December 23, 2018

FLY IN DECEMBER

Some saint loved roses 

in December. How about flies? 

I guess I’m not a saint. 

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2018

WHO  AM  I 

IN THE MANGER? 

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “Who Am I In The Manger?”

JOSEPH BREIGHNER

I picked up a copy of the Catholic Review magazine yesterday afternoon - before going into the confessional. They were in the back of the church. I got there earlier than usual, so I had time to page through the different articles.  I stopped and read the article by Father Joseph Breighner, “Jeers to Cheers”. Then people started coming in for confession.

I always find Breighner’s writings wonderful. I had heard him speak over at Millersville, a few years back. Excellent speaker.

In the article -  he wrote the following, “As a philosopher put it: ‘We look into other people’s eyes to see who we are.’”

I began thinking about that. I didn’t know people did that. Do I do that? I had to answer: “I don’t know.” Then I added, “I’ll have to think about that.”

So that to me is a good article - a good goal for a magazine article - as well as a sermon: to do some good thinking.

Since it was a Christmas article I thought he was going to say: “People look into the manger to see who they  are.”

It didn’t.

But then I said, “That’s a good idea for a Christmas homily.” I write a Christmas story every year, I’ll do that tomorrow, so I’ll give a Christmas homily today with the title: “Who Am I In the Manger?”

Go up to the manger, the crib, the Christmas crèche here in church or at home or on a Christmas card this Christmas and ask, “Who Am I In the Manger?

THE BABY

The baby is front and center.

The baby is what it’s all about.

Carl Sandburg said, “A baby is God’s way of saying the world must go on.”

 “In Joseph Heller’s novel Something Happened the main character, Robert Slocum, says, `I know at last what I want to be when I grow up. When I grow up I want to be a little boy.’”

Natalie Goldberg wrote, “We never graduate from first grade.”

Doug Lawson wrote, “The aging process has you firmly in its grasp if you never get the urge to throw a snowball.”   

Listen to yourself at this winter’s first snow fall. See if you still have that urge to throw a snowball at someone. If you don’t, get with it. Remember Jesus’ words, “Unless you be like little children, you won’t be in the kingdom of God.”  Through snowballs, even if you’re in your nineties.

There’s an Iranian proverb that sort of says the same thing, “Children are a bridge to heaven.”

Anonymous said, “Babies are such a nice way to start people.”

So when you see the manger, start with the baby and start to see babies in the light of your life.  What was it like when I was born?  What were my parents thinking and saying and feeling?  See parents caring for their kid and see our parents doing all that for us.

What were my Christmases like? What was my growing up like? Get out the pictures and study them.  Talk to each other about what growing up was like?  Ask those still around, what they went through and if they are much older than me, did they remember what I went through?

So Number 1: when I see the baby in the manger, what do I see in myself and in life?

NEXT: MARY AND JOSEPH

What do I see in Mary? What do I see in Joseph? What do I see in my parents, living or dead?  If I am a parent, what is / what  was / that like?

What’s with Catholics and Mary and Joseph and the Saints?

This is St. Mary’s Parish.  What is that about?

Today’s gospel has Mary going to Elizabeth?  Both are now pregnant. Elizabeth says, “Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb.”

Do we ever say that to our mom for housing us - for bringing us into the world?  When in our life, has our mom felt blessed, for having had us.

So too our dad.

There are a hundred things to think about when looking into the manger - especially about our parents and being a parent.

NEXT:  THE ANIMALS

We might reflect upon the ox and the ass,  the sheep and the birds.

I do a lot of baptisms. I often wonder what kids are thinking when they see what they see.

Have we ever watched a child looking at a dog and breaking out into a smile?

Have we ever felt like an ox, having to do all the work, and nobody even notices - or says, “Thank you Ox.”

Have we ever felt like an ass?

I won’t go further than that.

SHEPHERDS AND KINGS

Sometimes we’re shepherds.  Sometimes we’re kings.

Sometimes we’re called upon to care for others: like grand parenting, babysitting, teaching, being a crossing guard.  Every person should be a waiter or   waitress at some point in one’s life. Everyone should be a volunteer, an usher, a setter up with tables at a parish or a group picnic.

And sometimes we’re king to queen, like at 25^th and 50^th anniversaries or at a retirement party, when we get gifts: a gold watch or perfume or Old Spice.

I like something Ginny Dauses - who is our high school youth minister - says. She likes to say at the end of a high school retreat,  “When the 3 kings finally saw Jesus, they gave their gifts, but went home a different way.

CONCLUSION

I would hope that by stopping to look into the Christmas manger and seeing ourselves in the story, we would go away - and do life in a different way - a better way.

December 23, 2018 

Thought for today: 

“Ask why.”  

Aarthy Vaidyanathan

December 22, 2018

GLUE

Wouldn’t it be neat if we could reach

for a small tube or bottle of invisible

glue - that we could rub onto the soul

of an angry family member - or another -

who won't connect with or who feels 

cut off from his or her family or group? 

Well, surprise, there is such a glue.

Its contents are meeting together,

presence, talking, listening, listening

some more, crying, remembering,

compromise, prayer and acceptance.

Its brand name is:  FORGIVENESS.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2018

December 22, 2018 

Thought for today: 

“Thou shalt not spread my word with the sword.” 

Colin Powell

December 21, 2018

WINTER

Water in the pond and the lake

turning to ice - cold moving up

the street into our house and

into our bones - winter is here.

Appreciating big warm blankets,

radiators, the sound of heat pipes

clanking and banging, knowing

here we are till at least March.

Winter - grey mists and then

white snow…. Even if Christ

wasn’t born on December 25,

it was a very good choice.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2018

THIN  PLACES

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “Thin Places.”

In Celtic Spirituality - aspects of which come out  of  middle Europe - and moved to Ireland and Scotland, there is a phrase, “Thin Places” or “Caol Áit”.

Probably, because both of today’s readings begin in the great outdoors, I thought of “Thin Places” when I read the first from the Song of Songs and the second, the gospel,  from Luke.

When I’m not too clear about what something means - like “thin places”, one way I learn about the unknown, is  to preach about that unknown topic.

So I did some Google research and came up with some ideas and words about  “Thin Places.”

DESCRIPTION

Gaelic - which includes Scotland and Ireland - and many islands off the coast of both these countries have sacred places - beautiful places - where people feel God’s presence.

If a place is too busy, too noisy, too self-centered, that would be called  a thick place.

Now there are also other places called “thin places” - and your thin places can be different than my thin places.

There is a Celtic saying that  goes like this: “Heaven and earth are only three feet apart, but in thin places that distance is even shorter.”

Let me repeat that, because if you get that, you can begin to get what Celtic spirituality means by, “Thin Places.”

“Heaven and earth are only three feet apart, but in thin places that distance is even shorter.”

In Celtic Spirituality - and hopefully in Italian and Spanish, and German and Filipino Spirituality, hopefully the message is that God is here - closer than 3 feet away.

We come to church - to get in touch by God and to touch God.

After reading up about this last night, I heard that if we get in touch with God here, we can get in touch with God out there.

SOME EXAMPLES

Let me give some examples of “Thin Places” - places where God breaks through or where a sense of God can happen.

In a nursing home a person is in a bed with tubes and they are breathing hard and there is their spouse - in silence - in semi-darkness - holding their spouse’s hand as well as God’s hand. That could be a thin place.

When I’m in a funeral home and the body is in a casket and there is a kneeler there before the body,  I reach down and say one Hair Mary on one rosary bead in the dead person’s hand.  That has often been a God moment for me. Now I can call that a thin place.

When I meet a  mom with a new baby in one of those baby carriers, I like to say, “Can I see your baby.” She unzips or unsnaps the hood, and shows me a 6 week old baby. That is often a thin place.

In the movie City Slickers, Billy Crystal is at a camp fire with a bunch of guys on a western vacation. They talk about the moment a kid goes to his first Major League baseball game with his dad. They walk through the dark underbelly of a major league ball park. Then they go up through the tunnel. They see blue sky and they come out and see that great green grass, the people, the players practicing, and they go “Wow” with awe. For me seeing that moment on the screen was a thin place.

It’s Thanksgiving - my sister-in-law is sitting there looking around the room. She sees all her kids and their husbands and their kids - laughing and being with each other - and she says pointing to her kids, “This is what makes it all worthwhile.” That could be a thin place.

TODAY - DECEMBER 21^ST, IN NEWGRANGE IRELAND

Today, December 21^st, in Newgrange, Ireland, a small group of people go into this prehistoric cave like dwelling. It was under a mound or a small hill. It’s  dated back to 3200 B.C. There is a 10 year waiting list to get in there today.

A shaft of light goes through one opening - to the center of the mound - and it goes directly to the other side and out an opening.

It’s a sacred moment - on this day - the shortest day of the year - when we have more darkness than light - and then we move into winter - as we move towards the spring and more light.

This building is older than Stonehenge in England or the pyramids in Egypt.

In Celtic spirituality the dark is feminine - like in the womb - as mothers long to bring a child into the light of the world.

Mary - from her dark womb - brings Christ the Light of the World - into the world.

In today’s gospel she moves with haste into the hill country to be with Elizabeth who is filled with her baby as well. She runs like the lover in today’s first reading from the Song of Songs - and all of creation - bursts, flowers, the winter is over.  The Holy Spirit has touched Mary as well. Elizabeth says the words of the Hail Mary, “Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus.

It was a thin place between Mary and Elizabeth as they held each other in God.

So thin places are more than places. They can be moments - when we sense the presence of God - moments when we are in the presence of God - and that is every moment.

CONCLUSION

So that’s a few words about “Thin Places”.  Once you bring that idea into your spirituality, you’ll come out of dark tunnels and see new light.