TOUCHING  HIS  CLOAK 

INTRODUCTION

The title for my homily this Fourth of July is, “Touching His Cloak.”

WHO TOUCHED US?  MATTHEW  9:  18 - 26

In today’s gospel a woman says to herself, “If only I can touch his cloak, I shall be healed.”

She does and she is healed.

The young girl whom all thought dead is healed as well.

In this homily I want to touch upon, “Who touched us? Who healed us? Who helped us? Who got us to where we have gotten?

FOURTH OF JULY

It’s July 4^th and today we celebrate a national holiday. We celebrate the day the Declaration of Independence was signed by some brave people.

Four were from Maryland: Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone and Charles Carroll of Carrollton and Annapolis.

This morning I sat down and read the Declaration of Independence. It’s only 1,458 words. 

As I read it, I was touching history.

I could touch the words. They could touch me.

And I got in touch with the grievances of those who decided to revolt.

I read about the British practices and policies which they declared unfair.

It was like the time I read a whole book, Paddy’s Lament - by Thomas Gallagher.  It got me in touch with world history. It got me in touch with why the Irish rebelled against the British in the Easter Uprising and gained their freedom - for most of their counties. That book gave me an understanding that I didn’t have before. It got me in touch with the horror of unjustice and genocide.

When I read the declaration of Independence today, I got me in touch with a gripe the colonists had with the British that comes up at various times in our history. It is the attempt to stop immigration to this country.

For example, it states that the King, “has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.”

Those who have that gripe today - need to read the Declaration of Independence. They need to go to Liberty Island and read Emma Lazarus’ poem at the base of the Statue of Liberty. They need to go to Ellis Island and ponder the photographs and the stories of how the United States became the United States - because of immigration.

For the sake of transparency, my parents were immigrants and they spoke another language, besides English.

I didn’t like the Declaration of Independence’s take on our native Americans, but other than that, I was in on their take on grievances against the British.

Reading, meeting, experiencing life - we get in touch what we like and dislike, what we sense is right and what is wrong.

It’s good for our psyche and our soul to have historic days like today - to keep us in touch with who we are and where we come from.

LOU GEHRIG

I noticed on line today - that on July 4^th,  1939, Lou Gehrig gave perhaps the greatest sports speech yet. It was labeled the Gettysburg Address of Sports. It was only 453 words long.

They don't have the whole speech on line, but they do have the most memorable line, "Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the planet."

Lou Gehrig is also first generation American - his parents Henrich and Christina Gehrig were immigrants from Germany.

The comment about his short speech, comparing it, to Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. got me to go and read that as well. Like Lou Gehrig’s speech it too is quite short: 278 words - compared to Lou Gehrig’s speech which was 453 words long.

I knew that speech was somehow connected to July 4^th - only to discover it was given that November 19, 1863 - but the Battle of Gettysburg was from July 1, 2, 3, 1863.

I began thinking about how important short speeches are. They touch us a lot more than long, long speeches. That’s a message for me to hear. I remember hearing the Everett who gave the main memorial speech that day at Gettysburg, spoke 2 hours and his speech was 13,607 words.

TOUCHED

In this sermon or homily on the Fourth of July I’m wondering - because of gospel I read - about who touched us.

Obviously, being an American makes us proud - and thankful - for all those who built our country - all those who served our country - all those who still guide and guard our country.

What touches us?

What leaders touch us?

It’s easy to  be negative and find public figures who keep the talk shows going. Who are the positive leaders? I’ve met folks who talk about civic leaders who impressed them.

At 18 - this was in the late 1950’s - I was in Washington D.C. and they had the U. S. Senate hearings on labor racketeering and my brother Billy brought me to see the action. Up front were Bobby and John Kennedy and I remember when they were leaving the room, I reached out and touched Bobby Kennedy’s sleeve. And when he was killed, it did a number on me.

What life experiences have touched us?

What words of Jesus touch us?

What touching Jesus moments in Holy Communion have changed our lives?

What did our parents, others, who were they, who touched us and changed our lives?

Who touches us the wrong way.

Do we have the loving touch of Jesus?

Do people who touch our lives discover healing.

CONCLUSION

I stood at the Lincoln Memorial in D.C. and also the Vietnam wall and I was touched. I’ve heard the Lou Gehrig line about being the luckiest person in the whole world - and was deeply touched.

Great people touch our lives.

Is there anyone who met us and they were touched for the better - because of our words and because of our goodness?


NOTES:

Picture on top - Woman touching the cloak of Jesus - found in the catacombs of Marcelinus and Peter, Rome.

July 4th, 2016

DEPENDENCE  DAY 

Happy Dependence Day!

It’s a great day when we realize

we depend upon one another.

We needed a mom and dad

for a ticket to ride…. this great

planet we’re going around and

around on - over and over again.

Happy Dependence Day!

It’s a great day when we realize

we depend upon all those who

have gone before us - all those

inventors, all those immigrants,

all those imaginators - and all

those who made us who we are.

Happy Dependence Day!

It’s a great day when we realize

we have a great model here in the

United States - stress on united -

in hopes that by some July 4^th in

the future, we’ll have a real

United Nations, a real United World.

Happy Dependence Day!

Okay, you want me to say,
"Happy Interdependence Day!"

Not yet, sorry!

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2016

July 3, 2016

CIRCLE   SIX  

[SELF-TEST #21]

Sensitive, silent, smart, stupid, smooth, stormy,

self-centered, sexy, sour, suspicious, standout,

settled, sturdy, shoddy, stuck, shifty, significant,

scared, sacred, sinful, strange, secondary, star, social, sledgehammer, straightforward, secure,
struggling, successful, sullen, sterile, sergeant, sweet, sure, swagger, server, silk, slick, snob,

shrugging, sleepy, soft, shameful, stinger, steel,

sinister, splashy, stubborn, stalling, solitary, sad, singing, sophisticated, skillful, status quo, strong, sinister, slacker, sulking, scientific, somebody .... 

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2016

MARKS  ON  OUR  MEMORY

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 14^th Sunday in Ordinary Time [C] is, “Marks On Our Memory.”

Marks - nicks, smudges, dents, scars, graffiti….  

I read today’s readings a couple of times - to get a theme to think about - and to preach about. 

A comment in the second reading from Paul in his letter to the Christian community in Galatia hit me: “From now on, let no one make troubles for me, for I bear the marks of Jesus on my body.”

So that’s where I got the title and theme for this homily entitled, “Marks on Our Memory.”

What’s Paul saying there?  Is it the same message a mother says when a kid is driving her crazy: “Hey I still have the stretch marks from when I was pregnant with you. I still have the wrinkles from when I worried many a sleepless night about you - when you were sick as a kid - and when you were a teenager.”

I suppose St. Paul was thinking about all the cuts and bruises he got - ever since he started his journey to bring Christ to the world - that he too has experienced a daily way of the cross. In 2 Corinthians 11:25 he says, “Five times I had the 39 lashes from the Jews; three times I have been beaten with sticks; once they threw stones at me; three times I have been shipwrecked and once adrift in the open sea for a night and a day.”

Talk about marks - scars - memories….  Life.

MARKED FOR LIFE

If we think about it, daily living brings daily struggles; daily struggles bring cuts;  and cuts leave scars.  

If we think about it, we are marked for life from where we’ve been and what we’ve been through. We have cuts and scars, dents and scratches, on the skin of our soul - on the places we have been.

We notice that first dent, that first bump, that first scratch on a new car.

We kneel there at the dead body of a loved one in a casket - in the funeral parlor and we’re saying a Hail Mary for them using the rosary in their hands and we notice a scar on the back of their right hand. We think, “I wonder what happened there.”

The next time you’re in someone’s house, sit there and look around at all you can see in the room you’re in: photographs on end tables, paintings on the wall, knick knacks on book shelves - and then there is the water stain up there in the corner of the ceiling or a dark spot on a rug.

I wonder what happened there. I wonder why that picture is there.

As Forest Gump said, “It happens.”

In today’s first reading from Isaiah he tells Jerusalem to rejoice in all the good things that happened there. Other writings could talk about the bad things that happened in Jerusalem through the years  - the pockmarks of war on her walls, the houses that caved in, the loose bricks on her sidewalks.

Life is the lifting of a glass of wine in celebration at a sidewalk café - seeing the beauty of a city or downtown area with folks walking by with ice cream in hand. It’s also the “Uh oh’s!” and the “Oh no’s!” of broken pipes and shootings and signs telling us that a road is closed for maintenance.

Today’s gospel has Jesus sending out his disciples - 72 of them - and Jesus says bring peace, bring healing, and eat with the folks who feed you. But some folks might not be so peaceful, so shake the dust of that place off your feet and move on. There are plenty more places than this place.

NOT SO EASY

The title of my homily is, “Marks on Our Memory.”

Sometimes the magic marker graffiti of a 3 year old doesn’t come off.
Sometimes the spaghetti stains can’t be removed even with Magic Off Whitener. Sometimes when we’re waiting for medical results at 66 we worry about a mistake we made when we were 26.

It’s hard to forget our mistakes. It’s easy to regret our mistakes.

Who said we have to forget our mistakes?  Who said forgetting is part of forgiving? Forgetting is part of dementia and aging.

So we have our demons and our dust…. We have our snakes and our scorpions…. There are lambs - but there are also wolves.

So life is mixed. But we seem to remember - and spot our chips and our cracks more than  the perfect wall or rug. In this homily I’m stressing seeing and celebrating them - because they are who we are and how we got here.

A WONDERFUL STORY

In my last assignment - preaching parish missions out of St. Gerard’s Parish in Lima, Ohio, I was driving to the next parish with Tom, the priest I worked with for 8 ½ years.

In the car on the way he told me three stories he had - and asked me which of the three should he use.

He told me 3 stories he found. I listened while driving.

He finished # 3 and I screamed, “The second one. Use the second one.”

Here’s the story that he told. It went something like this.  I don’t know who wrote it - or who told it - but it was a gift to me that trip - down a highway of life.

Every week or so, two good friends would sit down in the afternoon, have a cup of tea and talk some sweet talk about their lives with each other.

They both were farmer’s wives.

The visitor was sitting there and the phone rang. When the lady who lived in the home answered the phone, the other lady stood up to stretch and just happened to look into the dining room.

“Ooops,” she said.

The lady who lived there said it was her husband who just called to tell her he’d be home 15 minutes late for dinner.

The visitor said, “I’m sorry. It looks like you’re having guests in for supper and here I am talking away.”

“No,” said the lady. “It’s only us for supper tonight.”

“Well, why is the dining room table all set up.”

“Oh,” she answered, “We always have one big fancy dinner one night every month and tonight’s the night.”

“And I put out our best china and best silverware - best cloth napkins - and one favorite meal of someone.”

By now both were in the dining room and the visitor was admiring the best of everything on the dining room table - including crystal candle ware.

Then the lady who lived there said, “Everything on the table has a story. Some of these plates go back to my great, great grandparents.”

Then she stopped at her place and said, “And here is my favorite plate.”

It was a plain white plate - but it had a piece missing along the rim.

She had a beautiful smile on her face as she said, “Let me tell you the story about this plate.”

I was 17 at the time. It was a summer evening and my dad and my three brothers and a buddy of one of my brothers was standing there with them ready for supper.

They were haying and they were going to go back out after supper for another two hours of work. It was Daylight’s Saving Time and there would still be plenty of light for work and it would be cooler.

Well, I had never seen this buddy of my youngest brother before. He introduced this young man to me and winked at me and made me sit next to him at this dining room table.

During the meal my brother was trying to bust me about this guy.

At one point my brother handed me the heavy cold water with ice pitcher and said pointing to his buddy on the other side of me, “Fill his glass with more water.”

I did, but nervously…. Putting the pitcher back down on the table,  I put it down onto my plate and chipped the edge of the plate. People were talking and laughing and I didn’t think anyone noticed it.

First chance I got when supper was over, I got this plate back into the kitchen. Phew.

Then the boys and my dad went back to work on this farm.

I was in the kitchen. My brother came in with his buddy and said, “Aren’t you going to say ‘Goodbye to Tom.”

I did. He held out his hand to shake it goodbye and when he did he put the tiny chip from my plate in my hand and smiled.

Then after a long pause the woman told her visiting friend, “That chip of china is upstairs in my jewelry box and Tom and I were married a year later.”

CONCLUSION

The title of my homily is, “Marks on Our Memory.”

We all have the same story. Chips and pieces from the breaks of our lives - splinters from the crosses of your lives - are in our box in the upper room of our skull - and they are all part of whom we have become.

I think that’s what Paul is telling us in today’s second reading - but it’s good to check out and read and tell our story to another - like the 72 disciples in today’s gospel who came back to Jesus - to tell him what happened in their journey.  

Two by two…. sound familiar?  Any couples here?

July 2, 2016

FABRIC, THE BACK OF….

In a garden - I  stopped to touch

the white fabric of a rose - only to

see directly below - sitting there

at the roots of that rose bush -

the rough hard back of a turtle….

Wow the difference between the

top of a turtle and the fabric of

a rose - between the back of the

neck of a  laughing kid on a swing

and the back skin of that old guy I just

saw in the nursing home heading back

to his room in his open backed johnny.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2016

YOU  GOTTA  LAUGH,

YOU  GOTTA  CRY,

YOU  GOTTA  BEND, 

AND  THEN  YOU  DIE.

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 13 Friday in Ordinary Time is, “You Gotta Laugh, You Gotta Cry, You Gotta Bend, and Then You Die.”

That’s a wisdom statement. That’s a description of ways to deal with life.

FIRST STORY

For starters I like to tell a story that I love. It’s about attitude. It’s about how we see life - how we see where we are - and how we think.

A man is walking down a road and comes to a town.

He spots a man raking his lawn and he goes over to the man and says, “I’m on the road and I’m looking for a place to settle. I’m wondering what kind of town this is. What’s it like around here?”

The guy with the rake asks the man, “Where are you coming from?”

The traveler says, “From a town a few hundred miles away from here.”

“Well” says the man with the rake, “what was it like where you come from?”

The traveler says, “Oh it was a horrible place. That’s why I left there. Everyone there was selfish and self-centered. People talked about people behind their back. You had to lock your door all the time. Just not that nice a place to be.”

“Well,” says the man with the rake, “I suppose you’ll find the same sort of folks here.”

“Thank you,” says the man on the road, “Thank you. I guess I’ll just keep traveling around till I find the right place.”

Twenty minutes later another man comes down that same road into that same town and goes over to the same man and asks the same question. “Hey mister, I’m looking around for a place to settle. What’s this town like?”

And the man with the rake asks the same question, “Well what was it like in the place you’re coming from.”

“Oh, it was wonderful,” says the traveler. “I loved the place. Good people there. You never had to lock your door. People would watch out for people. However, the company I was working for downsized, so I had to get moving to try to find a job somewhere.”

“Well,” said the man with the rake, “I suppose you’ll find the same kinds of folks here.”

“Oh, thank you,” said the man on the road. “I walk on in and give it a try.”

ATTITUDE

That’s a story about attitude. The town is in the mind of the beholder.

In this homily or reflection I want to talk about attitude. Stepping back thoughts about dealing with life.

I like to stress the importance of altitude effecting attitude.

If we stay low - hiding out in corners and watching TV and not getting out  and getting high on the good stuff of life - then we stay low, down, and we can end being a depressive.

Jesus told us to climb mountains - become transfigured - otherwise we get disfigured - disgusted - distrustful about life.

So it’s good to go to the movies, take hikes, see plays, go to concerts, take a good vacation, climb a mountain.

Altitude effects attitude.

SECOND STORY

I was talking to a Protestant minister recently and he said he was fed up with the struggles within his community - and he was seriously thinking of becoming a Catholic.

So I said to him - without telling the first story - that he’ll find in the Catholic Church - the same struggles he finds in his Protestant Church.

I added that I live with 10 priests - and we are across the board with different takes on different issues.

TODAY’S READINGS

You gotta laugh, you gotta cry, you gotta bend and then you die.

In today’s gospel Jesus calls Matthew a tax collector - who stands up and follows Jesus - then he throws a great dinner for Jesus to show him off to other tax collectors and sinners and the funny thing is the Pharisees - instead of rejoicing that they are not going to be taxed by Matthew any more - scream, “Your teacher eats with tax collectors and sinners.”

You gotta laugh at that. You gotta cry at that. We have to bend and see ourselves as Pharisees, as Sinners, taxing others with our complaints.

And in today’s first reading from Amos you gotta laugh at the comment where baldness comes from: cheating in the marketplace. You gotta cry that some are ripping off the poor - fixing the scales - adding to the weights.

JUNIPERO SERRA

Today is the feast of Saint Junipera Serra.

You gotta laugh, you gotta cry, you gotta bend when it comes to Saint Junipera Serra.

He and the Franciscans are responsible in big part for a whole series of missions in California and down into Mexico. San Diego, Los Angeles and all those other San Cities that got their names because of these Spanish Missionaries. 

You gotta laugh on how they plowed a great future. You gotta cry that much was at the native people’s expense. You gotta scream at those who complained at Serra’s tactics - rough at times - and if all this was done today, it would be all very different.

You gotta say that much is hindsight!

Just as the Book of Genesis could not be written back then with what we know now - so too the Franciscan Missions.

Once while in Tucson I got in on a trip to Magdalena Mexico with a reporter, a photographer and a priest. We went down to a shrine there of a Jesuit - I think it was Father Kino - but because the Jesuits were repressed sometime back then - the habit on the Jesuit - was switched to that of a Franciscan.

You gotta laugh at that.

I was told to climb the steps up onto this platform that held a statue of the Jesuit priest dressed in a Franciscan habit. Each pilgrim had to move along towards the head of the statue. The legend was that one then had to put their hand to the back of the neck of the statue and if you could not pick it up, you were in mortal sin.

The photographer and the reporter were off to the side ready to take my picture. I could not lift it. I took my other hand and got Father Kino by the neck and lifted him.

Snap. Snap. Picture. Picture. Me with a great smile.

CONCLUSION

Moral of the story: when it comes to religion, when it comes to life, you have to laugh, you have to cry, you have to bend, and then you die.

July 1, 2016

THE EYE

We get amazed at the latest iPhone,

cellphone, car, restaurant, song, but

fail to see the capabilities of the eye -

that is - until we begin looking into

the eye of another - regularly - until

they become our beloved.  It’s then

we discover the reality of other - and

when we do - we’re on the way out of
seeing it's not all about me, myself and
I - but it's about seeing the human race -
and seeing ourselves in the eye of God

and sometimes it’s the other way around.

  

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2016