GIFTS  AT  THE  STABLE

[This is a story I wrote for our kids' Mass this morning here at St. Mary's. It is total fiction.]

The Angel Gabriel’s Church in Rio Flaco, New Mexico, came up with a neat way of celebrating the feast of the Epiphany.

As you know Latino kids get their Christmas gifts not just on Christmas Day, but many more gifts on the Feast of the Epiphany.

It goes way back to the time of the birth of Jesus - when the Magi - or wise men  - or the 3 Kings - showed up in Bethlehem - each with a gift for the newborn Savior, Jesus Christ the Lord.

Jesus received as gifts, some gold, some frankincense and some myrrh - from these three visitors.

And kids - as well as adults - we have been hearing from way back when - that Jesus received these 3 gifts - and we've also been told what these 3 gifts symbolized.

Gold symbolized that Jesus was to become a King - but not the kind of king people were used to. The Magi didn’t know however, what kind of king this Jesus was to be. They didn't know he was to be a poor king - a servant king - a king who washed feet and fed the poor.

Frankincense  was used to leave a sweet smell - a sweet scent - a sweet aroma in a cloud of smoke. A barn or stable, an inn or a tavern, could smell pretty bad. People would take incense -  put it into a fire - and it would send a sweet aroma into a room.

Myrrh …. Now myrrh was a strange gift. It was part of the embalming process - which  symbolized that people were going to try to kill Jesus at some point. Maybe the Magi giver of this gift - figured this out from the way King Herod talked about this baby they were searching for - and who would be king some day.

So down through the years some parents in some places would give their children special gifts on the feast of the Epiphany. In other places this happened more on Christmas.

Well in the Angel Gabriel church in Rio Flaco, New Mexico, kids would bring a gift for Jesus that he would like if he were their age.

They would bring it to Mass on the feast of Epiphany and place it up front - on the floor and some gifts in the stable as well.

Other churches - like our church of St. Mary's  here in Annapolis - families would take a gift suggestion from a Christmas tree in the vestibule and that gift would go to a poor kid.

In the Angel Gabriel church in Rio Flaco, New Mexico, all this was done a bit differently.

All the kids in Rio Flaco were poor.

Rio Flaco - in Spanish - it means Skinny River - so most of the year even the River that ran through their town was poor - thin - and skinny.

One kid brought his old bicycle and put it up at the stable as a gift for Jesus.

Another kid loves Reese’s Peanut Butter patties, so she bought and brought a whole box - 24 inside - of Reese’s Peanut Butter patties.

Another kid brought a blue and red kite - and kites do well in New Mexico - with the high winds on certain days - days when the poor of Rio Flaco could see expensive hot air balloons in the sky.

The gifts, the Epiphany presents, were all surprises. You never knew what kids would bring to church for this celebration of the Feast of the Epiphany.

Dolls, fishing poles, basketballs, baseball gloves, Rubric Cubes, chocolate chip cookies, 2 hula hoops, a 2000 piece jigsaw puzzle with one piece missing. It was a big picture of a famous mountain in New Mexico - that’s in all lots of western movies, t-shirts, baseball caps, a cap pistol, number’s paintings, a guitar, a pretty good looking saxophone, and on and on and on. They were all lined up - up front - at the stable - all before Mass.

Well, the kids didn’t hear the sermon that Epiphany Mass.

Their minds and their eyes were on the gifts up front at the stable. They checked everything out - especially when they went up for communion.

After Mass - that day - everyone stayed. The kids all had to put their names on a small index card. Then the collection basket was passed around the church.  Each kid put their card with their name on it -  in the basket.

Then Mamma Rosacitta, the oldest person in Rio Flaco, 102 years of age, was brought up front. They would sit her in the priest’s chair.

The church became all silent - with the excitement in the big room.

Then  one by one she pulled out a kid’s name. It was handed to an 7^th grader - who then read that kid’s name out loud  - so the whole church could hear it.

To the kids with the first, second and third call, it was if he or she won lottery.

The kid would come up and pick any gift he or she wanted - and everyone would clap.

The poor kids near the end didn’t have the best of choices obviously.

A very thin  girl got the box of the Reese’s Peanut Putter Pieces - 24 of them. Good thing she was generous, because her 3 siblings, 2 cousins, and then her friends got a patty, and that box was empty in 1 minutes after the drawing took place.

And oops - when it was a kid’s turn to pick - whatever gift he or she wanted - from what was still there - the kid would wink at Jesus.

Of course it was just a tiny statue of Jesus - but now and then a kid would say, “I think Jesus winked back at me.”

And kids and the people of the town of poor little  Rio Flaco would say, “As far as we know, this is the only town on earth - where such a thing happens every year on the Feast of the Epiphany.

EPIPHANIES

  

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “Epiphanies.”

Epiphanies:  Appearances, Manifestations, Showings, Seeings, Insights, Moments of Light, Figurings, Enlightenments, "Aha" moments, Revelations, Realizations, Apparitions’, The Curtain Rises, The Mask Comes Off, I finally see, I finally get it, Understandings, ….

Epiphanies….January 6^th  or so.

Christmas - December 25^th  - Mary and Joseph and the Shepherds see Jesus….

Epiphany - the Magi - the wise men - the 3 Kings  - the outsiders - the non-Jews - the Gentiles see Jesus….

Epiphanies. 

QUESTION

Have you ever said, “I had an epiphany.”

Translation: “I saw something I never saw before.”  “I got an insight.” “Oh, now I get it. Now I see.”

It’s like someone tells a joke and some people get it and laugh. Others don’t get it. They scratch their head and sometimes they admit, “I don’t get it.”

Then - when they do get it - they go, “Oh…. Oh now  I  get it.”

If they really get it, they got an epiphany.

I knew an old priest and he loved to say to people, “How Long is a Chinaman.”

And they would always answer, “I don’t know.”

So he would say it again, “How Long is a  Chinaman.”

And the person would say, over and over again. “I don’t know.”

And he - with a devilish smile on his face would say it again, “How Long is a Chinaman.”

They still wouldn’t get it - till he shifted gears and would say, “It’s not a question. It’s a statement of fact.”  They wouldn’t get it till he would say, “It’s like saying, ‘Geronimo is a native America. How Long - that’s his name - is from China. He’s a Chinaman.”

It’s then they go, “Oh, Okay - now I get it.”

QUESTION

Have you ever had an epiphany of God.

When my brother got cancer - melanoma - at the age of 49 - the doctor told him, “You have 18 months to live.” It was Good Friday - 1984. And the doctor was right. He got all the treatments - chemotherapy - the works - but he died in 18 months. I just happened to drop in that Good Friday and I heard the bad Friday news. I asked him - in a one-to-one moment - “How are you going to handle this?”

He said, “I don’t know. I’ll let you know.”

Just before he died he said to me, “Remember when you asked me, ‘How I’m going to handle this?’ and I said, ‘I’ll let you know.’  Well, I found out, ‘Thank God for mom and dad. They gave us the gift of faith.’”

That moment was an epiphany for me. I too said, “Thank God for mom and dad - for giving us the gift of faith.”

I told my mom that and thanked her.

I also thanked whoever it was - their grandparents - their great grandparents - their great, great, great, great, grandparents. Was there someone way back when - who decided on God - decided on church - decided on letting it go and accepted God. Thank you.”

In the last few years I’ve noticed and I’ve thought about this gift called faith - that I’ve been given.

It was a given - but it has become an epiphany as I think of my brother and my mother - who was killed the following year in a hit and run accident.

Thank God for the gift of faith.

For starters, I think about it looking backwards.

I remember a sermon I heard a priest give.  He made a statement from the pulpit that went something like this.  Picture a little girl going to the bathroom on her own around 12 at night. She goes by her parents’ bedroom and she spots her dad kneeling down - with his back to her - and he’s leaning into his bed praying.

Then the preacher said, “That little girl seeing that scene by accident - is learning something that is much, much bigger than all the catechism lessons she will take - and all the Masses she’ll ever go to.”

Is that true? I don’t know. That’s something that can’t be proved - obviously. That can’t be measured.  It’s preacher’s exaggeration.

But you never know.

It got me to look back. I saw my dad with his prayer book - praying in the basement a few times. I used to have the 6 AM mass as an altar boy at OLPH Brooklyn and one time I had a side altar mass and I just happened to look out - and down the side aisle and there was my dad praying in a side bench.  I only saw him once.  I had assumed the was already half way to work by subway to the Nabisco Plant where he worked most of his adult life.

EPIPHANY - GIFTS

One of the messages of the Epiphany is that it’s gift day.

The 3 Magi - as the story - as the tradition - as the legend goes - brought gifts to baby Jesus - gifts of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh.

In Latino and many other traditions this is the feast when kids get gifts.

For homework, this week, think about the 3 best gifts you have ever received in life - from your parents, whoever - your 3 best gifts.

I would say, Family, I would say Faith, I would say, Education.

When It comes to education I have discovered that I don’t have the math gene - but I got the imagination gift.

When it comes to sports, I have discovered that I wasn’t the best in sports, but I did get a great interest and enthusiasms for sports.

CONCLUSION

How about you? Today, this week, answer that question: what are the 3 best gifts you have received.  Next ask each other that question and listen to each other’s answers.  In fact, a good sign of listening is to ask another for clarification of the answers they have given.

Then say “Thank you” to parents, living and dead, former teachers and coaches and to God, and who have you, for the 3 top gifts you have been given. Amen. 

January 7, 2018 - 

Thought for today: 

"Have you ever had that moment when you looked back on something and said, 'Well, gosh, that seems obvious now... why didn't I see it then?' I like to call this the Face Palm Epiphany. Oh, hindsight, you magical, humbling thing."


Alethea Kontis

January 7, 2018

DEATH  AND RESURRECTION

Sure there’s a day and a year there

printed on your death card and chiseled

out on your granite grave stone - but

my sister Mary and I - we’re the last two -

we love to play Jesus now and then - and

resurrect you from the dead - telling your

gospel stories - mostly good news -

chapter and verse - thanks be to God.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2018

January 6, 2018 - 

Thought for today:

                  “Then the sea

And heaven rolled as one  and from the two

Came fresh transfigurings of freshest blue.”

Wallace Stevens [1879-1955]  

in Sea Surface Full of Clouds [1923], II

January 6, 2018

ENORMOUS

To understand what  enormous means,

poets might say, “Count the stars of

the heavens”  or “Count the grains of

sand on the shores of the sea.”

Obviously, sand and stars cannot

be counted. So is there another way

to understand and to discover just

what enormous means?

To see enormous, how about looking

out at night through a telescope into

outer space or through a microscope

at just one grain of sand.

How about experiencing forgiveness

from another whom we hurt with an

enormous mistake? Or how about the

love involved in a 50 year marriage?

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2018

ST. JOHN NEUMANN: 

SOME COMMENTS ABOUT HIM

Today,  January 5^th, is the feast day of St. John Neumann - so I would like to simply make a few comments about him.

It would be nice to have this mass at St. John Neumann Church out on Bestgate Road - but then again I don’t have to clean the snow off my car to get out there.

Next time you’re at Mass out there, take a good look at the bronze statue of John Neumann in the church plaza.   I understand it’s pretty much his size and his look. He was a short man - and as solid as bronze.

It is good to know John Neumann was here on Duke of Gloucester Street for the blessing of the cornerstone of this church in 1858. I assume there was the understanding that he would be here for its completion as well  - but he was to die too soon.

I like to reflect that he visited Most Holy Redeemer on 3^rd Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan - which was my first assignment. Some factual questions hit me last night. I have to see in print if that actually happened. I know he was at St. Nicholas Church on East 2^nd Street in 1836. I came up with a question last night - did he by any chance do any baptisms in his short time there after his ordination on June 25^th 1836? Those baptismal records are at Most Holy Redeemer on 3^rd Street.

John Neumann was born in Prachatitz, Bohemia - part of the Chech republic on  Good Friday, March 28^th, 1811. He was baptized that same day.

He died January 5, 1860. While walking on Vine Street near Thirteenth he collapsed with heart failure and was carried into a nearby house. He died almost immediately at the age of 49. He was going to the Post Office or from the post office to send a chalice to a priest.

He was the 3^rd child of 6 born to Philip and Agnes Neumann.  His dad was a stocking weaver.

His mom and dad were good Catholics. His mom went to Mass every morning.

In those days the practice as Catholics was for parishioners to go to communion once every 3 months - and confession every 3 months.

John wanted to be a diocesan priest. He went to the seminary with that in mind - but they had so many priests in his diocese of Budweis - so he had to wait. When he saw notice that priests were needed for people in the United States, he applied and headed for New York - with the hope of being ordained over here.

 He landed in Staten Island, New York. Then he sailed the short distance to Manhattan on June 1, 1836. He got accepted for the diocese of New York.  That June he was ordained sub-deacon, deacon and then priest on June 25^th. He was then sent to the Rochester NY area where there was only 1 priest - Father Pax. Then he was sent to Buffalo - where his field of work was some 900 miles.

He was quiet, an introvert, a hard worker, dedicated, and smart.  He spoke German and French for starters and in time learned English and several other languages - including some Gaelic. He's listed as speaking 6 modern languages.

Fortunately, he wrote a sort of journal - not for others  - but to put into words his struggles with faith, purity, envy, depression, the pits, and how things often went wrong for him.  This was done between 1830 and 1840 - when he was 22 to 31.

He also was asked to write his life quickly - the night before he was made a bishop. That document is around.  He wrote that short document in one evening.

That’s it for any writings he did - except for business correspondence, etc. etc. etc.

If you want to read a good biography of John Neuman read the one written by Father Mike Curly - a Redemptorist. It is loaded with details, footnotes and research.

After four years in the northwest corner of New York State, John Neumann realized life as a priest was too tough all by himself up on the Niagara, New York frontier, so he joined the Redemptorists.

He wanted companionship and community.

His novitiate didn’t work out as a year of novitiate should. He was often on the road. He was always being asked to do this and to do that. He was an ordained priest.  He worked in Baltimore and Pittsburgh. 

After taking vows, he quickly became the superior and boss of the Redemptorists in North America and then he was quickly made bishop of Philadelphia.

People knew this priest was the real deal as well as being very real.

Yet, he often felt inadequate. He suffered from put downs by others who spoke English and comments that this priest didn’t have the right foreign accent.

He was a bishop who went to the outposts of the diocese - all over the place, to little mining towns and what have you. He writes somewhere that when he was a kid, nobody ever saw a bishop - except at a confirmation every couple of years.  Well, the people of the enormous diocese of Philadelphia saw their bishop - especially in the tiny spots.

I’d make him patron saint of travel - the patron saint for those who suffer from feelings of inadequacy and self put downs - and also regrets.

I’d also make him the patron saint of those who do a lot quickly. As bishop of Philadelphia 80 churches were built under his auspices. He helped the Sisters  of the Third Order of St. Francis to begin - so as to teach in the many new Catholic schools in the diocese. He helped get two catechisms and in 1849 a Bible History published.

He was a real busy priest and bishop - and gave every situation and person he met, his best.