January 10, 2019 -
Thought for today:
“After thirty, a body has a mind of its own.”
Bette Midler
Thursday, January 10, 2019
Wednesday, January 9, 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.
Tuesday, January 8, 2019
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
THE LETTER
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily for this Tuesday after the
Epiphany is, “The Letter.”
Have you ever received
a love letter - which knocked you over - because of the person who sent
it?
You believed the words. The words moved you and you knew
you were loved. Tears came to your eyes …. A warm glow filled your heart and
mind.
After you put that letter down - you realize that this is
what you needed - this was what you wanted - this is what you longed for.
Another person told you they love you.
IT ALL DEPENDS
Today, a lot more people say, “I love you” than 50 years
ago.
Is that true? I
don’t know, but that’s my perception.
However, like hugs, they can be shallow throw a way’s or they can be depth charges
that blow us up.
In other words, it’s my opinion that today’s “I love you's”
are often throw away comments that often lack depth.
SAMMY DAVIS JR.
I remember from years and years ago a moment on Johnny
Carson’s night time TV show. Johnny
Carson had as a guest Sammy Davis Jr. He
was interviewing Sammy and Johnny asked him, “How come you tell everyone, ‘I
love you!’ more than a lot of people?”
And Sammy Davis paused and said, “I’ll tell you why. I had a friend in high school, a buddy, whom
I really liked and I often wanted to tell him. ‘I appreciate you. I love you.’ But
I didn’t and then he died suddenly in a car accident - and I resolved at that
time to say to anyone I love, ‘I love you.’”
THE MOVIE: THE LETTER
It was time to go to bed.
Joe left. I got the wondering: “What
movie is on TCM - channel 36 - Turner Classic Movies?”
The movie was from November 1940. It was an old black and white movie that
I never heard of before. It was entitled The
Letter. It stared Bette Davis and Herbert Marshall and some old time big
time actors.
Bette Davis - plays the part of Leslie Crosbie. I missed
2/3 of the movie. I looked it up afterwards for more of the plot. Leslie cheats
on her husband. She falls in love with another man. He is also married
and loves his wife. she is just a moment.
Discovering this enrages Betty Davis. Out of rage and anger, she kills this guy -
shooting him 5 times - feeling she was lied to by this guy.
Her husband doesn’t know about the affair. He gets a
great lawyer who gets her off in a trial on the grounds of self-defense.
After the trial, her husband finds out about all
this. He also finds out about The Letter. Her lawyer and Bette have to
go to the wife of the man she killed to buy that letter - for $10,000. The Letter could be used to convict
Bette.
I only saw some of the movie the other night, but I’ll try
to catch the whole movie some time.
Without ruining the movie, near the end it had some powerful lines and
scenes.
One is this: Bette Davis’ husband - after finding out
what had happened - says, “It’s amazing. You can be married to someone for 10 years and you find
out you do not know hardly anything about them.”
Another is this: Bette Davis’ husband says, “I could
forgive you, but I have to know if you really love me.”
She says it. Then
she takes it back. She falls apart and
says how much she loved the man she murdered - and still loves him - and doesn’t
love her husband.
CONCLUSION
When I read today’s two readings, the thoughts of this
homily hit me.
In the first reading from the First Letter to John, we
hear how much God loves us. We hear that God is love. [Cf. 1
John 4: 7-10]
In today’s gospel from Mark we find out how far God will
go for us - to feed us - to love us - to heal us - to watch over us. [Cf. Mark 6; 34-44]
Recalling the line from the movie, I believe God could
say what Bette Davis’ husband says, “It’s
strange how people can be with God for
years without knowing how much God loves them.”
Has God’s love overwhelmed you yet? Amen.
Recommendation: Want to read a love letter to you? Read the letter, called the First Letter of
John, over and over again.
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