brunch table or restaurant or wherever. Share with each other what you were talking to yourself about when you heard these 3 readings.

We’re talking to ourselves all the time - often while at the same time talking and listening with/to another.

It’s amazing what our brains can do. [TOUCH HEAD]

A funny thing hit me about two years ago.  It was a question: who are all these people walking and talking with their cell phones? I see them everywhere, talking, talking, talking.

Then the obvious hit me: they are talking to all these other people on their cellphones.  It’s that simple.

I make fun of people who are always on their cellphones. I don’t want to interrupted 24/7.

Then it hit me and I said to myself, “Surprise! Way before cellphones people were spending a whole life time talking to themselves - 24/7/365. [POINT TO MY SKULL] There’s a vast command center in here.

We’re doing that right now. How many of us are really here? I’m yada-yada-yada, yak, yak, yaking up here in the pulpit, but you might be talking to yourself about yesterday or this afternoon or tomorrow. Hey it’s Labor Day long weekend.

I laugh at that, because I’m doing the same thing. I can be preaching - while being somewhere else.

Hey this is easier  for me - because I type out my homilies.

While standing up here, I’ve often found myself thinking about those little kids running around in the lobby back there. I’ve often thought during a homily or during the Mass, “Isn’t that neat. And I bet you the architects and designers of this church never ever planned or got the thought how great that baptismal font in the lobby will be for kids to play around - and run around and around and around it.

Keep kids busy.

So we’re all talking and thinking inside our minds about a whole lot of things all the time.

I heard a speaker years and years and years ago say that the tongue is always moving - ever so slightly - and sometimes ever so loud - when sounds come out of our mouth.

That same speaker said there is a Buddhist meditation technique to silence that tongue - to silence those inner thoughts - and just be there - in the quiet of the here and now. He said, “Put your tongue on the bottom of your mouth or against the back of your bottom front teeth.” 

Shush! Become quiet within brain. Shut off all this inner chit chat chatter.

Christian Buddhists would say to be there in the silence of the here and now God - the Deepest Quiet One - Present - and the One who is holding up our existence.  Our God is a very Quiet God - but sometimes we hear God’s roar - God’s powerful groanings.  “Let there be light!”

TODAY’S READINGS

Today’s first reading is from Isaiah. He has the Lord saying, “If you feel frightened, be strong, fear not! Here is your God, he comes with vindication; with divine recompense, he comes to save you.”

Then Isaiah continues, “Then will the eyes of the blind be opened, the ears of the deaf be cleared; then will the lame leap like a stag, then the tongue of the mute will sing.”

There they are - eyes, ears, tongue - and also legs. I’m just choosing 3 - parts what’s above our neck. That’s why the title of my homily is, “Heads Up! Eyes, Ears, Tongue.”

The second reading from James features our eyes - how we see each other - how we see folks here in this church today. Our church is some 2000 years old - imagine all the inner comments folks have made about how people are dressed and who’s who in this church today?

Do you see what he’s wearing? Do you see what she’s wearing?  Do you see who people are noticing, sneering at, looking up to, and what have you?

You have to have a sense of humor - especially when it comes to Church - especially when it comes to ourselves.

Today’s gospel has the story of a deaf man - who also has a speech impediment. And some wonderful people bring him to Jesus to have Jesus heal him. Great.

And it’s great that Jesus takes him off from the crowd - and puts his finger in the man’s ear - and spitting, touched his tongue and looks up to heaven and groans, “Ephphathata!” That’s Aramaic, Jesus’ tongue, for “Be opened!”

And the man immediately hears with his newly opened ears - and speaks with his speech impediment gone.

It’s a great story.

Hopefully it can become our story.

TAKE A MOMENT RIGHT NOW

Take a moment right now and take one of your hands and touch your head.

Heads up!

Thank You God for my brain - my thought center - Thank You God for my being alive - being able right now to know I’m me.

Take a moment right now and take a finger and touch your eyes.

Thank God for your sight - and all the wonderful sights around me.

Take a moment right now and take a finger and touch your ears.

Thank God for your ability to hear. Laugh if you’ve lost some of your hearing. Then touch your hearing aid - if it’s in your ears or home on your dresser.

Take  a moment right now and touch your tongue and thank God for the great gift of speech.

Thank God for all the wonderful words you have spoken and heard others say to you in your lifetime.

The title of my homily is, “Heads Up! Eyes, Ears and Tongue.”

THREE RECOMMENDATIONS

First our eyes: This week see those around you. This week see what’s around you. This week use your eyes well.

Next our ears:  This week listen to those around you. Really listen to those around you.

If you’re married, when was the last time you really listened to your beloved.

If they are dead recall your best conversation.

Write down the best thing the person you married ever said to you.

This week have the other say something to you about how they see the state of your union - where you are at - how it’s going - where it needs improvement - or what have you and then repeat back to the other, “Let me see if I have this correct. You’re saying …..”

And watch their eyes and their face if you got it right - to their satisfaction.

If you didn’t get what they were saying, let them tell you that and try again to hear what they are saying.  Sometimes the speaker is not that clear in what they are saying. Hey listen to preachers…..

Lastly, one’s tongue: This week touch your tongue and say, “Tongue thanks for all you’ve done for me in my life. Tongue I’m sorry I used you at times to say things I regret.  Thank you for all the times I said good things, all the I love you’s - all the thank you’s - all the I’m sorry’s.

MICHAEL MCCARTHY - FINDING ONE’S VOICE

Speaking about speaking and listening, let me move towards a conclusion  with an example of an Irish priest named Michael McCarthy. I had never heard of him. I read about him in a magazine article in the British Catholic magazine, The Tablet. [1]

Father Michael is just coming out with his 3^rd book of poems, The Healing Station. It’s poems about people he met while being 3 months with them the Adelaid and Meath Hospital in Dublin. He was working with people with acute strokes and dementia.

Each poem gives voice to a different person he met.

Each poem is like stopping at a different station of the cross - like those around our church.

Wouldn’t that be great?

Wouldn’t that be great if all of us gave a voice to the voiceless - like that 2 year old little boy on the beach in Turkey who drowned along with his 4 year old brother and his mother - and all those refugees - and escapees from violence and war and horror and poverty around the world.

My parents came to America from poverty - so I don’t want to hear the voices of anyone who wants to block anyone from wanting a better life.

I heard an Australian on the radio last night say, “Let  Australia. We have plenty of land.”

In this article about Michael McCarthy when he was a tiny little kid his dad who loved stories said, “Let Michael tell it.”  He had noticed that Michael could tell a story and tell it well. Wouldn’t it be great if every father figured out what each of his kids did well and affirmed that gift and skill in front of others?”

The article continued that Father Michael McCarthy slowly started bringing poetry into his sermons - and then adds that it wasn’t till he went to Chicago for a year-long exploration of Ignatian Spirituality that his gift found its voice. He writes, “I was changed both as a man and as a priest.”

The article continues, He attributes the transformation to a personal healing experience through Ignatian imaginative and practical Spiritual Exercise.  In meditation, he discovered that he had  never been able to get over a tragic event from his childhood farm. “I was five years old, and the mare was taking milk to the creamery,” he recalls. “She took fright and turned over the cart, killing my brother James.”

In Chicago - on that Sabbatical - he got in touch with this inner horror story - told it - and it came out in poetry.

CONCLUSION

Every one of us here is the man in today’s gospel and every one of us here is Michael McCarthy. There are things inside our head that we need to voice and we need someone to hear us.

NOTES

[1] Tablet Interview, Michael McCarthy, Healing Spirit, The Table, , pp. 8-9, August 29, 2015

September 5, 2015

TO BELITTLE

It’s a bad thing to belittle another.

Do we do it to bebig ourselves a bit?

Do we step on the person we tried to

make small - so we can feel bigger and

better - because we actually feel small?

Isn't it better to try to see others as different than we actually see them, 
to inwardly say, “Hey,  I haven’t been in their skin? Hey, I haven't read their story to know what they have been through 
to get to where they are right now."

Isn't it better to bebig each other? 

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2015

MERCI BEAUCOUP

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this Opening Mass for this 2015-16 St. Mary’s High School year is, “Merci Beaucoup”.

That’s French for “Many thanks.”

If you’re in Paris or in a French restaurant say, “Merci beaucoup” to the waiter if it’s a great meal - and he or she will say, “Merci beaucoup!” if you leave a good tip.

When we were growing up my brother Billy was studying French in high school and he loved to yell French phrases at me. When I’d come into our bedroom he loved to say, “Ferme la porte.” Translation: “Shut the door.”  As a result of that I understood the French command, “Ferme la bouche”. Translation: “Shut your mouth.”

To this day I still remember that shut the door command when I walk into rooms - especially when it’s expected of me to close the door.

If this sermon works, I would hope some of you will find yourself this week, next week, and for the rest of your lives opening your mouth and saying to others when you feel grateful, “Merci beaucoup.”

THE MEANING OF MERCY

The French word, “merci” means thanks.

It also means, “Mercy!”

The English word, “mercy” means pardon, help me, show some compassion, bear with me, be kind to me, give me a break,  please understand my situation, be lenient,  be tolerant….

However, its background is much wider and deeper and has many more meanings.

The Latin word, “Mercedes” means wages, rewards, pay me, ransom me, ….

It goes back to coming up for a word for “paying for someone” - “rescuing another”.  In a restaurant, the meal is over, who’s taking the check? Someone takes the bill and pays for all - and all say, “Merci!”

In our parish and in our high school and grammar school, the theme for this year is, “Be Witnesses of Mercy.” This year’s theme comes from the writings and thought of Pope Francis.  Show mercy.  That we be merciful towards those we need to forgive. That we be merciful to those who are stuck. That we give the coins of our pocket or some cash out of our wallet to those who are begging on our streets.

And hopeful the other says, “Merci beaucoup” or “Thanks” or “Gracias.”

Another word for what we doing this morning is, “Eucharist” - which means thanks to God.

As I said the other night at the high school Athletes’ Mass, “We see athletes on TV after a great play - raising their index finger and pointing to God. Give God the glory.” 

Well a Mass, this Mass, is our way of pointing to God and giving God the glory.

It’s a way of saying to God, “Merci beaucoup.”

THEME FOR THIS YEAR

You can see signs on our lawn - outside of school - outside our churches - that the theme for this year is to be a witness of God’s mercy.

That means this year we forgive each other. That means this year we are grateful for each other. That means this year we show mercy to others.

So this year say, “Merci beaucoup” to our maintenance people, to people who wait on us, to people who hand us a movie ticket, to those who referee our games, to those who teach us, to our parents.

This year is a year to witness the gifts of God surrounding us.

Here we are in this green setting. Here we are by the water. Here we are together on a beautiful September morning.

Let’s give God a shout out: “Merci beaucoup.”

PICTURE OF A KID

As you know there is a major crisis going on right now in Europe and the Middle East. People are escaping Syria and all kinds of other places - besides all the people from Latin America who are trying to get into our country.

On the evening news last night and in our papers today there is this picture [show picture] of this 2 year old boy, being picked up by a Turkish soldier on a beach. His father and his mother and his brother and he had gotten into a smuggler’s small fiberglass boat that held about 12 people. They wanted to to try to get to the island of Kos in Greece and then make their way to Vancouver in Canada or Sweden.  The small raft overturned and the small boy Aylan Kurdi and his brother, Galip, and their mother, Rehen, drowned. Only their father, Abdullah Kurdi lived -  but he is in despair.

Hopefully this picture and the scenes of thousands and thousands and millions of people on the move around the globe will turn the hearts of people to show mercy to these families and folks trying to find a new life.

Obviously that’s what mercy means.

We’re told in today’s gospel to turn the other cheek, to go the extra mile, to give the shirt off our back.

The call of God is that we be people of mercy - not just to opening and closing doors for others - but to open and not close our eyes and our wallets and our countries and our hearts to others.

And others in turn will not only say, “Merci beaucoup” but they too will open up their lives to others and on and on and on.

CONCLUSION

This year let’s show mercy and compassion to each other.

This year, let’s show gratitude to each other.

This year, let’s do things that will get others to say, “Merci Beaucoup.”

September 4, 2015

HOLDING ONTO

Are we what we’re holding onto?

In a way, yes, and in a way, no.

The question could lead us to

look at what we’re saving, what’s

cluttering our closets and our lives,

what we’re able to pitch and toss

and what has become part of us.

Then we realize it’s far easier to get rid

of what’s in a garage or a corner of our

bedroom near the wall. Hey we get out

on the other side of our bed anyway - so

we won’t stub our toes at 2 in the morning.

The real ugly clutter is what’s

sitting there in those old cardboard

boxes in our mind and our memory,

those mistakes we made 20 years ago,

those hurts from others that we refuse

to let go of. I don’t know about you,

but that’s the stuff I’m holding onto.

That’s the stuff that’s holding me up.

© Andy Costello, Reflections, 2015

Picture on top by Joshua Naylor.
Here he is on what he says about his art:

Cubism 2004-2005

In the summer of 2004, I began photographing my friends and family in their most private spaces.  My idea for this project was obviously inspired by the cubist paintings of Picasso and so I modeled my portraits very closely to those he painted.  I wanted to show more than what just a single photograph could show.  My attempt was to give the viewer the same scattered, cluttered vision of what someone might see if they were to reflect on a memory.  We do not simply see a stagnant image, but a fluid moving world from many different angles.  I felt that this was the best way to show a person, to show their space. The project continued to the spring of 2005 where it culminated in the piece Bereft of Lucidity which I exhibited at the 8th annual BFA Alternative Show in Bloomington, IN.  This piece, inspired by a dream, was the first piece that I had photographed many different environments to incorporate them as one image.  It measures 4' by 4' and uses real cut out photographs with varying depth to create the cubist look and feel.

September 3, 2015

SMARTLUCK

Four guys went to a meeting and

two of us didn’t. They came back

complaining, complaining, complaining:

“It went from 6 PM till 10 PM - so we

expected that there would be

at least some sandwiches. Nope.

There was only tiny smatterings

of food - crackers, cheese, broccoli,

along with long, long, long speeches”

As I was listening to the ventings,

I was looking for a word for luck,

but it had to have an ingredient

in it - for some smarts on the part

of the person who caught the break.

Couldn’t come up with a word, so I

invented my own: “Smartluck!”

I’m going to pray for a lot more.

                                                           ©  Andy Costello, Reflections, 2015

September 2, 2015

PLANES, TRAINS, BUSES

Who are you? Where are you coming from?

Business? Pleasure? Family? Silence?

Hey you never know who’s next to you?
You never know the person standing there

in front of you at the ticket counter. “Hi!”

Sometimes I ask, “Where are you headed?”

Sometimes my belly tells me, “Silence.”

Sometimes the other tells about a death

in the family or a sick brother or sister ….

Sometimes I tell the other things about me

that I didn’t even know I was thinking about.

Sometimes I realize - that night or next week -

it’s good to travel by plane, train or bus
because it's a chance to be in holy communion
with others - but sometimes I feel the long
uneasiness of an "Uh oh!" silence from another.

© Andy Costello, Reflections, 2015