February 1, 2017

WALKING 

TOWARDS THE PODIUM

Walking towards the podium, the pulpit,

the microphone, the stage - what is she,

what is he, going to say? What is he 

going to sing? Something I hope that 

tells me about me, that she understands 

anger, frustration, goodness, mistakes,

relationships, life in my shoes, slippers,

mocasins, sins, skin, that she knows

herself, therefore she, he, knows me.
And tell me about God - your experiences,
your moments, your meetings with God?

Now that’s the talk I want to hear. Sing!

 © Andy Costello, Reflections  2017

WISDOM: BE  ATTENTIVE! 

WHERE  DID  THIS  MAN  

GET ALL THIS? 

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 4^th Monday in Ordinary Time is, “Wisdom: Be Attentive. Where Did This Man Get All This?”

It’s kind of a long title. And I was even tempted to add the next line in today’s gospel: “What kind of wisdom has been given to him.”

PART ONE: WISDOM BE ATTENTIVE!

In today’s two readings: Hebrews 12: 4-7, 11-15 and Mark 6:1-6 - we hear about wisdom.

In the Greek and Byzantine rites of the Christian - as well as the Catholic Church - the priest at the pulpit says, “Wisdom: Be Attentive” as he holds up the Scriptures for the Faithful.

I must have heard that message chanted 25 times before I got that.

“Wisdom:  Be Attentive.”

I mention in homilies at times: Make that your prayer.

When the priest  or the deacon reads the scriptures - and preaches a homily - I think it’s a good inner saying to say to oneself: “Wisdom: Be Attentive.”

Listen up!

Lord, give me some wisdom today - an insight - a challenge. Pour some new wine into this old wineskin. Break open some new ideas and ideals for me.

So that’s message # 1 for today.

“Wisdom: Be Attentive.”

SECOND MESSAGE: “WHERE DID THIS MAN GET ALL THIS.”

Have you ever found yourself saying about something Jesus said, “Wow! That’s a great insight. Where did Jesus get that insight? What triggered it?

However, I have found out that some people never ask that question, because they see Jesus as God - Divine - and all his wisdom comes from being God - and he had it all from Moment One.

They ignore, leave out the message from the gospel of Luke, “Jesus grew in wisdom, age and grace before God and people.” [Luke 2:52]

I’m glad I was taught to read the gospels and then ask, “What triggered this comment by Jesus.”

So I picture Jesus in the carpenter shop. Some kids come in with their dad. He’s watching them as they start playing a game. I picture Jesus looking at the beautiful feathers of a bird - or beautiful flowers in the field and - who walks by - but someone who is a clothes rack or the front window of a store - screaming, “Hey world, look at me!”

And Jesus laughs comparing humans with birds and flowers. Who are more beautiful?

CONCLUSION

So there are 2 suggestions on what to do when you’re here for the Liturgy of the Word.

First to pray before hearing the readings and the sermon to say, “Wisdom: Be Attentive.”

And secondly: when listening to the readings, ask, “Where did Jesus or the writer of this text, get this wisdom.”  Like today’s first reading talks about bitter roots.  If you are bitter or don’t like better tastes, pull out the bitter roots in your soul.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Painting on top: John Everett Millais, Christ in the House of His Parents [1849-1850]

January 31, 2017

FRAGILE

Eggshells, fluorescent tubes,

some high heels, some insect legs,

the second year of marriage, hey,

it used to be the fourth year of marriage.

FRAGILE - that word should be stamped

in red - on the naked skin of every marriage.

It’s a covenant.  Regular checking out

how things are going…. bending, adjusting,

sacrifices, many sacrifices - and working on

about 5 other specific awareness’s

and a marriage can make it to 50

and 60 years - till death do we part - 
that is, if a couple really want 
a lifetime of great love -

to write a great story together.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2017

January 30, 2017

NONLINEAR

Life is nonlinear - a scribble

at times - unlike the two numbers

and the dash as they call it

on the tombstone. No …

life is bumpy and broken

at times - finally coming around

and coming apart at corners

and there are Frosty roads

not taken which would have made

all the difference. It’s when

I write a poem or look at photos….

It’s when I’m at airports or in planes

I see some of this - and the

rest will take years to figure out.
Sorry. That’s what I know for now.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2017

WHAT SOME PEOPLE 

GO THROUGH

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 4^th Monday in Ordinary Time is, “What Some People Go Through.”

TODAY’S READINGS

Last night when I read today’s readings I  said to myself, “Oh no, these are tough and rough readings.”

In the first reading from Hebrews - Chapter 11 - verses 32 to 40 - we hear about women experiencing the death  of loved ones -  hoping for resurrection. We hear about people being tortured, made fun of, mocked, beaten, chained and imprisoned. Some had stones thrown at them. Some were sawed in two. Some were put to death by the sword’s point. Some had to crawl and wander the earth wearing just the skins of sheep or goats. Hebrews says, “They wandered about in deserts and on mountains, in caves and in crevices in the earth.”

The only thing that helped them was their faith - still they were in horrible situations.

So in reading that, that’s why I thought about what some people go through - and I don’t know if we can stomach some of that horror at 6:45 in the morning.

Then in the gospel - Mark 5: 1-20  - we hear about this man who lives in the midst of tombs - and he screams out at night - beating himself with stones.

He’s filled with demons - a legion of demons - till Jesus enters his life and sends the demons into a herd of pigs who  run down a hill and dive into the Sea of Galilee.

Ugh! So that’s why I thought and I kept thinking about what some people go through.

I also kept thinking, “I don’t have it so bad. I don’t have it so bad.”

ON THE CRUISE

Two weeks ago some of us were on a cruise to South America for 17 days.  When we were off the ship and on buses for excursions,  I noticed in the big cities people lying against walls or under trees in a park. As Jesus said, “The poor are always with us.”

Seeing the homeless triggers lots of thoughts in me - including guilty - doubly so - when on what I call a “fat cat cruise” - and we visit a city.

When we were on the big wide muddy La Plata River going into Buenos Aires,  I found out this was the river the government took some protesters and opposition leaders up in a plane and dropped people to their death in that river. The so called “Madres de la Plaza de Mayo” - are still pushing and struggling to gain access and information - about what really happened to their sons especially. This happened between 1976-1983.  The numbers killed go from 9,000 to 30,000 kidnapped and killed.

TV AND RADIO

Next ….

When I watching public TV the other day - the day before the Right to Life March in D.C. I heard Representative Chris Smith from New Jersey speaking about the millions of babies killed, ripped apart, murdered just here in the United States - when aborted. Ugh. He’s been a voice for the voiceless in the womb since the 1981.

I was also listening to public radio the next day and I heard about a Hungarian woman in her 90’s - one of the last of the survivors of Auschwitz - who as a little girl - got off the train in Auschwitz with her mother and family.  Her mom was sent immediately to the gas chambers - and this young girl at the time said, “I didn’t cry.”

I didn’t see these things personally, but these moments trigger thoughts about what others had to go through - and still go through around the world.

WHAT TO SAY

What to say about any of this violence that people go through?

I don’t know.

Today’s gospel tells me Jesus came into our midst and walked with us in these horrors - and experienced them himself as well - with his death on the cross.

Hopefully, the pain and suffering of others hopefully helps us to become more compassionate and understanding.

Hopefully, we will not add to the cruelty of people towards people.

There is a famous American Speech, called, “The Cross of Gold Speech.”

It was about a time in our country when people fought over having gold and silver backing our paper money.

There is a line in that speech that I have thought about at times. The speaker, William Jennings Bryan, says, “I shall object to bringing this question down to a level of persons. The Individual is but an atom; he is born, he acts, he dies; but principles are eternal; and this has been a contest about a principle

Hopefully when it comes to health care, immigration, abortion, prisons, people’s sexuality, basic human respect, we will be much more concerned for people while at the same time that will be our main principal in life. Amen. 

CUT  AND  PASTE

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 4^th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A,  is, “Cut and Paste.”

MEANING

Anyone who has a computer and uses it to do homework knows what “cut and paste” means.

Anyone who writes letters with their computer or iPad knows how to cut and paste.

You simply take a section from here - you highlight it - you cut it - and you then paste it over here. The phrase, the process, comes from before computers, when someone cut something out of one section of writing and put it some other place. Then they glued it or pasted it - nice and neat.

It saved time and work - if you made it nice and neat.

Cut and paste.

THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW

This year we are using the gospel of Matthew in Ordinary Time for the Sunday gospels. The scenario is to run the gospels in Ordinary Time on a 3 year cycle: Matthew - Year A, Mark - Year B and Luke, Year C.

This Sunday we have as our Gospel reading the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount.  Jesus went up a mountain, sat down, and began teaching his disciples some of his key teachings.

The Sermon on the Mount goes for 3 chapters in Matthew’s gospel.

There is a theory that some early Christian writer gathered a lot of the sayings and short teachings of Jesus and used it as a list of Jesus‘ teachings for new Christians. It was simply a series of one liners or short messages of Jesus like, “Turn the other cheek.”  “Go the extra mile.” “Love your enemies; pray for those who persecute you.” ”Stop worrying about what you are to wear or what you are going to eat.” “Enter by the narrow gate.”

Today’s gospel reading has the so called, “Beatitudes.”

They are 8 or 9 secrets of beatitude or happiness. “Show mercy.”  “Be a peacemaker.” “Hunger and thirst for what is right.”

Nice.

Next week we’ll have another section of the Sermon on the Mount - and on and on - in ordinary time - till it’s finished.  Then Jesus will say at the end of chapter 8, “the wise person is the one who builds their house, their future,  on these words. If you do that, it’s like building your house on rock. Then when the storms and floods of life come, your house will not fall down. It’s built on rock. The fool doesn’t go that way.  He or she will be building their house on sand and when the storms and floods of life come, their house will cave in.

That document - what we call “The Sermon on the Mount’  is what some scholars think existed. It’s called by some,  “Matthew Q.”

The scholars, the theorists, say it was written in Aramaic - the language of Jesus - in Palestine - in the first century.

They think Matthew took that document of 3 short chapters - pasted it to Matthew’s first 4 chapters, then pasted that to the rest of the gospel of Matthew - and that’s our present Gospel of Matthew which we have in Greek.

FOUND DOCUMENTS

It’s only the year 2017.

Wouldn’t it be great if that’s true and someone found Matthew Q - buried somewhere in the Middle East?

It’s possible. In 1947 they found the Dead Sea Scrolls - and they were Old Testament writings that were over 2000 years old.

In 1945 in Upper Egypt they found buried the so called, Nag Hammadi Library of some 50 texts from the early church - from off shoot Christian groups. They include the so called Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Philip etc. etc. etc. They help us compare gospel texts and how they were used.

So we never know.

A POINT FOR THIS HOMILY

I have a theory that each us has a library - a short library of sayings and teachings - buried inside of us - in our mind.

Some teachings, slogans, sayings are from our moms and dads. Some are from school teachers. Some are from ourselves. Some are from Jesus.

I remember being on a retreat with a group of women once and we did an interesting exercise. We asked the group to take 10 minutes of silence and come up with one saying from your mom or dad - something they told you over and over again when you were a kid - and you go  by that teaching today.

As each woman explained a teaching or a saying from their mom, like have an extra clean set of underwear when traveling, in the trunk of your car, just in case.  Moms were forever taking about moms who insisted on their kids make their daily bed. If they do, they will have a neat life. Be careful of your friends.

I also think we all have a saying or two from Jesus. It’s been cut and pasted into our life.

My favorite bible text is, Galatians 6:2. “Bear one another’s burdens and if you do, you’re fulfilling the law of Christ.”

I was sitting on my stoop in Brooklyn once - as an adult, while. The next generation - were playing stick ball on our street.

My nephew Michael is standing there - when he spots an old lady going by with her shopping basket on wheels.

Michael screams out, “Time out!” and runs over and helps the old lady get the basket to her steps. He pulls it up the stairs. She opens the door and he pulls her wagon into her house.

He comes running out screaming, “Play ball!”

There it was, my favorite Bible text, being acted out by a teenage kid.

CONCLUSION

Enough already….

I think this is purpose of Catholic schools and religious education - to plant the word of God inside people’s soul - and cut and paste as time goes on - better texts.

Talk to each other. Find out favorite Bible texts or sayings and ask which one’s work. If something someone says is helpful - cut and paste it into your life as well. Amen. 

GRANDPA’S   ART  GALLERY

  

Grandpa had a stroke.

He lost his ability to speak.

Bummer.

 So he had a lot of rehab ahead.

His 5 kids got him a first floor room at Renaissance Nursing Home - just 5 miles away for 4 of his kids - who had stayed in the area.

As to his 23 grandkids - now they were scattered all around the country and all around the world: from Afghanistan to Austin Texas to New Zealand.

Not being able to speak - not being able to write - it was very difficult to understand what grandpa was thinking.

Bummer.

When he tried to speak, when he tried to answer questions from his kids and grandkids - sometimes he would cry in frustration.  His hand would sometimes become a fist as he banged it against his mattress.

This wasn’t their dad. This wasn’t their grandfather.

Down through the years his kids and grandkids liked to ask him questions about what it was like growing up and what have you. Before the stroke he was a great story teller; after the stroke, it was basically silence - as if a great wall went up and all around and surrounded him.

Three months into his time at Renaissance, his kids decided to clean up his house back home It was empty, for the most part. Mom had died years earlier.

In the basement, surprise, surprise, they found in a room boxes and boxes and boxes of drawings - kids drawings.

There were also clay plates made by kids - as well as ceramics - all made by his grandkids.

There were fake flowers. There were stick figures made out of pipe cleaners. There were pictures cut out of magazines.

And most of the crayon and magic marker drawings had the name of kid who drew them or created them.

Grandpa learned that kids love to put their names on the bottom of their drawings.

They brought one of the boxes - filled with kids’ drawings and kids’ writing - and asked him why he had saved all these drawings.

He couldn’t answer.

But each picture got him to smile, laugh - make hand gestures - but nobody knew why he had saved all these creations.

So the boxes went back home and back into the basement.

I would like to be able to report that grandpa got better - but he didn’t.

Grandpa died - and he was to be buried in the local cemetery - next to mom - who had died 10 years earlier.

Luke - a Lieutenant Colonel - and grandpa’s oldest grandson - came back from Afghanistan for the funeral.

He asked if grandpa still had all those drawings he kept down in the basement.

His mom said, “Yes. Do you know about them?”

“Yeah,” said Luke.

“Well, what about them?”

“Oh,” said Luke.

“I once drew grandpa a picture of a purple tree.”

He said, ‘Thank you!’”

“But it didn’t go up on the refrigerator door.”

“In fact, he threw it out.”

“The next time we visited grandpa I asked to see my purple tree. I was quite proud of it.”

“Purple was the only magic marker color I had in my school bag.”

“At that I noticed that Grandpa -  put on this ‘Uh oh!’ face.”

There was silence.

“Then he said, ‘I lost it.’”

He saw that I was disappointed.

“Later, when we were leaving to go back home, grandpa called me over and said, ‘I lied. I’m sorry. I threw out your purple tree.’”

“I didn’t know what to say or to do. I didn’t know grandparents could lie.”

“So I gave him a big hug.”

“Well, about 10 years later, grandpa said to me. “Thank you again for that purple tree you gave me years ago. I learned my lesson. I kept every drawing every one of you grandkids give me.”

The mystery was solved.

Luke then said, “Get plenty of duct tape - plenty of scissors - and get all grandpa’s drawings. We’re going to the funeral parlor.”

That afternoon, that evening, when people went to the funeral parlor - they experienced a celebration of grandpa’s family - all 23 of his grandkids  - and their wives and husbands - and all his friends.

When they walked in - the walls of the funeral parlor were filled with hundreds and hundreds of kids’ drawings and pictures - with their names on it.

It was unique. It was a surprise. It made the newspapers. It got everyone to cry - tears of joy and smiles.

Ooops and one nice part of the story:  every one of those grandkids wanted their childhood drawings.

Great move by Luke, actually:  at the end of all this - nobody had to clean out grandpa’s collection of drawings.

ooooooooooooo

This was a story I wrote for today's kids' Mass. It was for the 4th Sunday in Ordinary Time - A. How this fits in with the readings, it's anyone's guess.