March 25, 2019
Homily
Monday, March 25, 2019
March 25, 2019
Thought for today:
“A painting about which we were unable to separate fact from fiction was the ‘Virgin and child’ in the Paulin monastery at Czestochowa,
in Southern Poland. A Polish reader
living in Leicestershire asked us to confirm the following story about the
painting, knows as the ‘Protector of Poland’, and said to have been painted by
one of Christ’s apostles.
“When Sweden invaded Poland in 1655, the Swedes tried to
remove the painting in a horse-drawn wagon, but could not budge it an inch.
Exasperated, two Swedish soldiers drew their swords and slashed the virgins
cheek. As soon as their swords touched
the canvas, the soldiers fell dead. And nobody has since been able to cover up
the scars.
“Although unable to confirm it to the letter, we were
happy to find out that such a good story certainly was based on some fact. Admittedly Our Lady of Czestochowa, first
said to have been painted by St. Luke,
is now believed to be the work of an unknown Italian artist in 1383. But the painting certainly took on a special
significance after the heroic defense of the monastery in 1655, when the
invading Swedes were defeated after a
70-day siege.
“Following this miraculous victory, King Casimir of
Poland proclaimed: ‘To touch Our Lady of Czestochowa is to touch the very soul
of Poland.’ Whether by Swedish swords or not, the Virgin’s cheek remains
scarred, and every year thousands of pilgrims go to see it.”
Old
Codgers’
MOST
VALUABLE PLAYER
M V P: now that’s a very tricky award!
M V P: now that could be very subjective.
M V P: now is that just for teachers or
athletes, or necessary people?
M V P: how about down syndrome folks?
M V P: how about the handicapped?
M V P: the blind, the deaf, and the lame?
M V P: everyone has value.
M V P: everyone is unique.
M V P: everyone deserves notice.
M V P: everyone has value.
M V P: everyone is unique.
M V P: everyone deserves notice.
© Andy Costello,
Reflections
2019
Sunday, March 24, 2019
March 24, 2019
SECOND
CHANCE
FIG TREES
[Instead of a homily
for this 3rd Sunday in Lent [C] I wrote this story yesterday. I used
it for the Kids’ Mass this morning and the 11 AM Mass.]
The title of my story for today is, “Second Chance Fig Trees.”
Once upon a time there was a farmer whose only fruit
trees were fig trees.
And he had lots and lots and lots of fig trees in his
orchard - thousands and thousands and thousands of them.
Now when he first started to grow fruit trees, he had
orange trees, apple trees, pear trees, but
he had his best luck with fig trees. So
that’s what he settled on: fig trees.
He sold his figs
to Nabisco - for their fig newton bars - to Keebler and to Kellogg’s - for
their fig newton bars - and his figs were the best in California - where he had
his many, many fig trees.
His trucks brought his figs to bakeries all around the
country and then ships brought them to countries all around the world.
He sold his figs to Costco, Walmart, Sam’s Club, and Amazon.
Vegans loved his fig bars. They were perfect for snacks
and power bars. In time creative bakers put in chocolate chips, blueberries and raspberries. Then they came up with new products. The
latest is organic dark chocolate fig truffle bites - brand new March 2019.
“Uuuum delicious.”
Now to the story about the day that changed everything for
him and his fig trees.If a fig tree wasn’t producing figs, he had his workers chop
that tree down - almost immediately.
“No use ….” he would say,
“No use wasting time and space,
land and fertilizer on lazy fig trees.”
“Cut em down!”
Then one day, believe
it or not, he gave the order to cut down this one little fig tree - but something stopped him. He couldn’t
believe his eyes, but this one little fig tree - seemed to be crying. He
couldn’t believe his ears, but he seemed to hear this little fig tree saying,
“Give me a second chance.”
He told his workers, “Give this tree here extra water. Give
it extra fertilizer - and if by this time next year, it doesn’t start
producing, more and better figs, then cut it down. Why should we let it do nothing?”
Sure enough, it started
producing great figs - the best he ever tasted.
Sure enough, something else happened, not just to his fig
trees, but to his personality.
He was known to be a really tough boss - always grouchy -
always yelling at his workers.
He was also - always
yelling at his kids - never, ever, ever,
giving them or their teachers of their coaches or anyone a second chance.
Well after giving that fig tree a second chance, he didn’t
notice this about himself, but he started to be nicer to drivers on the highway
- to people on line - in the supermarket - to neighbor and family members who
just wanted to talk about nothings.
Surprise his kids saw this change in their dad and they gave
him a second chance.
And this is not the end of the story. A twist turned things
around a bit more.
His dad died - his dad who had started their fruit tree
business - way, way back, and a long time ago.
Now he was always
tough on his dad - for not being busy enough - for not doing enough - for not
figuring out - fig trees were the way to go.
Now the priest who was doing his father’s funeral didn’t
know any of this. He was just trying to come up with a homily for the funeral.
He did know that the family was famous for their figs. So he looked up in the bible the two stories
about Jesus and fig trees,
In one story, the figs were not given a second chance. In the story we heard this morning, the fig
tree got a second chance.
Well, the priest who
preached at the funeral of the father of the man who gave that fig tree a
second chance - used that second story of Jesus for his homily and he said our
God is a God of second chances.
He really didn’t know anything about that farmer - and his
father - but when that farmer heard that
story that Jesus gave, he was hearing
about himself.
He started coming back to church - giving church and Jesus a
second chance. He gave himself a second chance. He really didn’t like himself.
But most importantly - his whole life changed - giving
lots of people - lots of chances - second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and
seven times seven chances. Amen.
Saturday, March 23, 2019
March 23, 2019
EYES
Horses eyes, cows eyes,
elephants eyes, cats eyes,
alligator eyes, fish eyes,
we stare into them ….
They stare into us ….
We pause - we hesitate -
then we breathe easier,
because we know all eyes
are so different from
looking into the human eye.
We know there is nothing
to worry about inside animal
eyes - but so much behind
the human eye - what they know
know about us what we know
about another. “Uh
oh!”
© Andy Costello, Reflections
2019
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