FAST

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this Friday after Ash  Wednesday  is, “Fast.”

It’s Lent and one of the  ideas for Lent is to focus on different ways we can be better as Christians an as Human Beings.

The 3   standard Lenten Practices are: Prayer - Fasting - and Giving Alms.

The practice I’m thinking of working on for this Lent is Fasting.

But in the following way: to be more aware of the food I eat.

To taste it more, to enjoy it more, to be more aware of the realities and the connections about the food I eat in communion with all people on the planet.

That’s possible

FASTING

Fasting is a practice in many religions: the various Christian religious groups, as well as in Judaism, Islam and the older religions like  Buddhism and Hinduism.

We see in today’s  two readings instances of fasting: especially among the Jews.

Isaiah in today’s first reading moves away from seeing fasting only as  a food issue. Isaiah warns us about not being a pain or a grouch.  Remember the old practice of someone giving up booze or smoking for Lent and everyone in the family wishes they didn’t - because they have become itchy and irritated and ill willed.

Isaiah also warns us about not making religion a way of showing off. We’ll find that happening over and over in Jesus’ time. And we find that in Chaucer and in literature and different stories down through the centuries.

So Jesus and Isaiah move thinking about fasting way beyond  food.

For example, we can fast from speaking too much and to  listen more. We can fast from TV and use that time for  playing cards - or talking with each other more  or reading or praying more.

FAST

When I hear the word “fast”-  I can think of its opposite: “slow!”

I’m going to   eat slower this Lent.

When I’m eating, I’m going to reflect upon where food comes from.

I’m going to try to be thankful for those who cook - who  farm - those who are truck drivers who deliver food to supermarkets. I’m going to think of cashiers - store managers, and on and on and on.

I’m going to try to be more aware of the symbolism of the table we eat at.

I’m going to think of those who plant wheat - those who cut down and bring wheat to the mills - those who make flour - those who bake bread.

So too wine and grapes.

I think of the summer I worked on Coca Cola trucks - it gives me memories and an understanding of that kind of work.

How many times have we heard that every kid should work as a waiter or waitress, dish waster, bus boy, what have you. I remember working at BINGO as a kid - selling bagels, donuts, egg rolls, soda, coffee, and soft drinks.

CONCLUSION

So instead of wolfing my food down - I can slowly be in communion with all those who brought this food to my table.

I can be in communion with the poor and the hungry as well.

I can slow down and enjoy my food as well. Amen.

March     8, 2019 

Thought for today: 

“The young man who has not wept is a savage; and the old man who will not laugh is a fool.”  

George Santayana [1926-1952] 

Dialogues in Limbo (1923, chapter 3.

March 8, 2019

MAKE  A  LIST

Make a list, 

5 or 10 things 

you want to do today. 

10 might be too many. 

Then at night check off 

how many you did that day. 

Keep that list on a small pad 

by you bed table. 

Say a prayer of thanks 

for things done and people helped. 

Then the next morning 

look at your lists and 

surprise you’ll realize 

what you’ve done and 

what you have to do. 

Now if you don’t make lists, 

you won’t have a neat record 

of what you’ve done during 

these days of life. Amen. 

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2019

March 7, 2019

NOISE

I entered the silence only to find out 

there are lots of noises that I’m not hearing. 

An ambulance is rushing somewhere 

in the night. I say a silent "Hair Mary." 

My dad told me he learned that in Ireland 

as a kid. A dog barks - then silence takes 

over again. Then I hear a car tire going  

over a sewer cover which isn’t too secure. 

That's sort of like me - trying to sleep in
the night - with the flow of the stuff that 

is below - stuff I'm trying to keep a lid on. 

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2019 

March     7, 2019 

Thought for today: 

“Gossip is how we establish cultural norms.  Talking about  others is our way to test the social boundaries - to learn  what raises eyebrows, what is met with shrugs - without  directly talking about ourselves.” 

Lisa  Belkin, in article, 

“Public Displays of Disaffection,” 

Page 9, New York Times 

Magazine, July 12, 2009

ASH

The title of my homily is, “Ash” -  A S H - as in Ash Wednesday.

It’s Ash Wednesday and every year when I come to doing a new sermon - I like to see where I am this year - so last night I looked at the words,  “Ash Wednesday” - and wondered where to go for this Ash Wednesday - 2019.

It was then that the short 3 letter first  word,  “ash” - A S H hit me.

I said to myself, “For a reflection on Ash Wednesday, simply  go with some ponderings of the  word  ‘ash’.

I’m not a scientist, but I began to wonder about how much ash can be found in a breath of air - if any?  Annapolis has to be better than Dakar, Senegal - featured in today’s New York Times - as having plenty of pollution.

Are there ashes floating in the air around us?

We’ve all seen a scene from a movie where someone crumbles or tosses a letter into a fire  -  in a fireplace.

It could be a “Dear John….” letter or a rejection letter and we see on film the  paper burning  and dancing and disappearing in the flames.

Do tiny - tiny - tiny - much, much, much,  smaller than a piece of dandruff - pieces  of ash float into the room - into one’s lungs - or land on door tops.

Rejection letters, or angry letters - remain in one’s memories for years - when one is burnt - long after those letters are burnt.

Ash remains in the fireplace - in the campfire - in the backyards of our lives.

Carl Sandburg in his poem,  “Cornhuskers” [1918] wrote, “I tell you the past is a bucket of ashes.”

Are we surrounded - are we standing in - the ashes, in the dust, in the backyard, in the graveyard, of all those who have gone before us?

Memories - tiny gestures of love or neglect - or regret - of those who have gone before us - continue to exist - even though our loved ones are closed and coffined and casketed - as ashes in fine boxes - buried in our cemeteries - buried in our memories - but sometimes they flame up - or float around us.  They return. They remain.

We humans have this wonderful gift called, “Memories.”

We human beings have this powerful word and commandment, “Remember.”

We humans do a lot of things in memory of others and from others.

So on Ash Wednesday we ponder these heavy thoughts - that are sitting there like dust - on the furniture of our being.

We hear the heavy words, “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

We hear the words, “Repent, and believe in the gospel.”

We ponder that Ash Wednesday is Day One of Lent - that we are living in borrowed time - that time is lent to us to live - with love - and care - and to serve others. The ones who give - who live for others - and not for themselves - are the ones we are happy that they continue to live in our memories - even when they  have turned to ashes - to dust.

We ponder that the Son of God entered into our story - into our history - into our time - and dies like all of us at the end of Lent - on Good Friday - Good because three days later God - Christ - the Son of the Father rises in the flesh. There is no dust of Christ - no relics of Christ - in our dust - in our air - only the Spirit of God - floating in and out of our being when enter into his Spirit.

But there is bread…. There is wine… So we eat Christ - we drink Christ - we take the life of Christ into our ears and into our mouths. We enter into Communion with him - and that’s what lasts - that’s what makes this life - so beautiful - as well as the knowing that at the end of all this is not ashes - not dust - but eternal resurrection.  

So we pray: “Thy Kingdom Come - on earth as it is in heaven."

March 6, 2019

Reflection

LENT

A four letter STOP sign 

not in red - but in purple. 

A time to STOP being selfish, 

but to be more giving, more forgiving. 

A time to STOP being petty, 

but to be a pretty nice person to be with. 

A time to STOP being all mouth, all words, 

but to be more ears and more understanding. 

A time to STOP being with a statue God, 

but to be in communion with the Trinity. 

 © Andy Costello, Reflections 2019