July 26, 2018

Thought for today: 

“The important thing is somehow to begin.”  

Henry Moore

July 25, 2018

BOOK  OF  KELLS

Good news written on calf-skin ….

Did those calves know - while

grazing in the fields - that they

would last  from the 800’s till

now - under glass - in the Old
Library at Trinity College in 
Dublin? Tourists grazing and 
gazing on beauty - words 
becoming flesh - copied in gold - 
red lead - yellow arsenic sulphate - 
inspiring all of us to love

one another as Jesus taught us -

realizing goats - besides sheep -

can make it into the Book of Life.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2018

July 25, 2018 

Thought for today: 

“Sometimes - there’s God - so quickly.”  

Blanche says just that 

in  A  Streetcar Named Desire, 

by Tennessee Williams.

MAKING  MISTAKES 

MY  TAKE - OTHER’S  TAKE 

- GOD’S  TAKE 

ON  MY  MISTAKES 

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 16 Tuesday in Ordinary Time is, “Making Mistakes: My Take - Other’s Take - God’s Take on My Mistakes.”

Today’s first reading from Micah and today’s Psalm 85 triggered for me the theme of this homily: Making mistakes: my take on my mistakes as well as how I think others take my mistakes - as well as I think God takes my mistakes.

WHEN WE MAKE A MISTAKE

When we make a mistake - whom do we think about mainly? Ourselves? Others?

God?

In this homily I want to think about all 3 - how we see mistakes impacting ourselves as well as others and God?

MYSELF

Let me begin with myself?

What do we say when we make a mistake?

When I make a mistake,  I say things like, “Dumb! Dumb! Dumb!”  or “Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!”

I close my eyes when saying that or I say, “Dang it! Dang it! Dang it!”

I might even hit myself or  bang my fist against the palm of my hand. “Oooouuh!  Uuuuuuuuuuuh!”

For example, I miss an appointment and blame it on my old age. Or I end up in the wrong nursing home as I did last Saturday and I  get frustrated at myself for the mistake I made.   Well, Crownsville and Croften both begin with a “C”

So when we sin or make a mistake - we might ask - “How does this make me feel about myself.”

What do I think about myself as myself? Can I forgive myself?  As priest people tell me about the mistakes of their life -  some they are aware of life like a scar on the skin of their soul.

Do I feel guilty? Can I forgive myself?  Do I deny that I made a mistake?

I like the distinction some make between shame and guilt.  Guilt means, I made a mistake. Shame means I am a mistake.  So guilt is easier than shame.

OTHERS

Then there are others?  Sometimes we worry about what others will say or think about us when we make a mistake?

We hope they will give us a break - allowing us to be mistake makers.

Here is where we get a chance to understand  Christ - who said, “Let the one without sin toss the first stone.

Here is a chance for us to discover what others are really like - who our friends are?

Friends are those who call us up - to see if we are okay - after the news gets out that we got caught shop lifting - or we got fired because we stole from work - or what have you.

Sunglasses and side doors and the dark are mistake makers best friends.

GOD

Then there is God. How do we see God - when it comes to our making a mistake.

Today’s first reading from Micah has God described as the God who removes guilt. It says that God does not persist in anger at our being a mistake maker. Micah says God has compassion on us.

Micah says that God casts into the depths of the sea, all our sins.

I remember hearing a big sermon by a priest saying God buys this big trunk - fills it with our sins - locks it - chains it - and then throws it into the deepest part of the ocean.

In today’s psalm, the author says God doesn’t rejoice in our sins. It says God covers our sins.  Like we’re sitting next to God at a table with a white table cloth and a red juicy meatball gets away and rolls off our plate and God says - pointing to the sunset out the window and everyone looks that way while God slips off his white napkin and covers the table cloth that we messed up - with that slippery meat ball.

God is all about joy, rejoicing, kindness, life, saving us from sin and self-embarrassment.

We might get angry with ourselves - others might get angry with us for spilling bloody red spaghetti sauce on the family name - God doesn’t. God likes us as part of his creative juices. Amen.

July 24, 2018

ECHOES  THAT  I  LIKE

Thank you.... Thank you.... Thank you ....

Nice.... Nice .... Nice ....

Sweet.... Sweet .... Sweet ....

Wow.... Wow .... Wow ....

Wonderful.... Wonderful .... Wonderful ....

Yes....  Yes .... Yes ....

Bless you....  Bless you .... Bless you ....

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2018

July 24, 2018 

Thought for today: 

“The greatest wisdom often consists in ignorance.”  

Baltasar Gracian

THE  LORD 

IS  NOT  A  MOUNTAIN! 

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 16^th Monday in Ordinary Time is, “The Lord Is Not A Mountain.”

Today’s first reading from the Book of the Prophet Micah begins with a very visual image. The Lord says, “Present your plea - your voice - to the Lord before the mountains.” [Cf. Micah 6: 1-8]

“Stand before the mountains - yell - and hear your voice. Hear the echo of your sounds.  Pay attention to what you are saying, pleading, asking, praying for?”

In other words, listen to your own prayers and pleas.

EASY TO PICTURE

It’s easy to picture a mountain. We’ve been there - or we saw them in movies or on television.

When kids draw - they often draw mountains - so easy - along with trees and cats and dogs.

So imagine yourself standing there facing a gigantic mountain.

What is your biggest prayer in your life right now? For family? Self? Friends? Our world?

Yell it out. Hear your echo. Listen to what your saying - attentively. Carefully.

Then Micah says to us: Listen to what the Lord speaks  back to you.

WE ARE NOT MOUNTAINS

We are not made of stone - but sometimes we are stone deaf. Sometimes we feel like a rock or a stone. Isn’t that  the sense of Simon and Garfunkle’s song, “I am a rock. I am an island….”  

Prayer, a conversation, is two sided. 

Unfortunately, sometimes we talk to each other and we’re really not being with, listening to, looking into the other’s eye and being - and hearing what the other is saying.

God is not a mountain. Yet God is pictured as a mountain - in the scriptures.  Mountains don’t have eyes, ears, a heart, an understanding.

Yet mountains can be very powerful.  Imposing. Overshadowing. Overwhelming.

I was on Gibraltar. I was inside Gibraltar - inside the big caves  and tunnels  within. It was a moving moment.

I’ve hiked up some of the Rocky Mountains and the Presidential Range of Mountains in New Hampshire.

Momentous moments

I’ve prayed on Mountains.

However, God is not a mountain.

God is 3 Persons - a community of 3 persons who are so together, they are 1.

TODAY’S MESSAGE

Today’s message is to be in communion with God - however you imagine him: mountain, ocean, father, mother, shepherd, spouse, bread, wine, fortress, wall, woman in labor, farmer.

Whichever, whatever, image you use when you’re with God, make sure it’s personal and particular - one to one with God.

Make sure you’re not alone - as a person standing before a mountain - but as a spouse or child in your parents arms.

CONCLUSION

Let me end by making a few conclusions.

So God is not a stone mountain.

God’s voice is not an echo.

As Elijah discovered while he was hiding on a mountain, “God was not in the earthquake, the wind or the fire. God was the sheer silence.”

[Cf. 1 Kings 19: 11-18]

Listen.