December 28, 2018
Thought for today:
“You can't talk to a person about his or her soul if that person has no food.”
Words of Wisdom from
Father Horace McKenna
Friday, December 28, 2018
Thursday, December 27, 2018
December 27, 2018
Thought for today:
“In the old days,
we would go out in pairs and take care of the Widow Jones who had no bread or
the Widow Smith whose rent was due. But now, the poor are a swarm all around
us. We can't go out to them. How could you go to sixty homes? How could you go
everywhere at once? We have to be ready when they come to us.”
Words of Wisdom
from
Father Horace McKenna
Wednesday, December 26, 2018
“GRR” THE SOUND
OF REMEMBERED ANGER
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily is, “’GRR….’ The Sound of Remembered
Anger.”
G R R - “Grr” the
sound of remembered anger.
What inner sounds do we make when so and so enters the
room?”
“Grr” is one such sound.
ST. STEPHEN
Today is the feast of St. Stephen…. As we heard in today’s first reading from the
Acts of the Apostles, when St.
Stephen walked into a crowd, some people
got angry. [Cf. Acts 6: 8-10, 7, 54-59.]
Acts puts it this way: “When they heard this, they were
infuriated, and they ground their teeth at him.” They got angry at what he was saying in
public in his preaching. He was making
Jesus sounds - preaching Jesus words - especially about forgiving one another.
In today’s gospel from Matthew 10:17-22,
we hear about people hating Jesus and anyone who tells his good news.
Notice the first two letters of the word
“ground” or “grind”: “Gr”.
The title of my homily is, “’GRR….’
The Sound of Remembered Anger.”
NOTICE YOUR TEETH
Notice jaws. Notice teeth. Notice when we
make the “Grr” sound.
There are people who annoy us. There are
people whom we bother.
Catch what your mouth does when people
who annoy us - or bother us - when we spot them in the room or walking into a
room
Saki, the writer said, “Women and elephants never forget an injury.”
Is that true? I’d assume that it’s both men and women who
can’t drop rocks or hurts. Moreover, it’s often an “it all depends”.
Do elephants grind their teeth? I don’t know.
I know humans and dogs do.
Years ago in our house in Washington D.C. the rector had a
German Shepherd dog named Bernadette. Bernadette
was also stationed here in Annapolis.
Bernadette was a friendly dog. Father Franny Salmon kept him on a long, long rope - in the back yard -
where the cars were parked. He was there to bark when strangers came through
the back lot.
Father F.X. Murphy - who was also stationed here at St.
Mary’s - was heading out of our backyard in our place in Washington D.C. In
backing out his car, somehow the rope got stuck on the back fender of his car -
and he dragged the dog about 6 blocks. People spotting this dragged dog. They
were yelling and pointing to Father F.X. for all 6 blocks - before he noticed
this. He put the wounded Bernadette -
with sore paws - in the back seat and came back.
I heard that Bernadette would go, “Grrrrrrrrrr!” every time
F.X. pulled out in a car from that back lot - for years.
Father Tizio has Wilbur the pug - a pug - who remembers
every person who ever gave him a treat.
Question: Do people make any inner sounds - grr - when we
walk into a room - because of something we did or said 10 years ago.
CONCLUSION: HOPEFULLY
Hopefully when we walk into a room, people make “happy”
sounds and they let their teeth and jaws have a rest.
Hopefully, when people get angry at us, we give them forgiveness
smiles, sounds and words - like St. Stephen.
Amen.
December 26, 2018
MEAGER
Meager: now that’s one description
I don’t want ever to hear about myself.
I want abundance -
plenty - an ice
cream cone with at least 2 ½ scoops.
I want people to feel I am not rushing
them - that I’m listening to them.
God is never meager. Try counting rain
drops or snowflakes or ocean waves.
Try counting leaves and stars and
the shades of every color.
© Andy Costello, Reflections
2018
ST. STEPHEN
AND FORGIVENESS
INTRODUCTION
Today, the first day after Christmas, is the feast of St.
Stephen, the first deacon.
It has always been a special day in the Church, a free day
from work and school, all through Europe.
It’s also in folk songs, especially Christmas folk songs.
“On the feast of Stephen, when the snow lay on the ground.”
A HOMILETIC
REFLECTION
For a homily, for our reflection and consideration, I’d like
to offer two thoughts on forgiveness.
FIRST: REPUTATION
OF BEING A FORGIVING PERSON
First of all, wouldn’t it be nice to have the reputation of
being a person of forgiveness. “He’s so forgiving.”
This is the reputation that surrounds St. Stephen. It’s like
an aura that surrounds or envelops him.
As he was being stoned to death, he was able to say, “Lord, don’t lay this sin against these people.”
He is simply giving his version of Jesus’ last words from
the Cross, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.”
I’ve read in several places that forgiveness is the # 1
theme of Christianity.
Of course, others have said that it is charity or giving or
loving. Christmas is the season of giving.
Well, St. Stephen’s, the next day, is the season of
forgiving.
Then others say that part of loving is forgiving.
Whatever.
We can simply be grateful that the first feast after
Christmas features St. Stephen the patron saint of forgivers.
He is the first person to die in the spirit of Christ and he
certainly died in his spirit.
Forgiveness is so central to Christianity.
I’m not saying, “forgetting”. I’m saying “forgiving”.
I’m not saying that we don’t admit our hurt, and feelings of
hurt. Stephen was hit by rocks. Rock hurt. They cut. They kill.
I’m not saying that we don’t have feelings of anger and
emotional inbursts about someone who hurt us, who said the wrong thing, who
ruined our life or our reputation.
I’m saying, “Forgive!”
SECOND HOMILETIC
THOUGHT
My first homiletic point is the idea that forgiveness is
central to Christianity.
My second thought for today is less. It’s more self-centered.
It’s this. When we forgive, we receive peace. We benefit from forgiving.
It’s sort of like making a poster that says: “Want peace;
learn to forgive.”
This is the beautiful thing about the Christian life. In
giving, we receive. In forgiving, we receive peace. We benefit from forgiving.
This is the message of so many who have done this.
For example, St. Ignatius said, “In giving we receive. In
dying, we are born to eternal life.”
This is the paradox -- called Christianity, called “The
Pascal Mystery.”
CONCLUSION
So that would two homiletic thoughts for the day.
Let me close with a poem by William Blake, which says what I
just said, but much better. Amen.
A POISON
TREE
by William Blake
I was angry with my friend;
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
I was angry with my foe:
I told it not, my wrath did grow.
And I watered it in fears,
Night and morning with my tears:
And I sunned it with smiles,
And with soft deceitful wiles.
And it grew both day and night.
Till it bore an apple bright.
And my foe beheld it shine,
And he knew that it was mine.
And into my garden stole,
When the night had veiled the pole;
In the morning glad I see;
My foe outstretched beneath the tree.
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