WHAT DO YOU SEE,

WHAT DO YOU THINK,

WHEN YOU SEE 
THE GOOD SHEPHERD

MURAL HERE AT ST. MARY’S?

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “What Do You See, What Do You Think, When You See the Good Shepherd Mural Here at St. Mary’s?”

The theme and thought of the Good Shepherd hit me when I read today’s readings - both of which mention God as Shepherd.

Recently, someone told me after a Sunday Mass here at St. Mary’s that when they are praying here - they look up to the Good Shepherd Mural every time.  They mentioned that they pray to Jesus the Good Shepherd  to find their three kids - who have become lost sheep - and have dropped out of any kind of religion in their life.

The mural is not a Rembrandt - but it does get lookers and thinkers and prayers. And I’m sure some people might say, “Ooo. I have never looked at that mural - ever.”

After this short homily, I hope all will do that.

OLDEST IMAGE OF JESUS

As you know, Jesus being presented as the Good Shepherd, is not only found in the gospels - like today’s gospel from Matthew - but in many  early Christian murals, pictures, in the  catacombs, and statues.

And it stayed around down through the centuries.

SHEEP ARE NOT DUMB

Last night I typed into Google the question: “Are sheep dumb?” I know I’ve said that in sermons - because I heard that in sermons and I was dumb enough to repeat that - without checking up on it.

Mosquitoes are the smartest - they always find a skin spot - even in the dark.

Back to sheep….  I read that various scientists and researchers say, “Sheep are not dumb.”

They can remember 20 to 50 faces.  They have and use their brains. Trouble is that a human brain would weigh around 1300 to 1500 grams - and a sheep’s brain is about 140 grams - so less  brain - but back to that mosquito….

Sheep can be individualistic and communal. They can follow a leader and they can be a leader. There are stories about sheep leading the flock back to the pen - in a blinding snow storm. They have a frontal cortex and it does what the frontal cortex of a brain does. However, I read last night - and I am not a brain surgeon - that they don’t have a prefrontal cortex and that’s the place where we have some of our key skills as human beings.

Ooops…. And they have much stronger ability to smell and scent than us humans. There is evidence that they can sniff out in the earth - key ingredients for specific sicknesses that they have.

JESUS AND ISAIAH

I assume Isaiah and Jesus spotted sheep and goat herders in their daily life - and knew that some sheep got lost and shepherds were very caring and concerned about their sheep so they applied that image to how they wanted to say God our Father is like.

More: they would realize that a shepherd holding a lost sheep in his arms would have a lot more impact than holding a wild animal or a dangerous dog. I don’t think there were any alligators in the Jordan river in their time.

Seeing these scenes, they must have made the jump: if shepherds show such care for sheep, how much more does God care for us.

CONCLUSION

Simple message.

Pray for lost sheep.

And when lost, make the "Baa" prayer to God. It’s a great prayer when we feel lost. And God will come looking.

STILL

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 2^nd Monday in Advent is, “Still”.

[Spell it out]:  S  T  I  L  L  - “Still.”

TODAY’S  TWO READINGS

I read today’s two readings a few times  - trying to see what thoughts they would trigger.

Check out Isaiah 35:1-10 and Luke 5: 17-26.

The contrast between stuck and non-stuck, motion and not moving it, hit me.

There’s a world of difference between a garden - blooming - bursting with flowers - and a desert - all just dry - same old same old - tan sand sitting still.

The first reading - Isaiah 35: 1-10  has the desert blooming and blossoming - with abundant flowers.

A bunch of years ago I was giving some talks in Tucson for two weeks - and someone said, “Pray for rain - because when you wake up the next morning - you will see the difference - big time.”  It didn’t rain. All was the same still hot scene for 2 hot weeks.

Read today’s first reading out loud a few times - slowly - and you will hear a symphony orchestra and see thousands of flowers bursting into color. Nice. If you don't, turn on your imagination.

Read Isaiah slowly and you will picture people walking down the aisle with walkers and canes. Then you'll see them dropping and ditching them and then dancing with freedom.  You will see the blind suddenly seeing; the deaf hearing; the lame leaping; and the mute singing.  You will see rivers bubbling and burgeoning up out of the earth and  pools of water appearing.

Roads will appear!

It will be a place of peace - with no wild animals lurking  - ready to pounce on people.

Listen to the last sentence in today’s first reading again, “They will meet with joy and gladness, sorrow and mourning will flee.”

That first reading is a neat contrast with today’s gospel from Luke.  We hear the story of a  paralyzed person who can’t walk and some paralyzed Pharisees and scribes - who can’t allow for someone to be freed from their sins. They don't get that this Jesus can heal  both physical and spiritual paralysis. Jesus frees the man and sends him home with his stretcher in hand.

STILL

If someone hasn’t seen us in 10 years - will they see a different person than the one they used to know. 

Are we still telling the same old stories - having the same old gripes and whinings?

I remember being hit by the following statement: “Some people with 20 years experience have one years experience 20 times and some people have 20 years experience."

Some people get stuck in a death, in a hurt, in a disaster - and their life becomes a deja vue experience day after day after day.

Isn’t that the theme of John Updike’s novel, Rabbit Run. It’s  about Harry "Rabbit"  Angstrom - who at 26 is still stuck in his high school -years -  still stuck in his basketball glory days.

Some people have had an abortion and at 73 - it’s as if it happened only yesterday - they still are paralyzed in the tragedy - and they keep aborting themselves.

I lived with two priests once - both in their 70’s - both were classmates. Back in their seminary days, one of these priests was pitching a no-hitter. The other guy was playing the outfield he let a single drop in. The pitcher expected him to catch it on a fly and could never let that go - never let that go….

Still.

I have a poem somewhere there about going home to Brooklyn once - going by a bar - and I spotted the same guy I saw sitting on a certain bar stool was still sitting there - still sitting there - after all these years.

CONCLUSION

The title of my homily is, “Still!”

There is a psalm that has the line, “Be still and know that I am God.”

Yes, but I would add, “Be still and see all the great motion - called life - and see God in the great mix - not being still - but being still alive. Amen.

December 5, 2016

SALVATION

All of us are standing here,

with bell in hand and hope

in heart - that all will stop

and gift us with a moment

of a bit time and a bit of 

love and generosity - for
ourselves - and for our salvation

as human beings and children

of God - otherwise we’ll cry,

we’ll die, for not experiencing love.

 © Andy Costello, Reflections 2016

OTHERNESS

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “Otherness.”

O   T   H   E   R   N   E   S   S:  otherness.

As time goes on - hopefully we get to know ourselves - and each other - better and better than the me or the you of 5, 10, 20, 30 or 40 years ago.

How about you?

Would you be interested in a homily on, “Otherness?”

TWO GREAT LIFE PRINCIPLES

Let me give two great life principles.

Relax - I have today’s readings in mind. This is a homily - with thoughts coming out of today’s readings - for this Second Sunday of Advent [A].

The first life principle is this: “The other person doesn’t think the way I’m thinking.”

Remembering that principle will save us a lot of trouble - and problems.

But we often forget it - but it’s as obvious as the color of an orange.

It calls for communion and communication - talking to each other - listening to each other - finding out what each is seeing.

We’re both looking at the same movie, Advent,  Christmas, the election, the menu, what makes a good marriage, what makes a good life, but we’re both seeing something very different.

We forget this principle at least two times a day.

Second life principle: “The greatest sin is the inability to accept the otherness of the other person.”

I read that statement some 30 years ago - jotted it down - but it’s only been in these recent years that it has really hit me  - as being true, true, very, very true.

“The greatest sin is the inability to accept the otherness of the other person.”

This second principle is actually the first principle - but stated in a different way.

Otherness….

SELF-TESTS

Somewhere along the line I discovered that people perk up when it comes to self-tests.

How many people have taken the Myers-Briggs test. It’s also called, “The Jungian Types test”. That test has helped a lot of people understand a lot of people - as different from each other.

And of course, some people have never heard about it, but they get it when they hear it explained.

Some people are introverts and some people are extraverts.

The wife was looking for the husband - but couldn’t find him. The car was in the driveway - but the husband wasn’t. She checked the cellar - no luck. “Where is he?” She looks out the window for the 5^th time - no luck. Then she spots the tool shed at the other end of the backyard. She puts on her jacket - and heads for the shed. There he is - comfortable in a folding chair - listening to a transistor radio with a smile on his face. She asks, “I was looking everywhere for you.” Then she says, sort of accidentally, “Are you hiding from me?” And he says, “Well, yes!”

Not only are some people introverts and others are extraverts, but people function differently.  Some people are neat and some people are slobs. Some people are down to earth and practical; some people are intuitives and dreamers. Some people lead with their head; others lead with their hearts. Some people think their way through life; others feel their way.  Some people’s feelings are hurt; some people’s thinkings are hurt.

And that’s just one person’s insights about people’s otherness: namely Carl Jung - [1875-1961]. He was a  Swiss psychoanalyst - who was trying to figure out - why he and Freud and Adler were seeing people and each other so differently.

There are all kinds of other personality tests. If they are in a magazine like Reader’s Digest or O in the doctor or dentist’s office,  they are either marked up or ripped out.

People are fascinated by self-tests. It tells me people are intrigued by otherness and their way of seeing.

TODAY’S FIRST READING

Today’s first reading from Isaiah triggered thoughts for this homily.

At times I’ve seen self-tests - about the difference between humans - using animals.

If you were an animal, what animal would you be?

If you were a dog, what kind of a dog would you be?

Some people bark, growl, hold on like a bulldog.

Some people are catty?

Some people are sneaky like a snake in the grass - and some bite and their bite is poisonous. Their comments or gossip about another ruins a person.

Some people are like one of the animals in Isaiah’s Peaceable Kingdom. Am I a wolf or a lamb? Am I a leopard or a kid goat? Am I a calf or young lion? Am I a cow or a bear? Am I a lion or an ox - a cobra or a little child?

Isaiah doesn’t mention elephants - but we’ve all heard about the elephant in the room.  So and so showed up - and everyone is dancing around him or her. Or we’ve all heard the saying, “When you’re up to your waist in alligators, we all forget that we’re in the swamp to drain it.”

And Isaiah’s dream is that everyone work to be at peace with one another.

TODAY’S SECOND READING

Today’s second reading from Romans tells us, “Whatever was written previously for our instruction, that by endurance and by the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”

Thinking and talking about otherness and personality types, the Bible, the Scriptures, presents all kinds of folks we can relate to - and we can differ from.

Who am I more like, Martha or Mary, the younger son, the prodigal or like the other brother, the goody good type? Am I like the builder who built his house on rock or the one who built his life on sand? Am I like Cain or Abel? Am I David or Goliath? Am I like Rachel or Leah? Am I like Esau or Jacob? Am I like the guy who used his talents or like the guy who buried his talents in a napkin and hid them in the ground, just in case he would fail?

TODAY’S GOSPEL

And in today’s gospel, we have John the Baptist, featured. It’s Advent. John is very strict. He wears itchy clothes made out of camel’s hair and he eats locusts and wild honey. He’s strict and too, too serious for me. Jesus has tassels on his cloak and eats bread and wine, goes to weddings, and eats at the house of a sinner - a rich one at that. Like Jesus will do,  John goes after the Sadducees and the Pharisees, but Jesus seems so otherly different than him.

OTHERNESS

The title of my homily is, “Otherness.”

 I began by giving two principles: other people think differently than me - and I’ll be much more peaceful if I remember that.  Then I added, “The greatest sin is our inability to accept the otherness of the other person.”

Oh yeah…. In every family - there is someone we wish was different.

And we sinfully - neglect them - avoid them - see where they sit and we sit at a distance if we can.

We avoid communion - holy communion with them.

Pope Francis is trying to address this issue - with regards the divorced and remarried - who are out of the system.

In this homily, I’m trying to address this issue of people we excommunicate because they are different.

In case you think this is my pet issue and I’ve taken it off the leash in this homily to let it roam around this church and bark at you, go back to what is written in the Scriptures.

Here’s a statement by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, “You have learnt how it was said, ‘You must love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say this to you: love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. In this way you will be children of your Father in heaven, for he causes his sun to rise on the bad as well as the good, and his rain to fall on the honest and the dishonest alike. For if you love those who love you, what right have you to claim any credit?  Even the tax collectors do as much, do they not? And if you save your greetings for your brothers and sisters, are you doing anything exceptional?  Even the pagans do as much, do they not?  You must therefore be perfect just as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

CONCLUSION

Ooops I better give a third principal and conclude all this babble.

It’s this: “Wow are we going to be surprised in the next life with the otherness of God. Wow are we going to be surprised who’s going be seated at his table  and  who’s going to be right next to him in the next life - unless we have started to discover some of  this already in this life. 

December 4, 2016

SUNDAY  MORNING  CEREAL

I still remember my dad’s grey cereal -

Quaker Oats - with the smiling Quaker

guy on the box - and a smile on my dad’s

face as well - as he stood there at the altar -

the stove top - as  he stirred the grey water

into the mix of tiny tan flakes. Kids in years

to come would have Kellogg’s Frosted 

Flakes and colorful Froot Loops - but we

still have the memory - not of drab colorless

oatmeal - but of the joy my dad had in this his

Sunday morning liturgy of consecrating cereal.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2016

VOCATION: HERE I AM 

LORD,  SEND  ME 

INTRODUCTION

The theme I would like to preach on today is: “Vocation.”

It's a loud, clear message in today's gospel for this 1st Saturday in Advent. [Cf. Matthew 9:35 to 10: 1, 5a, 6-8.]

The Lord is calling everyone to something unique. The word “vocation” simple means a calling.

The response to a calling, to a vocation, to God speaking to us is:  “Here I Am Lord. Send me.”

Here I am, Lord. Send me.

PLENTY OF SWEAT

A sub-title or a principle that I will stress in this homily is a basic theological and human life principle. It’s this: Perspiration more than inspiration.

“It’s perspiration more than inspiration.”

It would be nice if homilies just came, but they don’t most of the time.

You got to sweat to get them.

You have to get up early to prepare for them.

They are work.

“It’s perspiration more than inspiration!”

This principle is not my principle. It’s Michaelangelo’s and Edison’s and a whole lot of other people’s principle.

So the theme of this homily is, “Vocation: Here I Am, Lord. Send Me.”

PETER DONDERS

A little known holy priest, now called Blessed Peter Donders, started off as a diocesan priest who then became a Redemptorist. I read his life and found him to be a very inviting person.  I once wrote a short life of him. He was a giver.

When Peter Donders was in the major seminary in Holland, the president of the seminary told him to read the annals of the Propagation of the Faith from America.

So he read letter after letter, story after story, about the need for priests in America.

The immigrants were in great need for priests -- for saying Mass, etc.

So Peter got the bug, the desire, the hunger, the thirst to go to North America. A bubble formed deep within him to go there.

Here I am Lord, send me.

Next, his director, a priest named Van Soomen told him about the need for priests in Surinam. The Indians, the blacks (former slaves), the mulattos, the Dutch, all needed priests.

So once again he heard the call, the cry, the need, and Peter said, “Here I am Lord, send me.”

Vocation: Here I am Lord, send me.

JOHN NEUMANN

The same thing happened to John Neumann. Like Peter Donders, he too started off as a diocesan priest, and then became a Redemptorist - and later on the bishop of Philadelphia.

When he was in the seminary, in the theologate, in Bohemia, he got that same bug, that Peter Donders got. 

America needed priests.

The seed was planted.

John Neumann wanted to come to America.

The immigrants were starving for priests.

Vocation: Here I am Lord, send me.

Here I am Lord, send me.

OLPH GRAMMAR SCHOOL

When I was in grammar school, the same thing happened to me.

Redemptorist priests came into our classroom, when they returned for vacation from missionary work in Brazil and Puerto Rico and they told us of the foreign missions.

Here I am Lord, send me.

That was my dream.

ST. ALPHONSUS

When St. Alphonsus went to Scala from Naples, Italy,  for his vacation, he discovered goatherders, migrants were without priests. They were sheep without a shepherd.

The gospel for today sums up his basic feelings.

MATTHEW 9: 35 ff.

“At the sight of the crowds, his heart was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned,  like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.”

Alphonsus said, “Here I am, Lord. Send me.”

Vocation: “Here I am Lord. Send me.”

ST. FRANCIS XAVIER

Today we we celebrate the feast of St. Francis Xavier. He saw the great crowds of people in the east and in Africa, who were like sheep without a shepherd.

He did it. He went East young man and visited all kinds of places till he died on his way into China. 

And he wished he could go to the college young men of Paris and Europe and tell them what he saw, so they too would say, “Here I am, Lord. Send me.”

“Here I am, Lord. Send me.”

He was trying to touch that basic core feeling that got us to Mass this morning.

“Here I am, Lord. Send me.”

RETREATS AND PARISH MISSIONS

I'm 77 now and I never got to Brazil.

However, looking back I think of various people I have met on Parish Missions and Week-end Retreats who complained about their parish priest. It would often come up in large group question and answer periods.

They talked about dead priests - dead liturgies - dead music - dead homilies - dead parishes. Then they would add, "No wonder our kids dropped out of church."

Like our recent political campaign, they often were much more negative than positive.

I didn't hear the good stuff about good priests, parishes, homilies and service.

I would only hear comments like:  “I am worried about my children.” “I am worried about the future.”

As I thought about this, I realize that's all like the evening news. There are bad lawyers, teachers, and doctors.

In time I realized that each of us need to hear the bottom line in all this: "Be the best I can be in whatever life situation I'm in."

CONCLUSION

Jesus summoned his 12 disciples and gave them authority to expel unclean spirits and to cure sicknesses and diseases of every kind.

Here I am, Lord. Send me

“He gave them instruction: Go instead after the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go make this announcement: ‘The reign of God is at hand.’”

Here I am, Lord. Send me.

“Cure the sick,

raise the dead,

heal the leprous,

expel demons.”

Here I am, Lord. Send me.

“The gift you have been given, give as a gift.”

Here I am, Lord. Send me. 

December 3, 2016

SHADOWS

Where do shadows go?

They seem to slide along

and then slip away into the

dark of December afternoons.

Like so many of my comments

and afternoon observations,

they seem to slip off the face

of those I’m talking to - and

at times I wonder if anyone 
is really interested in anything

I have to say. Ooops! Wait!
This is a two way street.
What are you trying to say?

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2016