ETERNAL   LIFE

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this Friday after the Epiphany  is, “Eternal Life.”

That’s the key message in today’s first reading: Eternal Life.

It’s one of the key themes in this first reading.

Here’s how today’s first reading ends:

And this is the testimony:
God gave us eternal life,
and this life is in his Son.
Whoever possesses the Son has life;
whoever does not possess the Son of God does not have life.

I write these things to you so that you may know
that you have eternal life,
you who believe in the name of the Son of God.

That’s enough for me. Amen. Amen.

PEOPLE ARE LIVING LONGER

People are living a lot longer today than they were 100 - 200 - 1000 years ago.

But life expectancy and how long people live  are tricky statistics, because child deaths were much more frequent in the past.. Then we can add: plus the medicines back then were nothing like today - plus technology - plus medical knowledge. There has been lots of improvement.

Question: Do people of today have less fears and wonderings how long we’re  going to last - than in the past?  I would think so, but each of us has to answer that one for ourselves.

Then  there are death reminders: the death of an old classmate or neighbor about our age. Then there is the obituary column - much less read than in the past. Then we find ourselves driving past a cemetery or we spot a hearse and a funeral procession and thoughts of death whisper in our ear.

Then we can put our own reminders into our surroundings.  They used to put a skull at the feet of various  saint statues. We can put a death memorial card on a bathroom  or bedroom mirror.

John Donne [1572-1631] - who is famous for his “No Man Is an island Poem” - in which we hear “When the bell tolls, it tolls for you.”  Well when he became a priest in the Anglican Communion, he moved away from his worldly ambitions.

Interestingly, had his portrait painted - but in a winding sheet - the kind they wrapped the dead in. For the painting, he also had his hands and body arranged as a corpse. Then he had that picture in his room, next to his bed, as a reminder of his mortality.

A SENSE OF HUMOR

When it comes to death,  having a sense of humor can help. Can I laugh at wrinkles.  Can I laugh at the saying, “Old age is an organ recital.”

H.L. Mencken [1880-1956] wrote his own epitaph, “If after I depart this vale, you ever remember me and have thought to please my ghost, forgive some sinner and wink your eye at some homely girl.”  This was engraved on a plaque in the lobby of the Baltimore Sun.

I would also think, besides humor, faith would help. If we think by faith and have God in our lives, we can relax and put all in God’s hand.

CONCLUSION: PRAYER

Our gospel for today can get us to look at this life health problems, I went with our  first reading for today and looked at death.

I spoke about having the faith and the hope to say to God: “I don’t know if there is anything after this - but I’ll take you’re promise of eternal life.”

Then add, Thomas’ prayer: “Lord I believe, help my unbelief.”

January 10, 2019 - 

Thought for today:  

“After thirty, a  body has a mind of its own.”   

Bette Midler

January 10, 2019

C

Cookies,

Cake,

Candy,

Caring,

Comfort,

Communicate,

Compassion,

Community,

Considerate

Charity,
Call,

Calm,

Compromise,

Color,

Christ,

Cross.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2019 

January 9, 2019

L

L is for lion.

L is for Ladybug

L is for liking.

L is for love.

L is for life.

L is for light.

L is for labor.

L is for land.

L is for looking

What are you looking for?

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2019

VISIBLE HUMAN, 

INVISIBLE GOD

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this Wednesday after Epiphany is: “Visible Human, Invisible God.”

QUESTION?

Did you ever wonder where you got your takes on life from?

This would include your religion, your attitude toward sushi, always being very much on time or always cutting it close - and as a result often being a tiny bit late - and 1000 more attitudes, outlooks and behaviors.

Today’s first reading gave me the theme and title of this homily: “Visible Human, Invisible God.”

But I want to begin with my opening question, “Do you ever wonder where you got your takes on life from? Do you ever wonder why you are the way you are?”

ANECDOTES

I’m talking to my sister Mary on the phone and she says, “I was talking to Peggy [she was my other sister] and  Peggy says, “I got sick. Thank God  I was on vacation.”

Mary tells me, “I laughed and then said to Peggy, ‘Where did we get that from?’  And both said together in unison: ‘Mother!’”  And I added, “That’s funny. That’s me too.”

Obviously we learned our language, our smiles, our opinions from our parents and others.

My parents both spoke Gaelic.  Wow do I wish they taught us that as well as English.

At a workshop on preaching, the speaker asked us, “Whom did you learn the most about preaching from?” It got us thinking and it was a revelation.” Our answers could be correct - or maybe we don’t know and the answers are staring us in the face.

I was driving somewhere. The trip would take 8 hours. I  decided to grab some old cassette audio tapes of people giving talks. I’m listening to this one tape and the preacher gives this great example. I went, “Wow! I used that same example years after and I thought I was original. I wasn’t. I stole that example. I figured I had heard that tape 25 years ago and I used the example from it - 10 years later without knowing that it.

I shut off the cassette and thought about that for a while. How much else did I steal? How much more of other people’s stuff have I appropriated?

I thought. That’s the benefit of listening to tapes and CD’s and talks.

I smiled and said, “I have preached in thousands of churches and preached thousands of homilies and sermons, how many of those have I  planted good news. How many ideas of others have I planted - that I got from other folks somewhere and some time ago.

I am not only what I eat. I am what I listen to and watch.

The most obvious example: we become the TV channels we watch.

One of my top 10 quotes is from Tennyson in his poem, Ulysses, “I am part of all that I have met.”

TODAY

There’s an example from today’s first reading that I have stolen - or appropriated  - or made my own.

It’s a key idea from the first Letter of John.  Where did he get that idea from?  Was he original or a borrower?

It’s a simple idea.

If we can’t love and be nice to those we can see, how can we say we love God who is invisible.

I have met people who are great God people and they are horrible people people.

That jars me!

I have noticed people praying and praying and praying - including priests I have lived with - who can’t communicate with other people.

I know I’m judgmental in thinking this way - but this First Letter of John got me asking this question in this way.

When I’m hearing confessions if someone confesses they gossiped or talked about someone behind another’s person’s back - as a penance sometimes I tell folks to say something nice to someone next chance you get. If someone cannot  give a compliment to someone whom they can see, how can they give a compliment to God whom they cannot see.

If someone visits Christ in the Blessed Sacrament chapel - and they never visit others - never make a holy hour with an old person - who is shut in - or in Spa Creek Nursing Home facility - or make phone calls to their sister of brother in Atlanta -  how does that holy hour with Christ go? Are they the only one in the room, in the conversation?

From way back I’ve heard people say the rosary - Our Father and Hail Mary - and race through it - as if there is no space in between any word: “HailMaryfullofgracetheLordiswithyou…. blah, blah, blah….” I wonder how they can do that. Is that the way they are with other people who are visible to them - or are other people invisible as well.

January 9, 2019 

Thought for today: 

"When I first heard Wind Beneath My Wings, I thought: 'I'm not singing that." 

Bette Midler  [Then longtime friend 

and producer Marc Shaiman insisted 

and it was the biggest hit of my career.]

January 8, 2019

CONCERT

Sometimes, at some concerts,

the music squeezes itself into

every inch of the crowd - people

leaning  into each other - eyes

closed, laughing, smiling, toes

tapping, fingers drumming, lips

mouthing the words of the songs.

Now that’s a concert. Now that’s

what I want everyone to feel in

church - when it’s time for me

to have my final Mass - but I’m

Catholic, so I can only dream -

but  relax because I’ll be dead.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2019