February 18, 2016

“GOTCHA”

I hope I catch myself if I start to play

the game called, “Gotcha”. Why would

anyone do that to another? Why can’t

we simply say, “I don’t know!” or “I rather

not answer that.” I suppose if someone

said either of those comments, then the

other would smile and think, “Gotcha!” 

What I like about Jesus and his Father 

and their Spirit is that our God is not 

a “Gotcha God”, but a “Hold me God.”

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2016

HARD WIRED 

FOR TRANSCENDENCE

The title of my thoughts on this occasion of St. Mary’s Junior’s Ring Ceremony is, “Hard Wired for Transcendence.”[1]

I have heard that phrase before - but I never took the time to spell it  out for myself.

If St. Mary’s doesn’t spell this out - we’re in trouble.

Maybe - but then again - maybe not ….

Not if it’s true that we’re hardwired for transcendence.

I’m assuming everyone is hardwired to get what’s going on when it comes to rings.

Hardwired….

It comes from the world of electronics - where circuit boards - or computer chips are hardwired to do certain things - and do them every time with that particular circuit board or chip. That’s what we’re buying - when we buy that circuit board or chip or hard drive.

Applications can be added on to the basic hard drive and machine.

“Hardwired” is spelled as one word, or one two words hyphenated - having that little dash between the hard and the wired, or simply two words.

Then it’s metaphorically transferred to humans. Are all humans hardwired to speak, to laugh, to love, to grow, to want to learn, to explore, and to unravel the universe?

Bees are hard wired to fly, to buzz, to gather honey, Different birds are hard wired to make a certain pattern of chirps.

The title of my reflection here is: “Hard Wired for Transcendence.”

Transcendence - looking up - seeing the invisible in the visible - seeing the divine in the vine. Surprise water is changed into wine every day.

Seeing surprise. Seeing God in the birds of the air - 1000 swallows over a winter field on the road to Ocean City.  Blue Angell pilots can only envy what they can do.  Did you ever see through your front windshield three flocks merge into one and come out the other side three flocks again. How do they know.

Transcendence - trans across - ascent - up - climbing up - needed, celebrated, appreciated - especially when we’re down.

The plane takes off from BWI - runs like an athlete down the runway and then leaps and jumps into the sky - carrying the crowd with it.

Today we’re thinking about rings.

There is a world of difference between a ring in a jewelry store window and a ring on a finger.

There is a world of difference between a ring on a finger and it’s lost and it’s looked for and it’s found a month later. There is a world of difference between a newlyweds wedding ring and a grandparents wedding ring.

Have you ever seen a widow wearing her husband’s wedding ring on a gold chain around her neck?  If she’s your mom or aunt or grandmother look at it and say, “Tell me the story!”

Transcendence, takes us beyond the visible.

Transcendence leads us to story.

Transcendence leads us to awe, oooh, wow. woo moments.

We’re hard wired for transcendence.

So simply savor today - the simplicity and the sacredness of the moment.

Twist your ring around and around and around - and let it take you through the years ahead. Amen.

NOTE

[1] I noticed this phrase "hard wired for transcedence in a letter by Moira T Carley in the British magazine, The Tablet, page 17, August 8, 2015. Here's the Letter in its entirety, 

Heaney's instinct for grace

I am grateful for Eamon Duffy’s words on the Catholic imagination of Seamus Heaney. (“All God and no religion”, 27 June).  A friend introduced me to Heaney’s poetry in the 1980’s when he was teaching at Harvard and I was a student there. My doctoral work was to apply Canadian philosopher theologian Bernard Lonergan’s thought on learning to the practice of teaching. It was a tough slog but I did it - thanks to the poetry of Heaney which often became my ballast reading, nourishing my imagination after a tough day with Lonergan. I understood that both men were coming from the same conviction that all humans are hard wired for transcendence. I also understood that the inevitability of form needs both creative expressions. Later, I was able to pass on this insight to many of my university students.

I finally met Heaney in person in 2002 in Montreal. When I thanked him for writing: “whatever is given can be re-imagined”, he twinkled this reply: “I kinda like that one myself.” Reading Duffy’s words crediting Heaney's poetic expression of events “that catch the heart off guard and blow it open” as “as eloquent an utterance as we are likely to have about the meaning of what a Christian might call the work of grace” reminded me of something Lonergan wrote. “The experience of grace … is the experienced of a transformation one did not bring about but rather underwent … as it lets one’s circumstances shift, one dispositions change, new encounters occur, and - so gently and quietly - one’s heart be touched.”

February 17, 2016

CAUGHT

Fish don’t see that hook,

just the worm - the fly - so too

the comment another makes.

We bite. We jump. We’re caught.

Every time…. When will I learn

not to take the bait - and just

continue to enjoy

the river -  the pond - the lake?

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2016

February 16, 2016

STILL AROUND

  

Potato peels sticking to the inside of a big blue

plastic garbage can. The rest of the potato is
gone. It had made the cut. It was mashed - 
with some milk - and then big spooned  into a solid white porcelain bowl and placed next 
to the pot roast on the big white table cloth - along with everything that made up a great
big delicious Sunday evening family dinner.

Back to the potato peels sticking to the

inside of that big blue plastic garbage can.

There they stayed for 3 more days. The next
time they slid out of the can and into the garbage truck - and then headed to  the garbage dump.

Those peels are still there in the dump -

two years now - dried up, rained on, covered over, still existing, still lasting. The mashed

potatoes. They were delicious - but soon forgotten by 6:30  PM that Sunday eve.

As it stands - if I had a choice - I’d want to be

a potato peel - still wondering what my future is -

what will happen before I disappear into this land

fill or _____________________________?  

At least I’m still around after all these years.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2016

THE  MEETING

There are all kinds of meetings - every day - all around the world.

Friends have coffee or lunch together. Buddies meet to plan an upcoming Pop Warner Football season. Families get together for a cruise to celebrate their parents 50^th anniversary. Engineers, architects, surgeons, get together for every week as well as their annual meeting every year in some great spot or city.

There are all kinds of meetings - every day - all around the world.

Most, 999 out a 1,000 meetings we never hear about. There might be minutes, decisions, announcements, but no - not our luck to know what happened.

There are secret meetings. There are public meetings. There are boring meetings. There are meetings that fail. A couple finally see a marriage counselor - but one of the spouses refuses to communicate.

So I was surprised - and not so surprised - when I accidentally heard in today’s first reading from Isaiah about a meeting God had with his creations that took place out there in the open fields.

The rain was asked: “What do you do?”

The snow was asked, “What do you do?”

The seeds were asked, “What do you do?”

And words were asked, “What do you do?”

Give an account of your stewardship.

“Well,” said the rain. “I don’t know why you ask me. I fill 78 percent of the earth with water,  so people can sail the oceans. I give water to drink - from rivers, lakes, reservoirs, and wells. I help crops grow - in fields, backyards. I am part of everyone. If they get dehydrated - they come looking for me.”

The snow said, “I don’t get as good a press and publicity as rain. I’m slower, colder, and often avoided. That is, unless someone is a skier or the manager of reservoir in Nevada or California - that needs all the water it can get. I can be beautiful. I know you can’t eat beautiful,   but snow is like that frost on the top shelf of so many refrigerators - that keep ice cream cold. I’m mostly quiet - quiet like the North and South Poles. It’s in reserve - for years to come. Right now with global warming - people are starting to notice the gift in the wings that I can be - especially as polar caps collapse.

The seeds were ready and willing to speak up. “We seeds work together with farmers and the soil, the earth, along with water and the sun and in time you can see what we can  be - what we can become. Trees, wheat, barley, rye, potatoes, grapes, wine, strawberries, people.” Ooops I can become bread and surprise: Eucharist.

Words came last. Everyone was listening to what the words were about to say. “I know some  people can be all talk - and not message.  I know people can babble - as when some people pray - without thinking a word about what they are praying. But words can be inspirational. Words can be prayers as in the Our Father.  And surprise: the word became flesh and lived/lives amongst us.

THE GOLDEN RULE

[Today’s  two  readings for this First Monday in Lent have some great specific and practical stuff on how to love one another. And did you notice at the end of today’s first reading, we have one version of the Golden Rule: Love your neighbor as yourself. So this morning I decided on writing a short simple story called, “The Golden Rule.” Cf. Leviticus 19:1-2, 11-18 and Matthew 25: 31-36.]

When Jack’s father died, Jack got to give his father’s eulogy.

He had 3 or 4 days to think about it and he typed into his computer page after page of wonderful stories about how great a guy his dad was - being so kind to everyone he met.

He wrote down things like, “Once the whole family was in the car and we were heading home from Sunday Mass. It was a really nasty winter day. Suddenly dad pulled the car to the curb and stopped. All of us in the car were wondering what he was about to do.

“He opened up the car door. The wind was howling. Standing there in the cold  he took his overcoat off. He had spotted a homeless guy who only had a flannel shirt on. He walked over and put the coat on the guy and handed him a $20.  Didn’t say a word. Headed back to our car. Pulled away from the curb and continued on our way home.”

He had pages and pages and pages of stories just like that one.

His dad was something else. Then he began to think about his father being a man of few words. “KISS - Keep it Simple Stupid” would be a life principle for him. But he never heard his dad say that - but his dad lived that message.

What his dad did say and say often was, “The Golden Rule.”

So to keep it simple and to say very little at his dad’s funeral,  Jack said something like the following.

“Good Morning. Thank you for being here at our dad’s funeral.

“Our dad was a man of few words - but a man of lots of action.

“Ever since we were little kids he would say to us, ‘The Golden Rule.’

“At first we didn’t know what that meant - but in time we knew exactly what those three words, “The Golden Rule” meant.

“After Mass someone would say, “That was a long llllllllooooonggg sermon.”

“And sometimes our dad would respond, ‘The Golden Rule.’

“We didn’t know if he meant, ‘Stop complaining. You wouldn’t want people complaining about you, would you?’ or ‘The priest took 15 minutes to say, “The Golden Rule.”’

“So to keep it simple and to sum it all up,  our dad was The Golden Rule - or our dad taught us the Golden Rule.

“Do good stuff to others because wouldn’t you like good stuff to happen to you and don’t do things that hurt others, because who wants to be hurt. Amen!”

Then Jack went back down to his bench in church - first touching his dad’s casket - saying under  his breath, “Thanks dad, thank.”

February 15, 2016

THE BEST AND THE WORST

The Bible and the Street - in fact, every conversation -

tells us the Best and the Worst - is always on the edge

of everything. Let’s be honest - there are moments in

the mix of every day - when we feel the Best and the

Worst. We can laugh and give another a compliment

or  - we can let slide out of the side of our mouth - a
slur or a slight put down - to bring down another - who seems too big for themselves lately - or we just don't like them and we don't care to know why - or
we don't know why we do the Big Nasty. War or Peace - the Best or the Worst - is never too far away from us.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2016