THE  MIND  OF  GOD 

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 22^nd Tuesday in Ordinary Time is, “The Mind of God.”

Today’s first reading ends with these two comments: "For 'who has known the mind of the Lord, so as to counsel him?' But we have the mind of Christ." [Cf. 1st Corinthians 2: 10-16.]

I would assume that is the dream - that is the hope of all of us - all of us looking for a deeper spiritual life - to have the mind of Christ  - and then to go deeper - deeper into the hope that Christ will bring us into the mind of God.

Now that’s prayer - union and communion - holy communion - not the babbling of words - but getting out of the boat - heading for Christ - sinking deeper and deeper into the ocean of God - Father, Son and Holy Spirit. [Cf. Matthew 14: 22-33.]

TODAY’S GOSPEL

The first step then would be to follow Christ - to hear Christ in the Gospels - to picture the people who approached Christ and see who Christ is.

We wade into the gospel of Luke today  - moving out of Matthew last Saturday. Yesterday we missed the going into the synagogue in Nazareth to hear Jesus’ inaugural address in Luke - because yesterday was the feast of John the Baptist.

Luke will teach us so much more each year - the mercy of God especially in this year of mercy.  Open up the flood gates….

I loved today’s gospel for starters - that it’s the crazy guy - in the synagogue of Capernaum who first gets who Jesus is - that he shrieks in a loud voice “Leave us alone! What do you want of us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are: the Holy One of God.”

Can we be crazy enough to say to Jesus: “I know who you are: the Holy One of God.”

FIRST CORINTHINIANS

In today’s reading from 1^st Corinthians, Paul goes another way. He is going to let the Spirit bring us to the Father - to let the Spirit bring us into God.

Come Holy Spirit!

We slipped into the 1^st Letter to the Corinthians last Thursday - and we’ll have this letter of Paul till Saturday September 17^th. This is one of the blessings of daily Mass - we get a chance to hear and get into lots of the holy writings.

So hopefully we want to get into God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit: the Trinity. 

Augustine tells us he discovered from a little kid on the beach - that you can’t fit and fill the ocean into a little kid’s beach pail - any more than fitting the Trinity into our little minds. Yet we go to the beach to fill our pails and wade into the ocean. We come into church - we come into prayer - to fill our pale little self and wade into the edge of God.

Jesus often tells us, See me, see the father. Hear me, hear the father.

In his words for today, Paul is sort of going a different way - here in today’s first reading.

The commentators on today’s first reading tell us that we all have a spirit - pneuma in Greek. Paul then tells us that we also have a soul - psuche in Greek. Psuche is the life principle in every living thing. We have that gift of life. We see that life in dogs and cats, birds and fish. We know the difference between a dead fly and a live one - a dead another and a live another.

He tells us we have a choice to live by the pneuma or just the psuche.

To live by the spirit is to move into the Spirit of God who will bring us

CONCLUSION

This is long enough for a weekday Mass - so if you have time read today’s readings again.

Let me conclude with Paul’s words for today I hope I didn’t complicate his message up too much.

Brothers and sisters:

The Spirit scrutinizes everything,

even the depths of God.

Among men,

who knows what’s going on within us
except our spirit that is within?

Similarly,

no one knows what pertains to God

except the Spirit of God.

We have not received the spirit of the world
but the Spirit who is from God,
so that we may understand the things freely given us by God.

And we speak about them

not with words taught by human wisdom,
but with words taught by the Spirit,
describing spiritual realities in spiritual terms.

Now the natural man

[that is the one who lives only with his psuche]

does not accept

what pertains to the Spirit of God,
for to him it is foolishness,

and he cannot understand it,
because it is judged spiritually.

The one who is spiritual, however,

 can judge everything
but is not subject to judgment by anyone.

For "who has known the mind of the Lord, so as to counsel him"?"

But we have the mind of Christ.

COURAGE  OR  WEAKNESS

                   

[Today we commemorate the passion or suffering or the Beheading of John the Baptist. Today’s gospel story from Mark 6: 17-29 - triggers thoughts about different characters - some courageous - some weak. Hence this reflection on courage vs. weakness.]

It takes courage to say, “You’re right. I’m wrong.”

It takes courage to say, “Help!”

It takes courage to say, “I had too much to drink.”

It takes courage to say, “I made a mistake.”

It takes courage to say, “I promised too much and I can’t deliver.”

It takes courage to say, “I sinned.”

It takes courage to say, “I’m trapped.”

It takes courage to say, “Oops. Dumb me.”

It takes courage to say, “Lust took over.”

It takes courage to say, “Please forgive me.”

It takes weakness to hold onto a grudge!

It takes weakness to remain silent, instead of screaming, “Stop.”

It takes weakness to say, “Get rid of him. Cut off his head.”

It takes weakness to say, “I’m going to get you for saying that.”

It takes weakness to say, “More wine.”

It takes weakness to say, “I’m only human – so I have to do this - otherwise I’m going to look like a fool.” 

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Note: Painting on top - Benozzo Gozzoli (1461-1462)

August 29, 2016

JOHN  THE  BAPTIST 

Patron saint of the so many

who have been silenced -

because they spoke up.

Thrown into a dungeon down

below while people partied

and danced up above.

He spent his time wondering

who Jesus was and would he

be silenced just like he was.

“Off with his head!” John was

silenced for good till his head came

in on a platter for one last scream.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2016

DIRT

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 22 Sunday in Ordinary Time [C] is, “Dirt.”

Last Sunday I preached on just one word, one image - “Doors” - and I found that helpful for meditation and reflection. I don’t know if anyone else did, but I did. And I noticed doors all week. Maybe this week I’ll be seeing dirt. I vacuum my room at least once a year.

When I read today’s readings,  the theme of humility jumped out at me and as we all know, the word “humility” comes from “humus” - earth, dirt.

Humility is being down to earth - basic - knowing where we come from. It means not being inflated - not being filled with oneself. That’s the image of the hot air balloon - not down to earth - but trying to fly higher and higher above everyone else.

So a homily on humility - earth - dirt - being grounded.

EARTH - DIRT

As you know there are two creation accounts in the first few pages of the Bible. The first creation account has God creating us - male and female - from a distance. “Let there be light….Let there be man and woman - male and female - made in our own image and likeness.” [Cf. Genesis 1:1 to 2:4.]

In the second creation account in Genesis [Genesis 2: 5ff.] - which follows the first - God - Yahweh - comes down to earth. God gets his hands dirty - in making us. In this second creation account - the one that is the older story - the more down to earth creation account - God is feeling all alone,  so God decides to make us and form us and sculpt us out of the ground, out of the earth, out of the clay, out of the mud, out of the dirt.

As we hear on Ash Wednesday - and it’s rubbed into our skulls, “Remember you are dust and into dust you shall return.”

That’s THE Ash Wednesday sermon - THE  Lent Sermon - every year - heading for Easter - the Resurrection of the Body! Eternity baby…. eternity .... the plan is to live forever.

That gives me hope - in the recent experience of two stillborn baby moments at Anne Arundel Medical Center.

Death. Life. Questions. Faith…. Why? Why? Why? Cry? Cry? Cry?

Every funeral brings us down to earth - especially if the person is our age or younger. Most Catholic funerals - whether it’s the casket or the cremains - the ashes - has sort of a cover over the reality.

Yet the reality of death - time limits - the bottom line - hits home every time.

The last Jewish funeral I was at - for a close friend of our family - Gloria Goldberger - we all got to shovel some dirt and drop it down onto the casket which had been lowered into the deep dirt cut hole in the ground.  I’ve been at some Catholic funerals when we did that as well. And in being handed the shovel we get some of that dirt on our hands - as we shovel it down into the ground.

Yet death is not a dirty little secret. We know a good bit about it - the longer we live. And faith helps…. Come Lord, Jesus.

TODAY’S READINGS

Today’s first reading from Sirach says, “Humble yourself the more, the greater you are.”

Today’s second reading from the Letter to the Hebrews tells us that when we approach God - it’s like coming to a high mountain or a great city - Mount Zion or to the heavenly Jerusalem. It’s enormous. It’s awesome - and we are speechless in comparison.

The big can make us feel small.

Today’s gospel from Luke tells us that everyone who exalts themselves will be humbled. So when you are at a wedding banquet - sit in the back or the room. Sit at table 23. Then someone might tell you to move up front - unless everything is numbered - and sometimes that causes uppityness.

Today’s gospel has Jesus telling us, “When you hold a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind”. When you do that, you’re not doing it for payback or to impress everyone - but to be nice to everyone.

I like to think at every mass - we are the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind - yet the priest gets the cushy chair up front - in a higher place. Talk about higher hot air balloons. You have to laugh.

And in our own way, each of us is poor, crippled, lame and blind.

We are here as Jesus’ guests at the celebration of the Mass.

HUMBLE OF HEART -  HERE ARE 5 SECRETS OF HUMILITY

Jesus was off on being humble of heart - not humble of show.

That was the Pharisees. That was the scribes - the ones who could write.

So let me present 5 secrets - 5 steps of humility. There are more. Enough already.

First: we have to learn to laugh at ourselves - and not take ourselves too seriously. To be humble - we have to have a sense of humor. Look in the mirror at least once a day and laugh at your nose or your ears or your day.

I have never forgotten the story - a bishop told us - about this very pompous archbishop in Brazil - head of the bishop’s conference. Someone put a whoopee cushion under his seat cushion and all waited till he finally sat down. And all laughed - except himself.

Two: It’s not all me. I am part of the whole world. I am part of the whole universe. I am stardust.

It’s not by accident that the second creation account in the Book of Genesis has God taking dirt, clay, mud, mother earth and forming us. Then God breathed his SPIRIT - RUAH -  LIFE - into us. That’s moving from humiliation to exaltation.

We are the seed and egg of our mom and dad. We are our mom’s body and blood. We were in holy communion with her for months. We are what she ate. What she ate and drank came from the earth.  We are broccoli and beef.  The food from the earth we came from - each time we eat - are microbes, atoms, particles from tree leaves, a disintegrated king’s underwear from 1000 years ago - as well as a weasel that was grabbed by a hawk and on and on and on. That should keep us humble as well as amazed.

If you use Google, type into the search engine, “What are we made of?”

Surprise: we are stardust. We are part of the big planet explosions of billions and billions and millions of years ago. Have you ever read what’s on the side of the package of a loaf of bread or a box of Cheerios?  We are iron and a whole bunch of stuff. The microscopes they will have 100 years from now will tell how much of us is nickel, gold, uranium, and krypton. Eat your heart out Superman or Superwoman. Our cells are replacing themselves all the time.  Listen carefully.  We lose 30,000 cells every minute - and a lot more. Drip. Drip. Drip. Drop. Drop. Drop.

I read on Google that 93% of the mass in our body is stardust. We are talking about humility here. But how about that for being exalted?

Three: Be oneself and not try to be who we are not.  Comparisons can crush us. The advertising industry thrives on this issue. I love the saying: “Be who you is, because if you be who you ain’t, then you ain’t who you is.”

I have discovered that some people are unhappy about aspects of themselves. I have discovered some people are envious of those with better looks and shape - cars and cash. I have discovered people know people they don’t want to be or be like. I have yet to discover someone who really wants to be someone else.  I think we know down deep: this is me for better for worse, for richer for poorer, till death do I fall apart.

Fourth: Be it ever so humble, there is no place like home. We need family, home, friends, who know us - who don’t let us get away with being a phony. I’m not married, but I’m assuming marriage, the dining room table, coffee cups left in the living room, nakedness - real nakedness - is when another knows who we are and they still accept us and love us and laugh with and at us - and at our love handles.

Fifth: The fifth key to humility is acceptance of all this.  Acceptance is a key concept in the serenity prayer. Acceptance is a key to happiness - as well as humility. There are things we can change and there are things we can’t change. And we need to have the wisdom to know the difference.

Wrinkles, a bad back, a slip on a banana skin, dandruff, aging, dripping, drooping, traffic jams, enjoying ice cream and spilling some on our shirt and laughing and licking it after trying to lift it off our shirt with our index finger - are all part of life - from 4 to 40, from 8 to 80 - and on and on and on.

Visit nursing homes. Talk to young people and old people and all those in between. Accept life’s realities. Listen and learn - and accept.

Pause while going by churches and cemeteries - and make the sign of the cross - and laugh.

CONCLUSION

John Seldon (1584-1654) - long dead - wrote, “Humility is a virtue all preach, none practice; and yet everybody is content to hear.”

SAINT  AUGUSTINE 

AUGUST 28^TH, HIS FEAST DAY

Patron saint of hesitation….
Patron saint of putting off chastity….

Patron saint of being late in loving God….

Patron saint of journal keeping….

Patron saint of Confessions….

Patron saint of trying the different….

Patron saint of being and becoming honest….

Patron saint of reading, "Tolle et lege”….

Patron saint of long prayers - a whole book….

Patron saint of honestly….

Patron saint of those in love with loving….

Patron saint of “Hear the other side.”

Patron saint of trying to grasp the Trinity….

Patron saint of trying to see the City of God….

Patron saint of admitting to having dark corners in the mind….

Patron saint of beauty - especially within ….

Patron saint of, “Love and do what you want.”

Patron saint of, “Believe in order to understand.”

Patron saint of, “the desire in prayer is the prayer”….

© Andy Costello  Reflections

Statue on top: St. Augustine in 
Monastery in Pavia, Italy
Saying on plaque, "Lord our hearts
are restless till they rest in you."

August 28, 2016

TOLLE  LEGE, TOLLE  LEGE 

You mean to tell me, you haven’t

read Augustine’s Confessions yet?

“Tolle lege, tolle lege….” those

were the sing song words he heard

in the garden that day. “Take! Read!”

So he picked up and read, Paul’s
Letter to the Romans 13:13-14:

“Let us conduct ourselves properly,

as people who live in the light of day -

no orgies or drunkenness,

no immorality or indecency,

no fighting or jealousy.
But put on the Lord Jesus Christ

and make no provision to satisfy

the desires of the flesh.”

“Tolle lege” Augustine’s Confessions

and like everyone who reads them,

you too will say, “Too late I loved you,

O Beauty ever ancient and ever new.
Too late I loved you! And, behold,

you were within me, and I out of

myself and there I searched for you.”

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2016

August 27, 2016

AT  LEAST  

TWO  BY  TWO

ALWAYS  THREE

Early on - someone figured it out -

genetically: it's not good to go it alone.
“It’s not good to be alone.”

They even put those words into

God’s mouth - knowing that God

didn’t want to go it alone either. 

This is before we discovered the

reality of God as Trinity - obviously -
as well as - community - obviously.

Later on - someone also figured it out:

every other thinks differently than I.

If we don’t get that one, then we’ll

find ourselves going it alone again.

Now that is a big discovery. In fact,

it has to be discovered over and over -

again and again - like in every 
relationship - argument - and covenant.

Unfortunately we fall. We do dumb. We

decide to go it alone - so Cain killed Abel -

and the Prodigal heads for pig pens.

But we learn - we rise - we reconsider -

we reach out - we head home - or there

is the other - coming down the road and

they stop to help us and bring us to

the local Inn because they care for us.

Then after too many crucifixions -

too many hidings from God and

from each other - we discover

deep within - each of us has within -

not only ourselves - and others - but

also the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2016