A  NEW  BEGINNING

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 19^th Saturday in Ordinary Time  is, “A New Beginning.”

If you come to daily Mass, have you noticed lately - like in the book of Joshua - several references to the River - and River is capitalized in today’s first reading?

It’s the Jordan River - the river that flows right down the middle of Israel.

Back track a bit to Egypt. Israel moves out of Egypt. It begins with the Escape, the Exit, the Exodus, the journey through the Red or Reed Sea.  Then it takes them 40 years in the desert - before they finally make the move into the Promised Land - which they enter going across the Jordan River.

And they do that crossing downstream a good bit from the Lake of Galilee - closer to the present day country of Jordan. If you take a tour of Israel they bring you to spots higher up the river from where the actual crossing took place.

At least that’s what the historians and specialists say….

As we heard the other day, Moses dies on the other side of that river - on the eastern side. He never makes the crossing.

That crossing was their baptism - their becoming a people.

JOHN THE BAPTIST

We were taught that the crossing of the Jordan was very significant.

It was a beginning - a new beginning for the people of Israel.

John the Baptist called people to the River - to go to the other side and then enter the river  - be dipped in that river - be renewed in that river - and then come up on the Israel side and start again.  

Have a new beginning....

We were taught that was what John the Baptist was doing with his baptism.

And Jesus entered into that renewal - that new beginning.  It’s called Christianity, the New Testament.

NEW BEGINNINGS

Retreat Houses and programs often grab the theme of New Beginnings. Check their brochures that list their programs.

Hopefully, we’ve all had renewal experiences in our lives - fresh starts - new beginnings.

A person gets transferred to a new location in a company. And it gives him or her an opportunity for a fresh start, a new beginning.

So too athletes traded to another team.

So too kids starting in a new school - a fresh start - maybe in a new city, it’s a chance to start again. Or going to High School or College.

Then they get out - and it’s a fresh start.

CHILD AGAIN

Today’s gospel gets us to think about being a child again. To have that wide eye - looking around - discovering - exploring bottom drawers and closets and cellars and attics and life - like a child again.

EACH DAY

Each day can be seen as a new beginning.

We’re starting it off with a mass.

Then Go the Mass is Ended - and a new hour begins.

Life:  it never grows old.

How old is the universe that God gives us his children each day.

What is God’s attitude towards life?

Thy Kingdom Come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.

Say that, pray that, do that every day - before each new beginning.

August 19, 2017

THE JUGGLER

The juggler on the street

told me while juggling:

“Hey, you have to learn how

to juggle three things -

but the three are different

for everyone. It could be

mercy. It could be laughter.

It would be balance.

It could be compromise.

It could be forgiveness.

It could be letting go.”

Just then one fell and

he said, “See what you…”

And just then he stopped

and he laughed at me.

  

© Andy Costello, Reflections  2017

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