May    9, 2019 - 

Thought for today:

“God is subtle but God is not malicious.”  

“Raffiniert ist der Herrgott, aber boshaft ist er nicht.”  

Albert Einstein [1878-1955] 

made this remark at Princeton 

on May 9^th, 1921.  It was later

carved above the fireplace 

of the Common Room  

of the Fine Hall 

(the Mathematical Institute), 

Princeton  University - 

in R.W.  Clark, Einstein (1973), 

Chapter 14

WENT  SILENT

Sometimes the best thing to do

is to go silent.  When the other

is not listening …. When the other

has the answer …. When the other

is ignoring us … it might be the

best time to be like the submarine -

take down the periscope and submerge

down into the silent deep down below.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2019

May    8, 2019

Thought for today: 

“The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting.  It has been found difficult; 

and left untried.” 

G.K. Chesterton [1874-1936] 

in What’s Wrong With the World  

(1910), pt 1, Chaper 5.

HAVE  YOU  EVER WORN

 STEPHEN’S  SHOES?

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 3^rd Tuesday after Easter is, “Have You Ever Worn  Stephen’s Shoes?”

Stephen being the deacon in today’s first reading …. Stephen being a leader in the early Christian community ….  Stephen who is stoned to death ….  Steven the one who challenges others…. Steven the one who forgives those who kill him ….

So the question again: “Have You Ever Worn Stephen’s Shoes?”  Have you ever been in one of his type situations?

Probably, it should be Stephen’s sandals - not shoes -  but moccasins is what they use in the original version of the old Native American saying? “Don’t criticize  anyone till you walked a mile in their moccasins.”

WE KNOW THIS MESSAGE

We know this message, I’m just repeating it, because  it’s good to be challenged by it every day in our interactions.  

Jesus ran into the same situation with the woman who was caught in adultery. Jesus saved her - by saying, “Let the one without sin, cast the first stone.”

And since all her accusers knew they sinned and made mistakes,  they dropped their rocks and walked away.

I made up a similar saying: “Don’t criticize anyone till you have walked a mile in their sins.”

I like the way Harper Lee put it in her book, To Kill a Mockingbird, “You  never know  man until you understand things from his point of view, until you climb into his shoes and walk around in them.”

Or someone said, “Don’t judge of book by its cover. You might miss out on a good story.”

A guy named Jack  Handey said, “Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes. That way you are a mile away and you have their shoes.”

STEPHEN

What was it like to be Stephen?  If you were in his shoes, if you  were called like him, what did he go through?

Sometimes in life we have to challenge others. Parents have to do that at times - even if their kids are going to yell and scream and complain to and about them for screaming and complaining about them.

Stephen did that as we heard in today’s first reading.

Sometimes in life, people gang up on us - or  name call us, etc. In those moments  we can take the criticism and then forgive the rock throwers and become the peace makers were are challenged to be.

Stephen did that in today’s first reading.  He basically said what Jesus said from the  cross. “Father forgive them, because they don’t know what they are doing. Stephen said, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them….”

So if you want to walk in Jesus’s - as well as  Stephen’s sandals, shoes, and skin, - forgive each other each day. We dummies often don’t know what we are doing.

CONCLUSION

No selfies today.  Only otherlies today.  Instead of thinking of self, think others. What’s it like to be the other person?

And if enough of us do this each day, then each day will be that much better than it would have been.  Amen.

THE  GOOD   LIFE

What’s a good life? 

To love … to laugh …. 

To live one’s life to the full …. 

To bring life into the world … 

to one’s kids, to one’s spouse, 

to leave everyone in the room 

with a smile when one leaves, 

to not worry who’s on first, 

to deal well with death and the 

tragedies of life - there are always 

some. To know I tried, I cried but 

I also made you laugh! 

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2019

May    7, 2019

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’.

WHAT  ARE  YOU  

LOOKING  FOR?

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 3^rd 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.