August 18, 2017

BAD KARMA

What goes around - comes around -
again and again and again, that is
unless we get a new map, or
unless we drive another way,
or get a flat tire - that is, if someone
lets the hot air out of our tire. 

© Andy Costello, Reflections  2017

CATSUP

Sometimes catsup saves the meat loaf,
but sometimes catsup ruins the song.

August 17,  2017

MOKSHA  

A Sanskrit - Hindu - Buddhist word -

meaning - liberation, freedom, release -

meaning - the walls come tumbling down,
meaning - the cage doors are open.

There is life on the other side of the door.

I see. I feel. I don’t need to be in control.

The chains come off. I’m on the other

side of desire and death and need.

I’m with the crowd making an Exodus

from slavery.  I’m part of the millions

who have been baptized - washed clean. I’m free. I'm new. I can start again.
Resurrection and Easter has arrived for me.

© Andy Costello, Reflections  2017

FACE  TO  FACE 

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 19^th Wednesday in Ordinary Time is, “Face to Face.”

Today’s first reading says that Moses had a face to face relationship with God.

What would that be like?

For starters, I can only take it on face value - that the author of today’s first reading from Chapter 34 of Deuteronomy is saying that Moses’ relationship with God was like a face to face relationship between two people.

It’s eyeball to eyeball. It’s intimate.  It’s close….

However, where it differs is that one part of the relationship is a human relating to God in a human way and God relating to one of us - in a human way. The scriptures are also  saying, nobody else but Moses had such a relationship with God.

I would think Adam and Eve had an equivalent relationship; with God.  They walked with God in the cool of the evening.

Of course this is poetry, this is imaginative writing, this is an author’s way of trying to get us to see a relationship with God  in a very human way.

The Book of Exodus is telling us that Moses face began to radiate, shine, as a result of his face to face relationship with God.

I would think that the impact of any great relationship with another person - should show up in our face, in our eyes, in our step, and body movement.

TODAY’S GOSPEL

Let me jump to today’s gospel - while keeping in mind this idea of having a face to face relationship with God. [Cf. Matthew 18: 15-20.]

The gospel tells us that sometimes we don’t get along with each other or with the community. The gospel tells us that sometimes we have to go face to face with each other - with folks we have trouble with. The gospel has the hope that brothers and brothers and sisters and sisters - the whole community - that we’ll all work to live with each other in peace, that we’ll pray with and for each other, that we’ll respect each other - face to face.

Who are the people in my life that I should be in communion with face to face with? Whom should I be having a face to face relationship with because we want to get along better with each other.  When was the last time we were looking - really looking into the eye of another? 

Jesus said we can tell a lot by the eyes. I think we know this, but ….

Maybe we are neglecting - our brothers and sisters - walking right by them every day.

I know I need to hear this message.

EYE TO EYE, FACE TO FACE

As I think about all this, I know I need to think more about communication and communion with others.

I think that I think better, when I’m trying to say something to another - and I don’t look them right in the eye - face to face. - because that sometimes gets in the way of what I’m trying to communicate or figure out. I’m not sure about this - and the whole process of communication. It’s a lifetime tennis match.

How about you? How do you communicate best? How about cell phone to cell phone, e-mail to e-mail, smart phone to smart phone. Is there better communication going on when people see each other on their phones?

A test would be: what color eyes does the other have?

I remember I took an old photograph of my mother from way back and brought it to Macy’s to have them enhance it. I wanted them to remove a person in the picture - so it would just be a picture of my mom. So I wanted to fix it up, have it framed  and then give it to my mother for Mother’s Day. It was a sepia colored photograph.

So I went to the counter and the lady asked if I wanted the picture colored.  I didn’t know they could do such a thing.

The lady at the counter looked me the eye and asked, “What color is your mother’s eye.

I had no clue.

So she said, “I’ll make them yours.”

To be honest,  I  didn’t even know what color eyes I had.

I gave the picture to my mom.

When my sister Mary looked at it, she said, “Mom doesn’t have green brown eyes.”

CONCLUSION

For starters, when I’m looking at some one, I need to look at them face to      face, see what color eyes they have.

And - Ooops! Does I know what color eyes God has?

August 16, 2017

SUKHA  AND  DUHKHA

Life is both sukha and duhkha….

Pleasure and pain ….

Sweet and sour ….

Easy and difficult ….

SU [good];  DUH [bad] ….

KHA is the axle hole on your cart.

SU is a good fit; DUH is a bad fit.

How to live with both as we

roll down the road of life - now

that is the question both

Buddhism and Hinduism ask ….

What are the things you are 
doing that cause sukha and what
are the things that cause duhkha?

© Andy Costello, Reflections  2017

TAKE  THE  STAIRS 

Always take the stairs,

if possible….

Okay, it’s slower. And
you might miss out on a chance

to chat a few blurted words to

someone on the elevator.

But still, always take the stairs.

You’ll  learn a lot more - like

life is steps - and steps teach

things like - a day at a time.

Always take the stairs, if possible….

like in conversion and recovery  -

as we see in Alcoholics Anonymous -

and several spiritual systems.

Life takes steps. It’s a staircase

to many floors - to many doors -

and sometimes we think we’re there,

but we’re not. There are more doors.

So, always take the stairs

if possible….

© Andy Costello, Reflections  2017

MARY’S  BLURTS

The title of my homily is, “Mary’s Blurts.”

I assume that I have to make this sermon for this feast of the Assumption shorter than usual - because this Mass calls for the Gloria, 3 readings, the Creed, a collection - and some of you have to get to work.

I assume that Mary was like the rest of us - in that she inwardly and outwardly - blurted out - tiny blurts - tiny - one, two, three or more words -  short sentences  - shorter - much shorter than tweets - during her life.

I assume she thought and spoke in Aramaic and I only know the few Aramaic words in the gospels that Jesus spoke, “Talitha  cum” , “Ephphatha”, “Mammon”, “Hosanna”, “Boanerges",  “Cephas”.

So I imagined some of Mary’s blurts in English - and to make this homily practical - think of what your blurts are  - and what you imagine Mary’s blurts were.

So here are my assumptions for what Mary’s blurts would be.

“Uh oh!”

“What does this mean?”

“Full of grace?”

“A compliment? Okay, now comes the request.”

“Be a mother?”

“How?”

“Okay - be it done to me as you wish.”

“No room in the Inn? What were we thinking?”

“I don’t believe this.”

“Oh my God, so many innocent babies killed.”

“But we don’t know any Egyptian.”

“It’s time to go exit, exodus, go home.”

“Nazareth!  It’s good to be home again.”

“Jerusalem, again, now what?”

“Jesus,  where are you?”

“Why did you do this to us?  We’ve been looking for you for 2 days now.”

“Where did he get this wisdom?”

“They have run out of wine.”

“Listen to him.”

“Me blessed, no? You, yes if you do the will of our Father.”

“That’s sword number 5. Two more to come….”

“On no, they’re going force him to carry his cross up this way to Calvary.”

“Oh no!”

“Come Holy Spirit.”

”Oh my God.”

“My soul magnifies the Lord.”

- O - O - O - O - O - O - O -

NOTES:

Painting on top: The Annunciation by Henry Ossawa Tanner, 1898. It can be found in the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

For these imagined annunciations or blurts by Mary I followed the scripture stories - especially in Luke and Matthew.