April 10, 2019

BEFORE  AND  AFTER

There’s a before,  before us - 

if we take the time to think about it. 

We have parents. They had parents. They had parents. 

And back and back and back and back and back. 

There’s a before,  before us - 

if we take the time to think about it afterwards. 

We’re the after, but we’re also the before of a 

lot more that is to come.

A rose is from a rose is from a rose is from a rose is from a rose and 

back and back to the beginning of roses and oak trees and bonsai trees. 

So too butterflies, spiders, monkeys, hippos, Rottweilers, singers, teachers,  carpenters, lawyers, nurses, speakers of the house and cleaners of the bathroom.

There’s a before,  before us 

if we take the time to think about it. 

So if - who we are, what we say, and what we do lasts, - back and back - till way, way back -  why not do the best we can do - in the here and now - right now.

We pray, we play,  we work,  we think, we talk, with words and structures 

that go back, and back, and back, and back - till before we remember back.

So I guess the message is:  we’re all connected and a lot is going 

to follow us, so best case scenario: let’s leave a great legacy. Amen.

Parvis Prayer

St. Mary's High School

April 10, 2019

36 Scholars were inducted

into the Rose Parvis 

Scholarship Program  

at St. Mary's High School,

Annapolis, Maryland 

- Prayer Reflection 

written for this occasion.

Father Andy Costello

April 10, 2019

MIND  READING?????

Monkey see, monkey do.

See no evil, hear no evil,

do  no evil, only the good.

Seeing, hearing, doing

all come from the mind,

and I can’t read your mind.

So watching, hearing, guessing,

I really don’t know, so please

tell me the why of you?

 © Andy Costello, Reflections 2019

April    10, 2019

Thought for today: 

“Wisdom is not bought.” 

Niger  proverb.

April 9, 2019

FAILURE  BRINGS

  

Winning wins us so much.

Winning - like a dart board - is very clear.

Failure can bring us so much more.

Only 1 team can win.

Yet 67 other teams can say they made

it to the Final 68 tournament.

Failure can make us that much hungrier.

Failure can take the air out of our heads.

Failure can be a great teacher.

 © Andy Costello, Reflections 2019

THIS    IS  WHAT’S  KILLING  ME

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “This Is What’s  Killing  Me.”

That one liner gives me a possible reflection point from both readings for today.

Yet - I find this message mysterious and complicated - and I don’t think I can get my hands on exactly what is going on with these 2 readings.  Sorry!

FIRST READING

In the first reading from the Book of Numbers,  we hear that snakes  are  killing people.  Moses says to the crowd in the desert, “Grab a saraph snake after it bites you, put it up on a pole and then take a good look at it.” [Cf. Numbers 21; 4-9.]

“If you do that, you will live.”  

It’s kind of a mysterious message - but that’s a possible message from what the story here is telling us.

To clarify this message, to broadcast this message, he says to make it a bronze snake - and put it up on the pole.

THE MEDICAL PROFESSION

That bronze symbol of snake on the pole should sound familiar. It’s the symbol of the medical profession.  A doctor sees a patient, examines a patient, and tries to name the sickness.

Tests…. Tests …. Tests …. The stuff of being a doctor today…. The first step is to diagnosis what’s wrong - what’s the  sickness.  Hopefully that can lead to healing that person.

TODAY’S GOSPEL

Today’s gospel from John 8: 21-30 refers to that story from the Book of Numbers. Jesus says he’s going to be lifted up and then you will know who I AM.

I assume that the text is referring to Jesus on the cross - and the horror of what happened to him.

I assume that these two texts - are put here - as we move towards the end of Lent.

I assume that Lent is a time of sitting and standing under the cross - and studying Jesus - where made of bronze, wooden, plaster, marble - getting us in touch with the flesh and blood Good Friday Jesus on the cross.

Jesus, the Healer, allows the same thing to happen to him.  He is nailed to a pole after telling us: “This is what kills you.”

If we read the crucifixion story - we can pick up the anger, the suffering, righteousness, the spitting on others,  crucifying others,  yelling at others….

People have been doing these horrible types of downing others -  down through the years - in all kinds of ways and means.

The Christian enters into all this - into the passion - death - and then the resurrection of Christ.

So once more Lent is a time of sitting and standing under the cross - and studying Jesus - bronze, wooden, plaster, marble

WHAT KILLS YOU?

I think the question: “What kills me?” is an important question to ask.

How do we crucify ourselves?

It could be a $20 dollar bill. Jesus was sold for 30 pieces of silver.

It could be food.

It could be over binging by watching television  or the computer into mesmeration. Is that  killing me?

We need to name our self-destroyers - or family destroyers.

CONCLUSION

This theme - this looking at what kills us - what crucifies us - should be in the mix of what we’re going to be reflecting on as we move to the end of Lent and as we move closer and closer to Holy Week  - which is next week. Amen.

April    9, 2019 

Thought for today: 

“Now I can say loudly and openly what I have been saying to myself  on my knees.”  

Bob Dylan, on being asked 

to compose sacred music - 

recalled on his death May 24, 1974

WEAPONS  OF  CHOICE

 INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 5^th Monday in Lent is, “Weapons of Choice.”

Today’s two readings feature two stories of women caught in traps set up by men.  Check them out: Daniel 13: 1- 62 and John 8: 1-11

They feature antagonism and violence - rock throwing and accusations.

MARRIAGE PREPARATION TEST

When I meet with couples who are going to get married at St. Mary’s, we  go through this Pre-Marriage Inventory [PMI].

In the communications section I ask the couple, “What is your weapon of choice?”

Most of the time - couples hearing that question - or one of them - looks at me quite strangely.

Hey they are going to give each other a ring. They are not going into a boxing ring.

But sometimes a couple get the question and they say, “Silence!”

That seems to be the weapon of choice of many people around the world.  I know it’s mine. And it works - at least for me - because when I simply become silent - I don’t fall into a verbal trap I don’t like.

ROCKS

Back when we were cavemen and women, we threw rocks.

The dirty old men in today’s first reading wanted to execute Susanna - but when they are caught in a lie - they are executed.  It doesn’t say how they were killed.  Rocks were very much a standard way of killing folks.

The men in today’s gospel - yesterday’s gospel as well - wanted to throw rocks at the woman.  Was it to silence her - lest she tell their wives where they were.

Rock throwing is still going on around the world.

I remember seeing a bronze statue from the Iron Curtain - Soviet Union days.  It has a guy reaching for a rock and the title of the statue was, “Rocks the Arms of the Common Person - or Proletariat.”

TWO QUESTIONS

Why do people reach for weapons?

What is your weapon of choice?

MOTIVE

As to motive - and the need to reach for a weapon - is it anger or jealousy or fear?  Is it because we didn’t get our way?

CONCLUSION: ROCK, PAPER, SCISSORS

If we use words as rocks to throw at people, behind their back or to their face,   write them down on paper - see what we’re saying - and then cut that paper up.

Or maybe we should sit down with a person whom we want to throw rocks at and say instead,  “Do you want to talk?”  Better: “Do we want to listen to each other?”