May 1, 2018
Thought for today:
“Christ is God or He is the world’s greatest liar and imposter.”
Dorothy Day, From
Union Square to
Rome, 1938
Tuesday, May 1, 2018
10,000
STEPS TO GOD
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily for this 5th Monday after Easter is, “10,000 Steps To God.”
A lifetime question and wondering is this: “Is everyone
really down deep a searcher for God?”
Is Augustine right when he said, “You have created us for Yourself, Oh God, and our heart is
restless until it rests in You.”
We don’t
know if that is true - we can’t research everyone - but it was certainly true for Saint
Augustine. Check out his Confessions. We all have to read that at
least once every decade of our life.
We discover
it was also true for Paul and Barnabas whom we hear about in today’s first
reading. The people of Lystra and Derbe wanted them to be the gods, Hermes and Zeus - but they told the people,
‘We’re human beings. Don’t turn to idols. Turn to the living God who made
heaven and earth and sea and all that is in them.”
It was
certainly true for John if we read his gospel slowly and prayerfully - in these
readings from him after Easter.
10,000
STEPS
I remember
when I gave courses in Spirituality. I
had to look up and study and then present the thoughts of many spiritual
writers. I would show how often people
drew up or listed steps for holiness and to reach God. There would be 3 steps, 4 steps. 7 steps, 8 steps, 10 steps
to God. Around the year 600, a monk
named John came up with 30 steps - that one needs to climb to get to God. They ended
up nicknaming him John the Climber - or John Climacus.
In AA and
other 12 Step programs, there are 12 steps.
What I got
out of these steps is that the search for God takes time - a day at a time, a
step at a time.
We’ve all
heard the Chinese saying: “ A journey of 1000 miles begins with that first
step.
The title of
my homily is, 10,000 Steps to God.
It’s my
learning from Spiritual Writers, and listening to people, life in pursuit of
God takes steps. Sometimes it’s a step forwards. Sometimes it’s a step
backwards. Sometimes it’s a step sideways.
Sometimes it’s a standing still and feeling stuck.
One day we
think we found God. We feel we met God. Then at other times we feel we’re in a
fog, we’re in a dark night - and God is nowhere to be found. In those moments prayer
is boring. Prayer is 10,000 distractions.
Sometimes
it’s all God. A person makes a retreat….
A person goes to the beach …. A person goes to the Grand Canyon …. A person is
in our Eucharistic chapel…. A person is taking a walk - and they are whammed in
our head by a God experience.
Then again
and a year later they have stopped taking the steps to find God.
The apostles
walked the steps of Palestine with Jesus and most took off when the going got
tough. The gospel talks about locked doors - and how Jesus - the Risen Lord -
came through the walls and proclaimed Peace to these disciples.
I picked 10,000 steps because
it’s like the El Camino in Spain - starting in France and walking and walking
till a person gets to Santiago de
And people making that
pilgrimage tell listeners - the experience is loaded with highs and lows and
lows and highs - and lots of so so’s.
Life is like the rosary. It’s
about mysteries - sorrowful, joyful,
glorious and light bearing mysteries.
APOPHATIC
AND KATAPHATIC APPROACHES TO GOD
As you know
there are two major approaches to God: the apophatic and the kataphatic
approaches. I might as well use those words. They can be found in spiritual
reading books - so I’ll give it a shot to use them and explain them.
Both are from Greek words
to describe 2 major approaches to God.
We can get to know God
from images and ideas about God - that’s the kataphatic way. Kata is the Greek
prefix for with - like con in Latin. Kata with phatic - you can hear the word
emphasis in the word kataphatic. God is Father, Mother, Shepherd, Mountain, Ocean,
Door. The kataphatic way to God is an approach using images and pictures.
Then there is the
apophatic way to approaching God. APO is the Greek prefix for away from. It’s the stripping away of all images - many
of which are in scriptures. For example
today’s gospel is all about the Spirit of God as an Advocate. Wonderful. I need
a lawyer. I need a God. I need God. But
that’s an image and the image of God as an advocate is nice - but it’s not
enough. So those who tend to be apophatic won’t use such an image.
Then again Jesus comes.
The word became flesh. And Jesus shows us and tells us: the one who sees me,
sees the Father.
So images help - and they
can also have limitations. God can’t be an idol, an image, an icon.
So with the apophatic way
we have the quieting, emptying approach
to God. God is nothing we can
imagine. God is God.
With this approach we just
be. We stop walking. We just lay there
in the dark night - especially when we can’t sleep - but we be with God - o we
have our dark corners to pray. Or we come here to church and sit behind a pole in a dark afternoon church and
God is.
CLOSING STORY
The title of my homily is
10,000 steps to God.
It could be 10,000 stories
to God.
Let me close with an experience
of God that is still with me.
It was 12 AM and I’m in a
dark chapel - all by myself. I’m praying
in the dark - in a back off to the side part of the chapel. I’m saying some prayers - but mostly being
quiet.
Suddenly, the center door
in the back of the chapel opens.
Whoever it is, is quiet
and doesn’t turn any lights on.
They go up to the front
and into the sanctuary.
I’m being very quiet - no
bench creaking.
I can see shadows now -
because of the red sanctuary light - next to the tabernacle. The person sits down on the floor and leans
into the altar and faces the tabernacle.
Snap. Snap. The person
opens up a guitar case and I can hear a guitar being taken out of a case.
The person strums their
guitar and then the person starts singing a love song to Jesus in the dark.
Wow! I’m in someone’s
sacred place. I would sneak out if I could. I couldn’t, so I just sat there in
my spot in the back corner.
It was a woman.
She finished her song -
became quiet - for about 5 minutes - put their guitar back in its case and then
got up and walked out.
I stayed there till about
1 PM - just having witnessed another human being being in touch with her God.
Amen.
Monday, April 30, 2018
April 30, 2018
© Andy Costello, Reflections
2018
DROP, DROP, DROP
The rain in Spain - in fact, the rain
anywhere and everywhere falls on
welcoming fields and sidewalks,
roads and walkways - irrigating
and cleaning - bringing us grapes
and wheat, apples and oranges,
making our planet for sure to be
home for all - so why do we complain
about rain in Spain and anywhere?
Sunday, April 29, 2018
REMAIN
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily is, “Remain!”
R E M
A I N.
It’s a neat everyday word. Remain.
Did you notice, did you hear it used, 6 times in today’s
gospel from John 15: 1 - 8?
As you know the New Testament comes down to us from the
Greek - and the Greek word for “remain” is right there in the English word:
“meno”.
M E N O.
Over and over and over again - in today’s gospel Jesus is
saying,
·
Remain in me ….
·
as I remain in you ….
·
unless you remain in me ….
·
Whoever remains in me ….
·
Anyone who does not remain in me ….
·
If you remain in me.
Every speaker, every preacher, hopes the listeners remain
with him or her.
Every speaker is hurt when the other looks at their watch
or elsewhere. They know the listener has disappeared and no longer remains with
them.
THE PSYCHIATRIST IN THE NURSING HOME
Somewhere along the line I heard the following story.
It has remained with me all through the years. It’s a
great reminder.
A psychiatrist used to visit an old lady in a nursing
home. She would be sitting there in a nice easy chair facing big picture
windows - looking out onto a big lawn - spring, summer, autumn, winter - the
seasons.
She was catatonic - out of it. She hadn’t said a word in
5 years. Still most days they would bring her from her room to this spot -
looking out into the garden - looking out into the world.
The psychiatrist would come in - hold her hand for a few
moments - and sit in a chair right next to - and he too would look out the big
picture windows into the world. Sometimes he would make comments about the day,
the skies, the rain, the flowers, the birds.
One day he’s just sitting there - holding her hand - and
he’s thinking about a dinner he’s going to go that evening and the old lady
turns her head towards him and says, “Don’t leave me. Please remain.”
He hadn’t gotten out of his chair. He was just sitting
there being with her - but really being somewhere else.
That story has remained with me all through the
years. I stand there staring, looking at
people, but my mind - my inner conversations are elsewhere, often.
From that story and other stories I have often wondered,
“Do we know - do we unconsciously know - when another is not listening - is not
there?”
From that story I made up the saying, “Be where you is,
because if you be where you ain’t, then you ain’t where you is.”
REMAINS
When we’re somewhere else - I know I do this all the time
- we’re thinking and talking to ourselves - about all sorts of things triggered by all
sorts of things.
It’s amazing what’s in our memory - in our brains.
Inside our skulls we have more remainders than the
Smithsonian in Washington D.C. or all the garage sales in the world on any
given Saturday morning.
A triggers B triggers C triggers D and we say, “Oh that -
that was a long time ago.”
I’ve been at lots of weddings, funerals, and baptisms.
I’m very aware that every death, every wedding triggers,
all sorts of things.
I’m aware as priest, that God, Jesus, faith stuff, is
nudged at weddings, wakes and funerals - and new born babies. Some who have dropped out of church - call
some of this spirituality.
I’m also aware that sometimes Christ’s life dries up -
the sap is out of us - and we can become dead branches. That’s what Jesus is
getting at today.
Some scary stuff…
It must have killed Jesus to see those people who cheered
for him on Palm Sunday - jeer at him on Good or Bad Friday. It must have killed him to see Peter deny him
- and along with the other disciples no longer remain with him - and Judas cut himself off from Jesus by betrayal - and
then he hung himself on a tree.
There is a poem by someone that Peter heard every morning
when the rooster crowed three times, “Deny, deny, deny.”
We know that in poetry and prose that our betrayals and
our runnings away from God and our hiding out from each other - remain.
We have confessionals - those wooden garbage pails or
garbage dumps - where we can dump our sins - but some of stuff of sins remain - like potato peels on the inside of a garbage pail. I
have heard myself and enough people tell me what remains of the mistakes of our
life. For some reason I still remember cheating - looking over a shoulder - in
a Geometry test in my second year of high school - and I was decent in Geometry
- horrible in Algebra.
I remember someone holding up a big piece of white
cardboard with a black spot the size of a quarter on it - made with a magic
marker - as a sermon prop. And he asked folks what they saw. And all said they
saw the dot!
We see the red spaghetti spot on our white shirt or
blouse - and miss all the white of the shirt or blouse or white cardboard.
To be human - is to see the mistakes, the sins, the
cheating, of our life - even when we confess them - say we're sorry for them - and are forgiven.
Sin remains.
People addicted to porn or gambling or booze or what have
you - know it’s dumb to put stuff into our Random Access Memory - because
everything remains. Addictions have cling to them
Sin has aftertaste remains.
THE BEST REMAINS AS WELL
To be positive - to hopefully have grace and gracefulness
- remaining in us more than our sins and falls from grace, today’s second
reading begins “Children, let us love
not in word or speech but in deed and truth.”
Then that reading ends this way: “Those who keep his
commandments remain in him, and he in them, and the way we know that he remains in us is from the
Spirit he gave us.”
CONCLUSION
When we die what’s left is called, our “remains” - or if
we are cremated, our “cremains.”
We get a stone or plaque - with our name and numbers on
it.
But down deep we want more.
We want more than a carving into a sidewalk or paint on a
wall somewhere saying, “Kilroy was here” We would never want, “Killjoy was here.”
We want more.
I have a nice story to end this homily that happened to me.
I write and I hope some of my writings last.
Someone asked for a copy of one of my books and I had
given them all away - so I said, “Try E-bay or Amazon.” And I added, “I don’t get anything from them
anymore.”
Surprise that person got a copy and surprise it was
inscribed and surprise it was from me to my sister Peggy and surprise the
person who bought it gave it to me with the inscription, “To Peggy - Couldn’t
have been blessed with a more wonderful sister, Love and Prayers, Andy.
This wonderful sister dumped by book. I didn’t call her
up and complain - I wouldn’t want that to remain. Yet I would have hoped it
would have remained on her book shelf for the rest of her life. She died so I
can’t complain about this lack of a remain from her brother.
Remains. Don’t we
hope our best remains with those we love for the rest of our lives.
I tell this story because it will remain with you - I
just planted it and this story in your memory this morning - that is, unless
you left me and didn’t remain with me after my first sentence.
April 29, 2018
IF ONLY WE COULD HEAR
Being a preacher I stand there in
the pulpit - inwardly biting my nails -
inwardly wondering - if everyone
here today could scream out what
they are really thinking and talking
to themselves about, what would
I hear? I have my suspicions:
“Hurry up?” “What?” “I have no
clue what you’re talking about.”
“God forgive him, for he knows
not what he’s saying or doing.”
“Okay, I got the message - stop
repeating yourself. I heard this from
you three times in the last month.”
© Andy Costello, Reflections 2018
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