Thought for today:
“It isn’t that they can’t see the solution.
It is that they can’t see the problem.”
G.K. Chesterton [1874-1936]
in Scandal of Father Brown
(1936),
‘Point of a Pin’.
Tuesday, May 7, 2019
Monday, May 6, 2019
WHAT ARE YOU
LOOKING FOR?
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily for this 3rd Monday after Easter is, “What Are You Looking For?”
That’s a bottom line theme in today’s gospel - and
in much of the Gospel of John.
What are you looking for?
EXAMINATION TIME
How much time do we spend each day looking for this and
that?
We walk in into a room and say, “It’s in here somewhere?”
And it’s an ongoing joke - that is part of aging process - to ask, “Why did I come into this room in the first place?”
I remember a young woman telling me 3 or 4 of the
qualities she was looking for in a guy?
I asked her: “Well how many are on your list?” She answered, “About ten!”
She’s now married. I never met the guy? Would I dare to ask her, “How close is he to
fulfilling your requirements?”
Looking back, is she laughing or is she crying - or has
she forgotten she had a list - and is now dealing with the real person the guy
is?
TODAY’S READINGS
In today’s first reading from Acts 6: 8-15, Stephen is
featured. He and the early Christian
leaders - like Christ - were asking questions that people were not asking. They
were settled. The early Christians were unsettling and upsetting the old order.
Jesus the Nazorean spoke about Moses and God, the Law and
Customs - and sometimes when people are challenged - when lids are lifted -
when the Spirit starts stirring the pot - “Uh OH’s” are heard from the stove
which is the heart.
So sometimes we look at faces - or into eyes - and we
ask, “What’s cooking?” Translation:
what’s going on within your heart? What are you looking for?
In today’s gospel Jesus meets people who are looking for
him. They can’t figure out how Jesus moves about. They want more bread, but he
wants to feed folks with the food that endures for eternal life.
If you use the Eucharistic Chapel - if you come to
weekday Mass - besides Sunday Mass - you have to read John 6 - over and over
and over again.
It’s been around some 1900 plus years.
It’s a document that took years to finalize - somewhere
around 90.
It has development. It deals with lots of stuff they were
trying to figure out and lots of stuff we’re
trying to figure out - as we develop and evolve.
If you’re married - if you have kids - if you have
parents that are still around - if you have parents who have died - if you look at your relationships - the
others are the same as they were back when - but they are also quite different from back then. Our
nuclear self is the same - but our developing and changing self is different.
It’s called evolution - growth - development.
If we don’t change, we’re dead - we’re not doing our
inner work. We’re not evolving.
We see our parents different today - than we saw them 20
years. They have changed and we have changed.
So too Jesus. So
too Jesus in John. So we go through what early Christians in the Johannine
churches went through from 50 to the year 100 or so.
And Biblical scholars have certainly grown and changed in
their understanding of the Gospel of John down through the centuries.
CONCLUSION
The title of my homily for today is, “What Are You
Looking For?”
Make lists. Hang onto them. See how they change through
the years. Amen.
SOMEONE
Looking out the bus window -
I see all these folks on their
cellphones - walking with
someone - somewhere else -
down this street - talking
about something - but who
is their someone - when
they really need to talk to
someone: as in divorce,
or death, or being fired or
their kid is on opioids?
© Andy Costello, Reflections 2019
Sunday, May 5, 2019
SCREAMING GOD
A baby started screaming
during church this morning ….
On and off - screams and silence ….
Much louder than the priest ….
It hit me, what if this was God
screaming to us? It seemed that
some people were screaming back,
“Could you please shut that baby up!”
I guess God won’t be quiet ….
I said to
myself, “Maybe this
is the way God
announces
‘I am here’- as a baby ….
“Maybe Christmas day is every day.
And every day we have to get going
with our Christmas gifts - to this child
and to all the
children of this world."
© Andy Costello, Reflections 2019
THE SHORE AND THE SEA
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily for this 3rd Sunday after Easter is, “The Shore and the Sea.”
Today’s 3 readings - especially the Gospel - got me
thinking about this topic and this theme
And I want to spell shore both “SHORE” and “SURE”.
And the shore - s h o r e - is a metaphor for the
sure - sure.
What? What are you talking about here? Hopefully, by the
end of this sermon you’ll get what I’m trying to get at. And I hope I will too.
Picture a person at the ocean - Ocean City or Rehoboth -
and they are about 20 or 30 yards from the
shore - the beach - and the ocean becomes rough and pounding and the
person gets caught in an undertow and is tossed a bit - and says inwardly “Uh
oh! - I better get out of this water.”
How many situations have we found ourselves in - when
things got antsy or angry - nasty and nauseous - and we didn’t see it coming?
Life has it’s “Uh oh moments” - when we want an “Aha
moment” - on how to get out of there.
We want to get out of the unsure and onto the sure. We want to get out of the shaky and onto the
steady.
So the title of my homily is, “The Shore and the Sea.”
I preached on this yesterday at the 4:30 and I began
saying to myself during the sermon, “”Uh oh, this is getting muddy. A better title would be, “The Sure and the Unsure of Life” - yet I want
to bring in the water …. because of today’s gospel.
ON THE WATERFRONT
We who live in this part of Maryland are lucky to live
near the water - that is, if you like the water - that is, if you like sailing or boating or paddle
boarding or fishing or crabbing.
How much does geography form the personality? Do we become where we come from? Do people
who live in the Quad cities in the Midwest - on the Mississippi and its tributaries - do they
get a creeping inner fear because of spring flooding every year?
I lived on the Jersey Shore for 7 years and
Nor-easterners could cause anxiety. What about people in the Caribbean in
hurricane season? What about people in India who live right on the coast in the
path of possible typhoons?
The coast has benefits - but also it has its worries.
In Israel the Mediterranean doesn’t show up that often in
the scriptures, but it’s there. In the Gospels, the Lake of Galilee - or the
Sea of Tiberias as it’s called in today’s gospel from John - is more central.
It’s 13 miles north to south and 7 miles from east to west. It’s there and Jesus was brought up not that
far from it.
And in the gospel we have stories about storms at sea -
when the disciples start to panic - and Jesus becomes the sure when things are
unsure - and they are far from shore.
LIFE HAS ITS SURE AND ITS UNSURE
What does your list of the sure and unsure look like?
Death and taxes always makes the list for sure things.
So too marriages and babies.
So too wars and family feuds.
So too food.
So too sickness
and health.
So too addictions and sin and recoveries and resolutions.
So too unsure things like the weather - more or less
depending upon where you live. I hear
that a weather reporter’s job in Arizona ain’t that desirable.
The whole insurance industry is based on the unsure - as
they promise a surety - if there is a crash or a crisis.
The possibility of surprise - is the secret of humor and
horse races - and the lottery.
People repeat themselves - but sometimes they don’t.
Some people ask the same question every time we see them:
“What’s new?”
Sometimes it’s not the sermon we expected.
Which is more you: wanting the same or wanting the
different?
I remember preaching a week long parish mission in Ohio with my buddy Tom. We were near where
Bob Evans started and that’s where the pastor ate every night. Well for 6
straight nights I got Cobb Salad - which Tom started to needle me about. I
discovered Cobb Salad - and with extra blue cheese dressing it was a sure
thing.
Is there a psychological test to find out if we like same
or if we like different - the sure or the surprise?
TODAY’S FIRST READING
Today’s first reading from the Acts of the Apostles tells about some people in the Mediterranean
basin - some 2000 years ago - who told about someone - named Jesus - who was
killed - especially for some of the things he said - and rose from the dead.
Now that coming back from death was a surprise.
And for the past 2000 years people called Christians base
their life after death on his life and death and resurrection.
That’s some insurance policy.
They were told to shut up about this - but they didn’t -
and somehow either we or our ancestors
joined this belief - and here we are right now.
TODAY’S SECOND READING
Today’s second reading from the Book of Revelation talks
about the hereafter. It tells about a throne on which the Lamb that was slain
sits - the Christ - and countless people - angels and humans - are praising him
- giving him the glory - and all pray out and cry out, “Amen.”
In New Orleans you’ll hear the song this way: “I want to
be in their number when the saints come marching in.”
That’s a song and a hope for that surety.
TODAY’S GOSPEL
In today’s gospel we have this Jesus - the Risen One - on
a beach - at a fire - with bread and fish - and he wants to have breakfast with
his followers.
That’s an interesting image.
They are out in the water - fishing - but they caught
nothing.
Bummer.
But the man on the shore tells and yells to them where to
cast their nets.
Don’t we all want to know where to cast our nets?
Don’t we all want to make a catch - when it comes to life?
And they catch a great catch - 153 large fish - and they
had a great meal - a great feast - a great breakfast - a great communion.
And starting with Peter - our first papa - Jesus asks us
if we love him more than anyone else -
and Peter - the one who denied him 3 times - says 3 times - you know I love
you.
And three times Jesus tells Peter - and he tells us: Feed
my sheep - take care of each other - love me, love me, love me.
CONCLUSION
The title of my homily is, “The Shore and The Sea.”
Coming to Mass is coming ashore time - eating with Jesus
- communion with Jesus - being asked, Have you caught anything?
And then we’re
told the sure things are love and the feeding and caring for each other
- and then going into the unsure of the next - singing. Amen.
Not bad.
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