*

OPENING  THE   SCRIPTURES 

FOR  YOU….. 

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “Opening the Scriptures for You….”

Today’s gospel - the story of the 2 disciples who were walking the 7 mile trip from Jerusalem to Emmaus - is a favorite gospel story for many. [Cf. Luke 24: 13-35]

The two  were followers of Jesus - but Jesus was arrested and killed - and it looked like their dream was over.  They were walking along talking and debating about Jesus - and without recognizing who he was -  a stranger on the road Jesus comes along and starts walking and talking along with them. He asks them what they were talking about - and they say, “Are you the only one who was in Jerusalem these past few days - and you don’t know what happened there?”

And Jesus says, “What sort of things?”

They blurted out to him, “The things that happened to Jesus the Nazarene….” And they told the stranger - Jesus -  the whole story - how they hoped Jesus would redeem Israel.”

Then they tell this stranger about the rumors that there were reports that Jesus was alive - making appearances.

Susan R. Garrett

Then Jesus said to them, “Oh how foolish you are!”

Then Jesus told them all that was in the scriptures about himself.

Michael Torevell

They reached their destination and Jesus gave the impression he was continuing on the journey - but they urged Jesus, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over.”

They sat down at a table and Jesus took bread, said the blessing, broke it and gave it to them.

“With that,” the scriptures says, “their eyes were opened and they recognized him….”

Significant!  Significant!

It was then that Jesus vanished from their sight.

Then they said, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us on the way and opened the scriptures for us.”

OPENING THE SCRIPTURES FOR US

In all your years of coming to church, who have been the preachers  who really opened up the scriptures for you?  Who were the preachers who opened up your tear ducts for you - when you were here at Mass?  Who have been the preachers  who helped you to see Jesus walking along with you in your life?

Wow, would I love to do that kind of preaching. 

I hope every preacher does.

Sorry.

Let me practice what I'm preaching. Sometimes - maybe 3 times since I’ve been here - something in a homily - something in the scriptures - hits me and there are tears. I don’t know if it hits anybody else.  And I have also looked out - from up here - at times - and it looks like something is hitting someone - and it looks like they are crying.

Church stuff - Jesus stuff - God stuff - hits all of us - hopefully down deep - inside - like that place we see in movies at times - behind and underneath a waterfall.  Back there…. In there …. underneath there.

And we preachers know - it’s not what we said, but it’s what the listener is talking to herself or himself  about - or what they are going through in their life at the time.

There was one priest in Brooklyn, who had a column in the Brooklyn Tablet, the Catholic newspaper, who wrote great columns on spirituality and the gospel. They would often get me thinking.  John Shea did that for me at times. He liked to retell the scriptures for the day in a modern story or retelling of the gospel for that day. I like to try that at times. [1]

I mention all this - because something like that hit these two disciples that evening - on their sad seven mile journey from Jerusalem to Emmaus.

MORE - IS THERE A SECRET FOR OPENING UP THE BIBLE?

There is a statement from the documents of the Second Vatican Council on the Liturgy that every priest and deacon has heard at least 10 times, “The treasures of the Bible are to be opened up more lavishly, so that richer fare may be provided for the faithful at the table of God’s Word.”  Then it continues, “In this way a more representative portion of the holy Scriptures will be read to the people over a set cycle of years.” [2]

That was stated in 1963 - and we have seen - better we have heard - much more of the Scriptures in the last 50 plus years.

I hope the homilies - and the sermons - have been better.

And the document on the Scriptures from that same Vatican Council - in  1965 - quotes St. Jerome, “For ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ.” [3]  His dates are 347-420, so he would have said that around 400 or so.

I hope - because of opening up of more of the Bible for us - has given all of us more knowledge of Jesus Christ.

I know I don’t preach enough on the first and second readings.

I also know Catholics certainly have opened up their Bibles and know the Bible a lot more because of the opening of new life for Catholics after the Second Vatican Council.

Before I was stationed here in St. Mary’s I worked out in Ohio - Pennsylvania - down South a bit - etc. etc. etc. preaching many, many parish missions and I noticed in many, many parishes, Bible study groups - like the one that takes place here.  Thank you Chris Cable and all those who do that. And I noticed that when Father Joe Krastel gave his talks on St. Paul - people showed up and sang his praises.

The founder of the Redemptorists, St. Alphonsus de Liguori, said, “The whole of our religion can be summed up in the practice of the love of Jesus Christ.”

THE SECRET

In My Fair Lady, there is a song line, “By George,  I think she got it.”

It's a great movie - showing us how far a person can come till she finally gets it.

Life is growth - and we grow by glimpses.

I think I got a glimpse of how to open up the scriptures - so we all can get to know Jesus Christ better. I want to do what Jesus did for these 2 disciples on the road to Emmaus.

For starters, the disciples recognized Jesus in the Breaking of the Bread.

At Mass we break bread.  At  Mass we break words.

It’s called a meal. We have 3 of them a day: breakfast, lunch and supper.

Okay it varies.

Jesus chose a meal, a supper, his last supper with his disciples, and during that meal, he did two things.  He broke bread and he broke words.

When we sit down to eat, we break bread and we break words.

How was your day.  Can you pass me the bread. Can you pour me some wine.

If we don’t eat with each other, we will not have communion with each other.

If we can’t stand each other, we will not talk and listen to each other.  We won’t be able to stomach each other. We will not get strength from each other.

We will avoid eating with each other.

When teenagers start breaking away from the family, they stop eating with the family. When families start falling apart, they stop eating with each other. They are no longer called a Mass - the Mass of people called the Smithtonian Family. People have to eat, but when they eat on the run, in fast food places, or when they are in communion with a TV or someone 15 or 150  miles away on a phone with them, they have dropped out of the little church called the Jonestonian Family. So too we see how people drop out of church. They start dropping out of the Meal called the Mass.

For starters that’s how to read and understand the Scriptures and get Christ and be in communion with him.

THREE MORE AND THEN CONCLUDE

Let me give 3 more ways to understand the scriptures.

First, the book of Genesis.  That’s the creation account and where we come from. Every human being has a creation account - where we started. Start talking to each other - inter generationally - where we come from and who the characters are - where the geography is, etc. Then look at Genesis the first book of the Bible. It tells about Roots. Read the Acts of the Apostles - our first reading for today. It tells us a good bit about how our church began.

Second, the books of the Prophets, who are our prophets. Who challenges us. Last night at Distinguished Alumni celebration of St. Mary’s High School, 4 people were honored. It was wonderful. All 4 told of their mentors, people who challenged them - to get them where they got to so far. Who are your mentors. Who has challenged you to get you to where you have gotten to. Then read the prophets.

Thirdly, Letters. what have been the letters of your life?  This might be disappearing with e-mail. But what have been the letters of your life. 

I love the story about my father writing love letters for 10 years from New York to Boston telling my mom he loved her and will you marry me. Finally the last letter worked with its message,  "If you don’t marry me, I will become an Irish Christian Brother." 

She wrote back, "Yes."

Thank God, otherwise I would not be standing here right now.  

What have been the significant letters that put you in your skin and your seat here today?  

Get that and you’ll get a bit of the letters in the Bible - especially why they saved the letters from St. Paul.

Enough.

***********************

NOTES:

* Painting on top: Daniel Bonnell, Road to Emmaus

[1] John Shea, An Experience Named Spirit, The Thomas More Press, Chicago, Illinois, 1983

John Shea, Elijah at the Wedding Feast and Other Tales, Stories of the Human Spirit, Acta Publications, Chicago, Illionois, 1999

John Shea, Starlight, Beholding the Christmas Miracle All Year Long, Crossroad, New York, 1992

John Shea, The Spirit Master, The Thomas More Press, Chicago, Illinois, 1987

John Shea, Stories of God, Thomas More, A Division of Tabor, Allen, Texas, 1978, 1996

John Shea, Finding God Again, Spirituality for Adults, Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc. Lanham, Boulder, New York, Toronto, Oxford, 2005

John Shea, Stories, Acta Publications, 2008

[2] Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy (Sacrosanctum Concilium), page 155 in The Documents of Vatican II, Walter M. Abbott, S.J., Herder and Herder, Association  Press, 1966.

[3] Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, (Dei Verbi), page 127 in The Documents of Vatican II, Walter M. Abbott, S.J., Herder and Herder, Association Press, 1966.

April 30, 2017

BREAD

Bread broken, sliced,

cut, shared, sitting

with you at this table,

sharing words, wine

and each other.
This is me.

This is my body

and if you betray me

in the night or crucify me

on some Bad Friday,

I’ll make it good with

forgiveness and love.

I’ll make it a Good Friday.

This is me. This is how I love

and how I want to eat with you,

how I want to be with you,

how I'll rise with you 

every Easter Sunday morning.

  

© Andy Costello, Reflections  2017

April 29, 2017

BURDENED BY FATE

Burdened by fate ???????

Are we?

Death, yes.

Parents, yes.

Body, yes.

Place and space, only for starters….

Then the changes….

Then the choices ….

Then the big decisions….

Why go through life as if

I'm following a map 
with tattooed x's and 0's

on the skin of my soul?

Burdened by fate???????

Are we?

No!

 © Andy Costello, Reflections  2017

THE

GAMALIEL PRINCIPLE

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “The Gamaliel Principle.”

It’s worth hearing this principle articulated every once and a while because it contains good wisdom.

The Gamaliel Principle is very simple: If God wants something, it’s going to happen – no matter how much anyone tries to stop it.

People say, “You can’t fight City Hall.” Wrong. You can fight City Hall – and at times people have won.

But if people say, “You can’t fight God!” they are right.

We heard in today’s first reading: the High Priest, the Sadducee's, the Sanhedrin, the Pharisees, and their councils, all wanted to wipe out the Apostles – that is, till Gamaliel stood up to speak.

Verse 34 of Acts 5 says, “But a Pharisee in the council named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, respected by all the people, stood up and ordered the men to be put outside for a short time. They he spoke to them.”

Gamaliel said: “Look, we’ve seen this kind of thing happen in the past and in the long run, we found out it didn’t work. These so called reformers fell and were destroyed. So time will tell. If this is not of God, it will disappear; if it’s of God, let’s not find ourselves fighting God.”

Great advice. If possible, don’t sweat craziness. Remember stupidity has it’s own reward. Remember greed is quicksand and it swallows up those who jump into its hole.

Then there are Church scandals. Relax, the Church rights itself – in time.

We’ve all heard the story about Napoleon saying to Cardinal Consalvi, “I am going to destroy the church!” and Consalvi said, “Best of luck. We clergy have been trying to do it for centuries and we still haven’t succeeded.”

I love the story I heard a few times about the old lady from Jersey City who said, “The 5 marks of the Church are: it’s one, holy, Catholic, Apostolic, and it survives its clergy.”

In the meanwhile, if possible, wait. Eventually ….

This doesn’t mean we sweep stuff under the rug. This doesn’t mean there shouldn’t be whistle blowing – and there will always be letter writing. This doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t have councils to reform the church. We need ongoing conversion – but what do you do, when nothing is changing?

I found two new stories or examples last night while preparing this sermon– stories  I never heard before.  

The first one has to do with Francis of Assisi. In the 1200’s times were not too moral for the church and it’s clergy – so one of Francis of Assisi’s brothers asked him, "Brother Francis," he said, "What would you do if you knew that the priest celebrating Mass had three concubines on the side?" Francis, without missing a beat, said slowly, "When it came time for Holy Communion, I would go to receive the sacred Body of my Lord from the priest's anointed hands."

The second story or example comes from traditions about St. Francis deSales. It has much more substance and you can vehemently disagree with this.

“Once, St. Francis deSales was asked to address the situation of the scandal caused by some of his brother priests during the 1500s and 1600s.

He said, "Those who commit these types of scandals are guilty of the spiritual equivalent of murder," destroying other people's faith in God by their terrible example. But then he warned his listeners, "But I'm here among you to prevent something far worse for you. While those who give scandal are guilty of the spiritual equivalent of murder, those who take scandal - who allow scandals to destroy their faith - are guilty of spiritual suicide."

We all know people drop out of church because of scandals. St. Francis deSales is saying, “It’s spiritual suicide.”

Not easy. But Jesus said, “I am with you all days, even to the end of the world.”

So don’t go crazy. Trust in God. Now, of course, there is a catch. It’s patience. It’s frustration. It’s the slowness.

The catch is the “in the meanwhile, the poor get poorer and people go bananas with sinfulness, etc.

Relax: sin and selfishness and stupidity – all have their own reward.

Relax: those who play with fire, get burnt.

Remember there is always the reckoning. There is a wash day. There is a judgment day.

Stink stinks.

Sin eventually rises to the surface and sin floats.

Time tells all things.`

Trust the process, if you live a good life, goodness will prevail.

God sees the big picture – we go crazy at little stuff like who’s going to communion and who’s winning and who is getting all the credit. The universe is estimated to be 5 to 15 billion years ago – and now with the Hubble Telescope, one number is 14 billion and another figure is 11.2 billion.

And we humans haven’t been around that long yet  - just becoming a little more conscious in the last 4000 years.

CONCLUSION

So the Gamaliel principle: Wait and see! God does what God does in the way God does  what’s what. 

APRIL 28, 2017

UNDOING

Undoing…. Now, at times, that would

be a skill we would all love to have.

Undoing a comment that goes sour -

unraveling - after it comes out of our mouth.

Undoing a marriage that fell apart - because

we both reneged and neglected promises.

Undoing creation - Adam and Eve sinned, yes,

and God had regrets creating us - Genesis 6:6.

Undoing our doings - thinking we can do that -

as if they never happened - when they did.

© Andy Costello, Reflections  2017

STARTING  OVER  AND 

OVER  AND  OVER  AGAIN 

INTRODUCTION

 The title of my homily is: “Starting Over and Over Again.”

I’d like to reflect a little bit on the basic theme of conversion – or starting over and over again.

Today’s gospel continues the story of Nicodemus from the 3^rd chapter of John. The obvious theme that keeps hitting me is the one we’ve been hearing: being reborn, starting over and over again.  

But the nuance I’d like to stress is not one conversion or two conversions, but one’s whole life as a series of many conversions, so called on-going conversions.

 I  LED THREE LIVES

When I was a teenager in the 1950's  there was a book and later a TV series, staring Richard Carlson, years ago, that was called, “I Led Three Lives.”

I only remember that he was a spy as well as a counter-spy – with the name, “Herbert Philbrick.”

That title, “I Led Three Lives” hit me as I reflected on this theme of conversion and starting all over again and again. We live and lead many lives.

Conversion is moving towards the best life we can life – to move towards what the Marine advertisement says, “To Be all we can be.”

THE NATURAL

Then there was the book and later the movie, The Natural. It had a scene that fits right in here loud and clear.

Glenn Close, plays the part of Iris Gaines. She is standing by the bedside of Roy Hobbs, played by Robert Redford. He just told her how much he messed up his life. On the way to spring training to join the team that signed him, he met this mysterious woman in black. He saw her once. Once. 

That obviously changed the path of his life. 

He had a very promising baseball career and he is shot by her. Glenn Close is standing there listening to him tell this story  in a hospital room. And she says, “I think we have two lives.  The one we live and learn from and the one we then do the rest of our life with after the learning.

Hopefully, we live and we learn and then live.

PATTERNS

But looking at my life, thinking about issues which I need to change, and grow from, eating patterns, sleeping patterns, work habits, prayer habits, etc. I see that there are many conversions, many ups and downs in life.

POEM CALLED NICODEMUS

Here is a poem - called "Nicodemus" - which I wrote way back for a book of night prayers. 

NICODEMUS

(John 3:1-21)

This time

in the wind,

in the night,

I stand at the door, Lord,

and knock once again.

I come,

empty and afraid,

asking, seeking, knocking,

hoping you will open up

your door to see me once again.

I enter

with fears and doubts,

questioning whether

it’s really worth it

to start my life all over once again.

I’ve been

reborn too many times.

There have been too many conversions.

Why should I rise this time

knowing that I’ll probably fall once again.

And yet, Lord,

after each fall

this urge to come back to you,

the way, the truth and the life,

stirs in me once again, like the Wind.

PROBLEM

One conversion can often be great.

There is the honeymoon and the infatuation period. Then there is the struggle and often disillusionment period that follows.

And then if we fall again, that second conversion, doesn’t have the bells and the whistles, and bragging rights, that the first conversion had.

I would think there is a vast difference between a second marriage or a third marriage - compared to a first marriage.

THE LORD DOES NOT GET ANGRY

Today’s gospel talks about the wrath of God and I often feel antsy when I mention that while reading the gospel.

One writer, speaking of the text says what’s going on here is projection of our inner feelings onto God. The text has a anthropomorphic sense. God is not a God of wrath - but we are.

One person described the after-effects of sin as,  “The recoil of sin upon the sinner.”

When we sin, we get angry at ourselves, not God.

When we sin, we damage ourselves at times over relationships with each other.

So the recoil in on self, the wrath is on the self.

GENEROSITY

 Rather the Lord is generous.

Today’s gospel talks about God  not being cheap.

He does not ration out his spirit.

He pours out new life on us. So go to God and ask, seek, knock.

DESERT STORY

I found a good example of the surprise side of God’s love. It’s about the copious redemption of God. All we need to do is cry out of our depths for his overflowing, over abundant redemption.

Here’s the example, “Two hundred miles northeast of Los Angeles is a baked-out gorge called Death Valley – the lowest place in the United States, dropping 276 feet below sea level. It is also the hottest place in the country, with an official recording of 134 degrees. Streams flow into Death Valley only to disappear, and a scant two and a half inches of rain falls on the barren wasteland each year.

“But, some time ago, an amazing thing happened. For nineteen straight days rain feel onto that lone dry earth. Suddenly all kinds of seeds, dormant for years, burst into bloom. In a valley of death, there was life.” p. 61 in ed. Floyd Thatcher, The Miracle of Easter, p. 61, Word Books, Waco TX.

CONCLUSION

Now, we might ask, well why doesn’t God pour down water on that desert all the time?

I don’t know.

But I’d rather see the story as an example that I can bloom, I can blossom, over and over again.

I can call on the Lord and be saved.

If we are really honest, God is calling us to conversion, to blossom all the time, Death valley doesn’t I can.

ONE  LIFE   TO  LIVE,

ONE  LIFE  TO  GIVE 

I love the question

that Mary Oliver asks

in her poem, The Summer Day,

"Tell me, what is it you plan to do

with your one wild and precious life?"

I suspect every person

and every poet asks

that question.

I suspect that's why 

commencement address speakers 
either uses Mary Oliver's question

or ask it in their own words.

Our family poem is 

The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost. 

We all have many roads ahead of us - 

and many times we come to a fork
in the road: 

"And I - I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference."

So  whether its doctor, lawyer,
maintenance or mechanic,

priest or prophet, nun or nurse,

mom, dad, advocate or actor,

"Tell me, what is it you plan to do

with your one wild and precious life?"

Listen to what a man with the name
of Adolfo Kaminsky did with his life.

© Andy Costello  - Thoughts for Today

The Forger - Video - NYTimes.com

▶ 16:20

https://www.nytimes.com/video/opinion/.../the-forger.html

Oct 2, 2016

As a teenager, Adolfo Kaminsky saved thousands of lives byforging passports to help children flee the Nazis ...