LIGHT  AND  DARKNESS 

DREAMS  AND  NIGHTMARES

INTRODUCTION

Today - on this feast of the Holy Innocents - I would like to reflect upon the basic themes of light and darkness.

They are big themes in all religions.

Another way of wording it could be, “dreams and nightmares”.

Each of us and all of us in both our own private world - as well as in our public world - experience both light and darkness - dreams and nightmares - good and evil - right and wrong - grace and sin - ying and yang.

FIRST READING

In today’s first reading John tells us this message very clearly. If we don’t admit that we make mistakes, that we sin, we’re liars. We’re in darkness and we don’t know it.

But in God, he tells us, there is no darkness.

Carl Jung, fools around with the thought of darkness in God, because of the themes and reality of sin and evil in the world as part of reality.

Other religions propose a God of evil and a God of good; a God of darkness and a God of Light.

John tells us that in God there is no darkness.

John of the Cross and Dionysius the Areopagite tell of the divine dark. I suspect that an evil dark doesn’t exist in God - but it does exist in us. So  I don’t know about this divine dark. Of course, when it comes to God, we are in the dark. And when it comes to us, we are often walking in darkness - especially when we sin.

THEME

So the theme of dreams and nightmares, light and darkness is in each of us.

GOSPEL

In the gospel for today we have Joseph and Herod. Joseph’s dream is to go to Bethlehem with Mary, to register and then to come back home to Nazareth. The trip began with a nightmare. There was no room in the inn for them. The trip ended with a nightmare: Herod’s plan is to kill all the males. In a dream, Joseph is given the light. Go to Egypt. All this stuff in Matthew are ways that Matthew brings in his theology - especially using OT stuff.

We’re all called to redemption  - to get out of slavery - Egypt - to go through the waters of Baptism - the Red Sea or Reed Sea - and to head for the Promised Land.

But let’s develop the darkness and light, nightmare and dream theme a bit more.

DENIAL

If we reflect  upon all this we have to admit that we do have dreams and nightmares. We often wake up in the morning in a dream, or just after a dream, and often we say at breakfast, “Wow did I have a weird dream last night.” And sometimes we wake up during the night in the middle of a nightmare.

ANALOGOUSLY

Analogously, we have to admit that sometimes we have dream days and nightmare experiences, when we are awake.

So dreams and this unconscious life are going on 24 hours.

PLANE CRASH

A plane ride is sometimes seen as a dream.  We look ahead to a warm place in the middle of a cold winter. We’re going to have a dream trip - a dream vacation.

Beautiful.

Then - sometimes there is a nightmare. It’s snowing big time in Erie or Chicago and our flight from BWI or wherever - is cancelled because of flight delays - because of the weather.

RELATIONSHIP

A relationship looks beautiful. Sometimes it becomes a nightmare.

GLEN CLOSE

I remember reading an article about Glen Close the actress in U.S.A. once. She said she was  the good girl in the movie, The Natural, and The World According to Garp, and some other movies. She said she wanted to play the part of someone who is evil. So that’s what she got when she played the evil Alex in the movie, Fatal Attraction. Then there is her movie, Dangerous Liaisons - which is all about Good and Evil.

JOE LEDDY

A guy I know - Joe Leddy once said, “A professor at Manhattan used to say that all of us could become Francis of Assisi or Joseph Stalin."

All people, all trips, all plans, all days, can become a dream or a nightmare.

ALFRED HITCHCOCK

Alfred Hitchcock thrived on all this, loving to point out, the possibility of danger in a quiet country motel or on the symbol of security, Mount Rushmore.

SHADOW

Surprise. Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows.

OPTIMIST -- PESSIMIST

Does one become a pessimist or remain an optimist?

I would suggest being a realist.

Trust but verify.

SELF

As regards self, to admit that I could be like Herod and become filled with bitter jealousy, fear, bitterness, lack of trust, those feelings taking over, and I end up destroying innocent life.  Or I can become like Joseph: a rescuer.

CONCLUSION

The title and theme of this homily for this feast of the Holy Innocents has been, Light and Darkness,  Dreams and Nightmares.

Often we are in the dark. So we need Christ the light of the world.

Look at the history of the world and see what happened when Christ came into our world. Amen.

Here's an E-Christmas Card - Christmas in a Child's Gaze

from the Redemptorists 

in Australia.

December 28, 2017

HOLY  INNOCENTS

Who is holy and who is innocent?

Does the child who whines and

wants her way - is she breaking

her innate goodness? Is she

being selfish - at its early stages?

How about the boy who knocks

over the other kid’s sand castle

at the beach - when strangers stop to say

to the builder, “Nice job. Nice job!” and
all the breaker made was a mud puddle?

How about the other end of life?

Who is holy and who is innocent?

Is it the old guy or gal at the end

of the nursing home corridor who

spreads smiles and joys to all?

© Andy Costello, Reflections  2017

ST.  JOHN 

AND BEING CALLED 

TO BE A SAINT 

INTRODUCTION

Today, on the feast of St. John, I would like to preach on the calling of each Christian to be a saint by mirroring and practicing a specific feature of Christ.

CHESTERTON

Chesterton once remarked that Christianity has not been tried and found wanting, “It has not been tried.”

GANDHI

Gandhi, when asked about his thoughts on Christianity said, “It sounds like a good religion. I’m still waiting to see someone live it.”

SOMEONE IN CHINA

A Chinese person after listening to some Christians said, “Christianity: it’s a very talky religion.”

SAINTS

To counter these objections, Christianity has often pushed its saints. Here are some of the people who lived it. These are some of the people who did it.

Just as Jesus is the word of the Father, so the saint is the word of the Father and / or the word of the Son or both or add the Spirit for all Three.

It's an exaggeration, but we could say that Jesus is all the colors of the rainbow - while the saints are pictured as one specific color.

ST. STEPHEN

For example, St. Stephen’s feast day was yesterday. He is presented as enfleshed forgiveness. He is the word “forgiveness” personified.

ST. AUGUSTINE

St. Augustine has various appeals. To many he is the saint who put things off - like practicing chastity.  He would say, "Not yet." Then one day he changes. We all put things off, especially our conversion, especially habits that we know we ought to change. Someday maybe we too will change.

ST. ANDREW

St. Andrew in the gospel of John is featured as the one who brings his brother to Jesus.

In the other gospels, he is featured as the one who sort of silently steps in when needed.

I see him as the patron saint of background stories - always there, but rarely noticed - only when needed.

ST. PETER

St. Peter appeals to us as the saint who puts his foot in his mouth, who makes promises,  who brags,then climbs into his mouth with both feet. Don’t we all make promises that we don’t keep?

ST. THOMAS THE APOSTLE

And St. Thomas the Apostle gives glimmers of hope to all those who have lots of doubts, who want to see before they will believe. “Proof: I want to see proof. Show me.”

STILL HAVE A CHANCE

These saints show us that we still have a choice based on our personality.

We can put our foot in our mouth, and take it out again. We can recover. We can make up for our mistakes.  We can have doubts. We can put off our conversion, but hopefully, someday we will change. Someday we will become our best self. Someday we will become saints. Someday we will be one of the colors of the rainbow called, “Christ.”

Maybe we’ll be an example of forgiveness like Stephen. Maybe we’ll be an example of poverty like St. Francis. Maybe we’ll be an example of prayer like St. Therese of Lisieux.

ST. JOHN: WHAT COLOR, WHAT MESSAGE

Since today is the feast of  St. John the Evangelist, what does he  represent?

What color of the rainbow is he?

I see St. John as a poet - a bringer of Good News - by using everyday images: bread, wine, water, perfume, light, wind.

He is the one who tells others, about Jesus.

He has the need to tell, to brag about Jesus.

He tells us he had stuff to give away to follow Jesus. He left all to follow Jesus.

He tells us that his mom once pushed to have him and his brother be seated at the right and left of Jesus in the kingdom.

Jesus said, “That’s not mine to give.” But there he is at the last supper next to Jesus. And when the others took off scared, he stayed. And there he is under the cross next to Jesus.

He tells us that he could run faster than Peter, but yet he respected Peter as the head. Peter saw and believed -but John believed first.

In all this I think John is doing what we all do. We want to share with others directly and indirectly what we’ve done and where we are.

MOTIVE

And why did John share? He gives us the reason in today’s first reading. So that the joy he feels, we’ll feel. He wants to share in our joy as well, otherwise he won’t be complete.

CONCLUSION

So that’s a bit about St. John and some saints.

In the past, Saints tended  to be put on pedestals - statues with eyes raised to heaven - maybe with hands folded in prayer.

Today we’re back to the older way of presenting saints. They are presented as being on our level and featured with a specific agenda - in everyday life. We look at them, see their specific feature, and then we ask if we can see ourselves being called to that feature, which then fills out all the colors of the rainbow, called, Christ - for our world to experience.

O  O  O  O  O  O  O

Painting of St. John the Evangelist 

by David de Haen

December 27. 2017

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

In the beginning - page one of this scroll -

the choice is proclaimed: "Will I accept 
these words - as well as the Word - to

become flesh and dwell within us?"

Water, wind, bread, wine, light, night,

helping me the reader to soar,

to see with eagle eye from on high,

what I’m not seeing here down below ….

Wheat becoming bread becoming body,

water becoming wine becoming blood,

healing at pools, eyes beginning to see,

lakes filled with fish, Lazarus returning ….

To meet Jesus at noon at the well,

to thirst for and then to taste living water;

to meet Jesus in the night - in the dark -

to be Nicodemus and not Judas.

To drop rocks, to have supper with him, 
to have feet washed, to hear the new

commandment, to remain in his love, to die,

and then to rise to have breakfast with him.

© Andy Costello, Reflections  2017

Feast of Saint John the Gospel Writer

December 27

FORGIVE AND FORGET

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “Forgive  and  Forget.”

How many times in our life have we heard someone give us the advice, “Forgive and Forget”?

Both can be difficult to pull off.

FIRST FORGET

It’s interesting what we remember and it’s also interesting what we forget.

We see someone and without knowing it, they look like a high school classmate who used to pick on us - bully us - bother us - many years ago - but we don’t know why the appearance of this person is bothering us.

We go by a cemetery on a road we never were on before - and we feel the sacred - or we feel scared - as we drive by.  It’s a different feeling when a mile further ahead we drive by a high school - on the other side of that road.

Buildings, churches, fences, barking German shepherd dogs,  an old lady with a cane or an old man on a bicycle trigger past experiences. 

Sometimes we can recover and remember the source of that feeling upstream or downstream in our mind. Sometimes we don’t.

Sometimes we see so and so - and we go, “Oooouuuuuuh!” and we know exactly why we feel that way towards this person.  We can’t forget  what she said about us behind our back 17 years ago. 

There are things we cannot forget.

When I go by the Maryland Inn - and the Treaty of Paris Restaurant -  on the top of Duke of Gloucester Street - I remember and say a prayer every time. That’s where my niece Margie was proposed to by her husband Jerry. He dropped into Annapolis years ago and told me his story as we were taking a walk on the red bricks of Annapolis.

When I drive past Maimonides Hospital in Brooklyn - I feel  the memory coming out of the bricks, “This is where my dad died.”

I have been told by lots of folks who drop into Annapolis - and into St. Mary’s Church, “This is where we got married.”

Years ago - I didn’t know I did this - but we were going by Victory Memorial Hospital in Brooklyn. My nephew Michael was in the car with us. Well, I went, “Shuuuuuuuuuuu!” as we went up a particular street and past a particular building.  He or maybe his brother or sisters asked, “Why the “Shussh!?” And I answered, “This is where I was born. In this hospital here.”  A year or two later, Michael got hit by a car and was knocked out and  they took him to another hospital to be checked. He woke up - looks around - and says to the nurse, “Is this where my Uncle Andy was born?” My sister Mary told me that story.

Imagine all the memories and sentences and comments and scenes we have in our RAM - our Random Access Memory - in our brain?

Remembering is who we are - and advertisers want to know all about memory triggers.

Forgetting - as in forgive and forget - is tricky business - as well.

NEXT FORGIVING

Forgiving is also tricky - but it’s a lot more part of the will. It’s more of a choice - compared to forgetting and remembering.

I can forgive someone - even though I can’t forget what they did to me.

The gospels don’t tell us we have to forget.  They do tell us to forgive.

Jesus tells us to forgive 70 times 7 times.

In fact at times before forgiving, Jesus tells us to remember - as in, “Let him or her without sin cast the first stone.”  Jesus is telling us: "Don’t forget you too have made mistakes."

ST. STEPHEN

Today - the first day after Christmas - is the feast day of St. Stephen. He is  considered by some to be the first martyr who died because he was a follower of Jesus Christ .

Stephen remembers what Jesus said on the cross when he was dying on Calvary, “Father forgive them because they don’t know what they are doing.”  So Stephen says when he is being killed, “Father don’t lay this sin on their doorstep.”

Notice in that prayer - that shout to God - that Stephen says to God, “Forget about it.”  He’s saying to forgive and forget about this - what they are doing to me.

CONCLUSION

Forgetting is sometimes part of amnesia and aging.

Forgiving is hopefully always  part of being a Christian.

___________________________________

Picture on top: The Stoning of St. Stephen by Rembrandt

December 26, 2017

BOXING  DAY    

Today is “Boxing Day” - no, not fighting.

In fact, December 26^th, is just the

opposite. It’s the feast of St. Stephen -

the patron saint of forgiveness.

Today is Boxing Day - when Christmas is

stretched - so we can enjoy the leftovers,

to think more of the poor and anyone

else we might have missed on Christmas.

Today is “Boxing Day” - but not in the

United States - but it is in many places

around the world, when people give

each other boxes with gifts inside.

Today - in the good old USA - empty boxes

line the curb - waiting for a garbage truck.

Their contents were: toys, shirts, sweaters,  shoes, and socks that grace and embrace us.

Today people are still outside their boxes,

Today - Boxing Day - we can still hear

“Merry Christmas” everywhere - all

over the USA and all around the world.

© Andy Costello, Reflections  2017