TOUCHING  THE  MOON

I was standing there at the Smithsonian

National Air and Space Museum in

Washington, D.C. and I saw a piece

of the moon on display. Wow! I was

able to touch the moon. How about that?

We humans took home 840 pounds 
of the moon from our expeditions there. 
Along with millions of other people, I got a 
chance to touch a tiny sliver of the moon.

I got to touch a piece of the rock. It

triggered a million thoughts. 
Millions of rocks are everywhere: 
diamonds, parts of bridges, walls, 
homes, sidewalks. Then there were 
the rocks men were going to throw 
at that woman caught in adultery.

Jesus challenged them that day and

they dropped the rocks and walked away.

In the meanwhile, I guess I prefer a clear

black sky, a bright white moon, things
undisturbed, blessed assurance, looking
for calm in a Sea of Tranquility with peace

and beauty as the bedrocks of my mind.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2016
I took both pictures off the Internet,
the moon rock piece from the Smithsonian
Air and Space Museum Website.

THE   PAUSE 

THAT  SAVES   LIFE

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 2^nd Friday in Ordinary Time is, “The Pause That Saves.”

I like that we human beings have the ability to pause.

I like that we human beings can take the time to stop and think - and also to pray - for light and insight - in cloudy moments.

I like that we human beings have the ability to choose.

Is that what makes us different than the animals?

WOOF!  WOOF!

Father Tizio’s dog, a pug named Wilber, comes into our dining room every morning and he knows where the Cheerios are. It’s in a cabinet below a counter. When someone opens up that cabinet where the cereals are, Wilber puts his two front paws on the edge of shelf - anxious, anxious, anxious - for his fix of food - for a handful of Cheerios.

As that cabinet is opened I see Wilber standing on his back two legs and his 2 front paws reaching up to that shelf I often say to myself, “Here’s a proof for evolution.” At some point humans stopped crawling and started standing, reaching for the higher fruits and berries.

FOOD: THE PAUSE THAT SAVES

Speaking of food, the title of my homily is, “The Pause That Saves Life.”

Human beings have more choice than animals when it comes to food. If we’re diabetic, or we’re on a diet - or if we have to watch salt - then there’s that pause - then there’s that guilt voice that says, “You can’t have that.”

We don’t have to overeat or over sugar or coffee or salt.

We have the power of pause.

TODAY’S FIRST READING

I love today’s first reading. Every one of us at times are looking for a bathroom. It could be on the road or at the mall or at a wedding. We ask, “Could you tell me where the ladies room is? Where there’s a bathroom?”

In today’s first reading from 1^st Samuel 24: 3-21, David finds a cave along the way just for that purpose. It’s a have to and a want to.

While in the back of the cave, surprise, Saul enters the cave and David and his men see that it’s a chance for David to kill Saul.

Instead - in that darkish cave, they choose to sneak up and cut off a piece of Saul’s mantle. They have the thought to kill Saul - yet they pause and think about it and they don’t.

It’s right there that I got the thought for this homily.

THE POWER OF PAUSE

We have the power of pause.

We have the power of second thoughts - not just first immediate reactions.

We can step back and think.

In sermons I like to stress getting in touch with that moment called, “The Pause!” 

We get it when someone mentions Person X - and we know Gossip Y - and we hear an inner voice that says, “Don’t say it!” Our conscience says, “It’s wrong to talk about people behind their back.”

We have that power called “The Pause” when have to decide to cancel going out in the snow storm or not.

To eat that second piece of pie…. To sit there instead of doing some walking and exercising…. To help our neighbor …. To shovel our neighbor’s steps - hey she’s all alone and she’s an 83 year old lady.

CONCLUSION

Today is Pro Life Day.

Today we proclaim the power of human life - the sacredness of human life.

We hope we’re planting in the womb of human brains - the seed of the value of human life and the life sentence, “Hey I got the gift of life. Thanks mom and dad. Maybe someone else would want it too."

January 21, 2016

WHO, WHAT, WHEN,

WHERE, WHY AND HOW?

Be who you is, because if you be

who you ain’t,  then you ain’t who you is.

Be aware of what you’re doing, because if you

don’t, then you don't know what you're doing.

Be in the present moment, when  you’re in the

present moment, but use both your past

experiences and your future hopes to make

the present moment that much better.

Be where you is, because  if you be where

you ain’t,  then you ain’t where you is.

Be aware of why you’re doing what you’re doing

- because if you don't, then you might have dishonesty and self-destruction in your why.

Be aware of how you do things, but keep

learning from your successes and failures and

watch and learn how others do the same thing.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2016

January 20, 2016

TWO  WAY  STREET

Appreciating, recognizing,

respecting, listening, trying

to understand you. Help.

I can’t do all of this alone.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2016

ANOINTING

INTRODUCTION

The title of  my  homily for this 2^nd Tuesday in Ordinary Time is, “Anointing.”

TODAY’S FIRST READING

Here in today’s first reading from the First Book of Samuel 16: 1-13, Samuel is told to “fill your horn with oil” and  anoint as king - the one I have chosen to take over after Saul’s death.

I remember attending an evening lecture by a rabbi in New York City. It was all about David. The speaker gave example after example, how descendent and followers of  David - gave him great press in the Jewish Bible - which we call the Old Testament. The main thought from this rabbi in his talk was: the power of the pen in rewriting history.

Today’s story is great storytelling.  I love the question: “Are these all the sons you have?”  I can hear the brothers standing there saying, “What are we chopped liver?”

In today’s reading we hear all about how kings were anointed in Saul and David’s time. Part of the ceremony was an anointing with oil.

And this practice of anointing will flow into our scriptures, the New Testament, when the authors want to present Jesus  as the new David.  Notice Bethlehem in today’s first reading from the first Book of Samuel.

CHRIST MEANS ANOINTED

And we know that Christ means the Christened One - the Anointed One.

And we know that at our baptism - our Christening - oil is used  - not just water. In baptism, we are anointed two times with oil. Then there is another anointing at our confirmation in our faith.

THE STUFF OF CEREMONY

We know that as humans we are ceremony people.

We kiss babies. We baptize babies. We shake hands, bow or hug when we meet. We have symbolic ways of swearing someone in as president or mayor or head of the Elks or Knights of Columbus.

We have all been at ceremonies where set gestures and behaviors take place. We’ve seen presidents sworn - one hand raised, one hand on a Bible - as well as some in a jury room.

OIL FOR EXAMPLE

And if we think about it, symbols and gestures need to fit what they symbolize - with what's going on - with what's taking place.

Think about oil: what it is, what it does.

Oil helps machines work better.

Oil is also healing agent.

Go into any CVS store and you’ll see all kinds of hand creams, lip balm, oils for healing. Our hands get chapped during this cold weather and we go to that section of the store for something with oil and the healing magic in it.

I’m sure they find some kind of oil on the hands and feet of these bodies from 5000 BC in frozen tundras of northern Norway or Siberia.

As priest it means a lot to me to visit someone who is sick and anoint them.

But like receiving Communion or doing a funeral or a wedding, a religious ceremony that uses oil, the oil has to fit the reality of being touched and anointed.

CONCLUSION

In other words, as we heard in today's first reading, what is going on must be more than appearance, but from the heart. As we heard in today's gospel, we don't do things to enhance and to keep some law, but we do what brings new life. Amen.

January 19, 2016

CLING

Whether we like it or not,

whether we agree with it or not,

all our comments, all our words,

carry cling. Our sounds, our face,

our way of saying words - are loaded

with the glue of baggage and memory.

Psst! That’s how we hear each other.

How about this comment here?

What does it trigger for you? Any

comments? Any words in return?

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2016

HOW  SPECIFIC 

IS  GOD’S  WILL? 

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this Monday in the Second Week in Ordinary time is, “How Specific Is God’s Will?”

I think this is a lifetime question.

How specific, how particular, is God’s Will for us?

TODAY’S READINGS

When we read or hear the Bible - like at the readings at Mass - it seems God’s will is very specific.

Like these readings from the First Book of Samuel - we’ve  been hearing right now - these days at weekday Masses. Samuel gets specific orders from God. Saul - now gets specific orders from God.

Like today Samuel tells Saul that God wants him to destroy and to exterminate the Amalekites.

We seemed shocked when we hear about people killing people - claiming God wants them to do it. We wonder about their scriptures. I remember when I started reading the Koran - and I started noticing how many times the book has Allah - God - saying, “Burn! Destroy! Kill!”  Then I began to notice how many times our scriptures states that same message.

It’s enough to shake our faith. I hope it’s enough to shake up our brains - till we become thinking people.

I would think that someone who is a peace officer should try to stop someone who is trying to destroy someone else. If it could be done without killing the killer, good, but….

I would think the same of someone in the military - but there better be a lot of thinking and diplomacy and study - before entering into battle.

Today’s gospel - Mark 2: 18-22 - has the question of fasting. Is it God’s will to call people to fast - like we have Lent coming up soon. It’s early this year.

Is fasting and abstaining and religious sacrifices for God or for us?

Didn’t Jesus say something like that when it comes to observing the Sabbath?

When I’m with young couples who are planning to get married, we go through a questionnaire. I ask couples if they are getting married in church because they want it, or to make their parents happy. I often say, “In my opinion, I think there’s something wrong or funny if people go to church growing up to make their parents happy and then go to church to give good example to their kids. I assume the message is to go to Church because you have the gift of faith and you see this is good for you and your spouse and your kids if you’re blessed with them. I like to add that I hope being a Christian, being a Catholic, is what you want  - and that you’re a thinking Catholic.

GOD’S WILL

God’s will, what God wants, to me is quite a thinking question.

My first question is the title of this homily: “How Specific Is God’s Will?”

To me the answer is the  question and the answer of the Rich Young Man who came to Christ and asked, “What must I do to gain eternal life?”

To me he is asking, “What’s the  secret of life? What’s the meaning of life?”

And I hear a very simple answer, “To love the Lord my God with my whole heart, mind, soul and spirit - and to love my neighbor as myself.”

Whether we should marry so and so - move to such and such a place - that to me leads me to a God like a dad or a mom who says, “Son, daughter, we just want you to be happy and have a great life - making life making sense for you and for the good of others.”

I have heard some unhappy people who do everything to please others and they end up being miserable themselves.

I like a lot of what Martin Luther King Jr. said.

For example, "The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was: 'If i stop to help this man, what will happen to me?' But ... the Good Samaritan reversed the question: 'If i do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?'"

For example,  "Whatever your life's work is, do it well. A man should do his job so well the living, the dead and the unborn could do it no better."

For example, “If a man has not discovered something that he will die for, he isn't fit to live.”

CONCLUSION

Today’s gospel talks about the new.

Each of us is a new creation - called to do the new thing we have been created for.

What is that? That new specific is up to us to find - to discover - and to dream and to do.

Martin Luther King Jr. challenges the silent - the complacent - those who don’t climb mountains - and look down on life - and see where we can make a difference - and make things better. He died in Memphis - killed assassinated - as he was trying to make life better for those who picked up  garbage -  killed I’m sure because someone thought that was the right thing to do. I don’t know if they thought it was God’s will. I hope not.