February 27, 2018
Black History Month Thought for today:
“Avoid having your ego so close to your opinion that when you position falls, your ego goes with it.”
General Colin Powell
Sunday, February 25, 2018
February 26, 2018
JUDGING:
THE
SECOND MOMENT
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily for this 2nd Monday in
Lent is, “Judging: The Second Moment.”
TODAY’S GOSPEL
Today’s gospel triggers thoughts about judging.
That’s an issue we worry about at times. It’s a feeling of shame when we mis-judged or judged another
human being.
When preparing for confession, we think and worry about
sins of judging others.
We know it’s none of our business, yet we judge others -
and we confess doing just that.
AS TIME GOES ON
WE GATHER NUANCES ABOUT JUDGING
As time goes on, hopefully
we gather nuances and thoughts and understanding about judging others.
Let me offer a few that I have come up with. I mention
them so that you will do some soul and mind searching on how you deal with
figuring out people.
The first learning I got about judging is from the
Talmud.
It says, “Teach thy tongue to say I do not know.”
I like to push using the rosary for more than Hail
Mary’s.
Say 59 times - using the beads, “Teach thy tongue to say,
‘I do not know.’”
I’ve said that at least 6,567 times on my beads, “Teach
thy tongue to say, ‘I do not know.’”
Do that and when judging another you’ll find yourself saying
in loud, “Teach thy tongue to say, ‘I do not know.’”
Another saying is from Father Pat Lynch who used to be
stationed here. I heard him preach once about being careful when judging the
motives of others. He said, using his fingers as if they were walking on the
wood of the pulpit, “Nobody has ever seen a motive walking down the street.”
I like that. We
forget most homilies. But I have never
forgot that saying.
So say - once more - using your beads, “Nobody has ever
seen a motive walking down the street.” Say a rosary full of that comment 59
times and you’ll find yourself saying
that to yourself when judging another.”
The next learning I got in life about judging others I
learned from Carl Jung. It’s in his theory of
Personality Types. He describes
some people as “Judging Types”. The
judger type person judges others and situations automatically. It’s normal for
them to judge.
Listen to people.
Some say about others behavior, “Well that was stupid.”
That’s a judgment. I usually say, “It’s interesting.”
My trick would be to look at the judgment we make about others and say things like,
“Interesting” - or “I don’t know” or “”You never know.”
So if some people judge automatically, the trick is the
second thought after that initial judgment.
That’s where the title of this homily comes from: “Judging:
the Second Moment.”
So if we tend to judge others automatically, if we find
ourselves saying, “Now that was dumb.”
Or “That outfit is ugly.” Then
pause and stop judging. This is where morality comes into the picture. This is
where sin can be. It’s there when we
take that second moment to think about what we thinking about this other
person. It’s after the first thought -
the automatic judgment - and we say, “I don’t know.” Or I don’t know so and so’s motive.
So shutting up is the key. So stepping back is the trick.
So realizing we have time to hesitate is the secret.
We have a choice here.
TODAY’S GOSPEL
Now let’s jump to today’s gospel.
Jesus says, Stop judging!
Jesus says “Be merciful.”
Jesus says, “Forgive.”
Then when we meet Jesus at judgment time we can say, “Hey
I thought you said not to judge, so please don’t judge me.”
Or you said “Show mercy. So show me lots of mercy.”
Or continuing with today’s gospel, be like the merchant
in the market place who fills the robe of his customer with lots and lots of
flour and then some and then some more after that.
Then the person will walk home from the market place with
a great smile on her or his face that day.
“Wow did I get a good deal today.”
And lastly, Jesus talks about measuring rulers or
scales. Have an enormous ruler for mercy
and forgiveness and get rid of the measuring rod for judging.
February 26, 2017
"Oh, I see."
"Sometimes."
"It all depends...."
"But most of the time I miss the person at my door."
"Or I see - but sometimes I'm narrow blinded."
"I guess I don't see what's really happening."
"God, I can be so blind - especially when I judge."
"Lord, that I might see."
"... even if it takes years. It's called 'Blindsight.'"
BLINDSIGHT
"Oh, I see."
"Sometimes."
"It all depends...."
"But most of the time I miss the person at my door."
"Or I see - but sometimes I'm narrow blinded."
"I guess I don't see what's really happening."
"God, I can be so blind - especially when I judge."
"Lord, that I might see."
"... even if it takes years. It's called 'Blindsight.'"
© Andy Costello, Reflections 2108
BLISS PARK
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily for this Second Sunday in Lent [B]
is, “Bliss Park.”
Growing up in Brooklyn, New York, as a kid, almost every
Sunday we would walk down to a 24 acre park called, “Bliss Park.”
It’s real name was, “Owl’s Head Park” - perhaps because
some thought the land was in the shape of an owl - or because the Nyack Indians
called it that - or because there were owls in the barns or trees there early
on.
We grew up calling it “Bliss Park” - but we knew it also
had the name, “Owl’s Head Park.”
It was a great spot for kids. We didn’t think as kids to say, “It was a
great place for families - but it was. We grew up thinking everything was for
kids - nothing was for parents. They were there to take care of us.
It had a big hill that was great for sledding in winter. If it snowed everyone
for two or three miles around headed for Bliss Park. It was perfect. People
skied. People used the big main hill as well as back sections for sleds. There
was ice skating in the kiddie pool. It was bliss.
During the summer it was perfect for bike riding and
roller skating. It was perfect for rolling down the grassy main hill. It was
perfect for picnics - a whole family on blanket, potato salad, peanut butter
and jelly and baloney or ham and cheese sandwiches. It didn’t have tennis courts, but there were
seesaws, basketball courts, slides and monkey bars - and a kiddie pool. It was perfect for kites and catch [baseball,
football or spaldeens].
One of my earliest memories is falling in that kiddy pool
and cutting my stomach.
What are your earliest memories? Are they filled with bliss and joy - running,
rolling, riding, sledding, or hurts and
cuts.
At the top of the hill we could walk to a big wall, climb
up on it, and look out at the water - a place called, “The Narrows” - where
boats could come into and out of New York Harbor. The Verrazano Bridge wasn’t
built yet. We could see the Statue of Liberty, some of the lower part of New
York City, Staten Island on the other side of the water - as well as with parts
of New Jersey with interesting names like Hoboken.
We could also see the New York Ferry - which went from
Brooklyn, to Staten island to Manhattan and back.
Many times we would walk down the back side of that hill
and take that ferry ride to Staten
Island and back to Brooklyn. It was a nickel - maybe even free for kids. I
don’t remember that - but my dad would hide with us in the bathroom - till the
ferry boat emptied out - and then come out and ride back for free.
We were poor - but this worked. None of us became thieves by that bad
example.
It was bliss. It is bliss looking back now.
Looking back on your life, what were your moments of
bliss? What was your childhood like?
Have you taken the time at family get togethers to remember what it was
like when you were a kid? Have you told
your kids and grandkids what your growing up was like?
How to do that, when to do that, and the kids liking that
- and not being bored - that has a right time and a wrong time. Watch for the
yawns. Read faces and eyes. Story telling is essential home schooling education
for all kids.
In reading about this yesterday - doing my homework for
this homily - I found out the park was
nicknamed Bliss Park, not because it was a place of bliss, but because a guy
name Eliphalet Williams Bliss owned it. He bought if around 1881 for $80,000
from a guy named Murphy.
Reading back much earlier, I loved it that an owner from
way back in the 1670’s, a Dutchman, sold some land - part of which would
eventually be Owl’s Head Park to a man named Swaen Janse Van Lowaanen - who
might have been a black man who emigrated to the colony in 1654 - from Sierra
Leone. Some thought he was a freeman. Some thought that he had been a slave.
Great story - perfect to mention in Black History Month.
TODAY’S
READINGS
Today’s readings triggered these memories of childhood.
Today’s two readings mention two mountains.
In preaching contrasts are important. So let me contrast two mountains - well
actually 3.
The first reading talks about the mountain that Abraham
was asked to climb and sacrifice his son. Abraham was to build an altar - line
up wood - start a fire and make a holocaust - a sacrifice of his son.
It’s a mysterious story - perhaps constructed to put an
end to the horrible religious practice some folks had of thinking God wanted
fathers to sacrifice their sons. Or to put an end to the religious thinking
that when a child died - God wanted that
kid as a sacrifice.
Religion has the idea of sacrifice. Offer it up. To get
what I want - especially when someone is sick - you have to make a sacrifice.
Many kids did die early. Why does God allow that? Does
God want that. Is that God’s will? Walk through old cemeteries and study the
dates on the stones.
Make sacrifices - but not of your children.
So what is this sacrifice story of Abraham and his son
Issac about? I don’t know yet -
really. I know Kierkegarde tells the
story about a couple who lost their son as a child - and they spent their lives
after that talking and crying to God using this story of Abraham and Isaac. I
think it’s in his book: Fear and Trembling.
This image of the possible sacrifice of Isaac by his
father can lead us to the story of Mount Calvary and the sacrifice of Christ -
the only son of the Father.
Going there is a horror story - not a story of bliss.
Every one of us who is Christian has to go through Lent
every year and get into the mystery of Christ dying for us - and in place of
us. Good Friday at first is a bad
Friday.
Every one of us has to get into the mystery of sacrifice
- that’s one reason we come to Mass - that life is all about sacrificing our
life for our children and caring for our parents when they start to lose it.
Every one of us has to learn what Christ meant when he
said, “Greater love than this, no one has, than to lay down their life for their
friends.”
I think of this big guy - Aaron Feis, aged 37, an
assistant football coach at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland
Florida, who rushed his body into the
bullets to save kids. Thank God he was big - with plenty of weight because
maybe that saved some kids.
I don’t know if I could do that. I hope so - because I’ve
had plenty of the gift of life so far - the kids who were killed had only just
begun.
I don’t know if I’d be like the police guard or guards who
couldn’t go it - if that’s what happened - I don’t know - and I pray for those police as
well.
During Lent we have to climb Mount Calvary and be with
Christ under his cross and think about these heavy thoughts.
Life is not always bliss.
Yet we need to do what Christ does in today’s gospel.
We can’t forget the other mountain - the mount of Bliss.
When I was in Israel in the year 2000 we went by bus to
the mount of transfiguration - and then for the top half, Mercedes cabs to the top. We prayed up there. We also had a spaghetti dinner
up there. It was good to be up there. What a view!
We need to climb mountains in our lifetime.
We need to take time off. We need Sabbath. Weekends. We need blissful moments. We need family time. We need kids to say what
Peter, James and John on the mount of the transfiguration said, “Lord, it is
good that we are here.”
They are saying: “Let’s stay here forever.”
I can relate to that. That’s what we felt at Bliss park
as kids with family.
I hope my mom and dad pinched themselves seeing us
sledding in winter and rolling down a grassy green grass hill and laughing in
summer.
CONCLUSION
Obviously we need moments and mountains of bliss -
because sometimes we’re on the mount of sacrifice and it’s tough to give one’s
whole life for others. It hard to hear, “Okay now you’re finished school. You
have to get a job and do your life’s
work.” Vacations end. Monday morning
arrives. Doctors and plumbers and rescue squads get calls at 2:30 in the
morning.
I think today’s readings can get us in touch with some of
these life moments: whether we’re at Bliss Park or Calvary or Abraham’s
mountain in Mariah.
February 25, 2018
Reflections
Christ called me that morning -
to fish with him throughout that day ....*
Our boat lay there on the orange water
that evening - that sunset - empty -
empty boat and empty nets -
wondering like a dog whether
I would be back to Galilee ....
No way .... the catching of people
proved to be my life. Yes .... I
discovered you were to be my way,
my truth, my life for the rest of my life.**
Reflections
CALLED THAT MORNING
Christ called me that morning -
to fish with him throughout that day ....*
Our boat lay there on the orange water
that evening - that sunset - empty -
empty boat and empty nets -
wondering like a dog whether
I would be back to Galilee ....
No way .... the catching of people
proved to be my life. Yes .... I
discovered you were to be my way,
my truth, my life for the rest of my life.**
© Andy Costello, Reflections
2018
*Matthew 4: 18-22
**John 14: 6
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)