November 11, 2019 

Thought for today: 

“The notes I  handle  no better than many pianists.  But the pauses between the notes - ah that is where the art resides.”  

Artur Schnabel, Quoted 

Chicago Daily News, 

June 11, 1958

November 10, 2019 - Thought for today: “Take  only  memories.  Leave nothing but footprints.” Chief Seattle

November 10, 2019

BUTTERFLIES

There are some people

whom we wish were butterflies -

but not for the old reason -

that they evolve from being

a crawling caterpillar to

becoming a beautiful butterfly.

Nice. But some folks

we simply wish they did

their work - whether moths

or monarchs - and do it well -

in silence - and in beauty -

and then they just move on.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2019

FOR  A  LEGACY,  NOT BAD

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 32 Sunday in Ordinary Time [C] is, “For a Legacy, Not Bad.”

Here are some thoughts that hit me last night  - after reading today’s three readings.

[PAUSE] DAVE

A guy named Dave died this year. Whenever he was going to meetings and various other things, he would arrive with his light  brown leather brief case that had a leather handle - plus a leather strap to put around one’s shoulder. I kidded him about it at times - saying things like, “What’s in your leather male purse?” I mentioned it in the homily I gave at his funeral - with the secret hope Madge, his wife,  might gift me with it. Madge got sick before I left Annapolis and I saw her twice - but I didn’t bring up the bag. He has a few sons.  Well, Madge died recently - and that bag is out of my reach or hopes forever. Life. Greedy, greedy, me, me, me ….

Last night the thought hit me: “Does everyone have a leather bag with their important papers and this and that in it?”  “Does everyone have a neat leather bag they bring to their death - so that when they die they arrive at God’s table with it. Then when God - or however this works after we die - then when God says, ‘Make an account of your stewardship!’ we open up our invisible leather bag and tell God what we did with our life.”

In other words, “What was your legacy? What is the good stuff you did in your life?”

I guess one of things we do on retreat is to think about things like this.

This is the stuff people mention at our funeral - the good stories - how we made life better for the people in our life - hopefully.

[PAUSE]  THE LITTLE GIRL IN THE BATHTUB

Back in the late 1960’s, in my first assignment as a priest, at Most Holy Redeemer Parish, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, I got a phone call one day from Josie Miller.  She was homebound - I never liked the word, “shut-in”.  She told me about a little girl who was kept in a bathtub over in an apartment - on the West Side.  The little girl  wasn’t with her parent or parents. She was with this couple and Josie asked, “Could I go over and see the situation and do what I could do?”

I got the address - and the apartment number. I was young and dumb and ready to save the world.

I rang the apartment door number and this shabby looking  guy opened up the door and I told him I was a priest. I arrived dressed as a priest of course.

He let me into a shabby apartment and I met a  woman there as well - who also looked shabby.  So it was shabby, shabby, shabby.

I asked if they had a little girl with them? 

Silence!

Then I heard a child whimpering from the bathroom. That  door was open. I walked to the doorway of the bathroom and there was this close to naked little girl with belt beating marks on her - plus feces.

I turned and headed for the apartment door venting, “This is wrong, whoever you are.”

I went back to the rectory and called Child Protection Services and gave a social worker the information.

It worked. They got over there right away and ended up taking the little girl out of there.

Josie - who knew everything - and who this little girl was - told me that I saved that kid that day.

That’s the story. It’s in my invisible leather bag for when I meet God.

For a legacy, not bad.

[PAUSE] MARY JANE

Years and years ago - in another place where I was stationed - I used to talk with a woman I’ll name “Mary Jane”.  

As priest we run into lots of people - and hear lots of stories. 

Mary Jane told me loud and clear I could tell folks her story - if it could help them.

When Mary Jane was a little girl - when she came downstairs to go to school - she would often walk by her parents - drunk on the couch and sometimes on the floor.

She would walk up the street with her school bag and go into a house about 8 houses away. She would walk up the steps - open the open front door and go to the kitchen table - saying hello to her girl friend who lived there and say to her mom, “Hi Mrs. X!”

Mrs. X would give her breakfast - and then comb her hair. I can still see Mary Jane mimicking what her girlfriend’s mom would be doing. [DO. WITH FINGERS LIKE A COMB DO THREE STROKES ON EACH SIDE OF MY HEAD.]

“Mrs. X would say, ‘Just making you beautiful Mary Jane. Just making you beautiful.”

Then Mary Jane told me, “That woman saved my life. That woman taught me and showed me that someone cared about me.”

For a legacy. Not bad.

In some other conversation with Mary Jane - she was talking about her husband - also a doctor. She said that her husband really loved her. I asked one of my favorite questions, “For example?”

“Well,” Mary Jane said, “one time there I was really sick. I was bed-ridden for about 6 months and he had to put a bed pan under me and then clean me up - every time. Experiencing that I said to myself a bunch of times, ‘This guy really loves me!’ And when I said that out loud to him he would say, ‘No S__! Mary Jane. No S___!” and we’d both have a good laugh.

For a legacy. Not bad.

[PAUSE]  [THE LADY IN PITTSBURGH]

For 8 ½ years myself and a Father Tom - different from this Tom - gave parish missions in all kinds of different places.  Obviously, I was thinking about my life and legacy last night - when putting together these thoughts for today.  Today’s readings - especially the first reading and the gospel -  certainly triggered for me end of life questions.

I don’t see the goal of life to keep the rules and the Law - as we heard in today’s first reading. I’d  eat the pork - especially a hot dog and a ham sandwich - and die for love or something much, much deeper.  I don’t have to worry about keeping the Law - as in today’s gospel. My brother had 7 daughters. I see both these stories with a sense of humor - but I’ve got sidetracked.

Let me tell you about a lady in Pittsburgh. She too was homebound and evidently close to death. Tom and I were preaching a parish mission in Pittsburgh and in the afternoon we visited the homebound.  The 2 priests there gave us a list of folks to see.

Well, this woman asked me at least a dozen times when I was alone with her, “Father, am I going to hell?” and I told her a dozen times, “Of course not.”

Well, no luck.  I guess, she was stuck in a type of semi-dementia. I guess nothing new could get into her thought patterns. Evidently, she felt she had broken some of God’s laws and she was headed for hell.

That evening I found out from those 2 priests that my experience was their experience and with every new priest that came there, they hoped some priest would have a break through.

Nope.

[PAUSE]  THE LADY IN COLUMBUS OHIO

The following week Tom and I were preaching a parish mission in Columbus, Ohio.

A deacon drove me one afternoon to see  a lady who was homebound. He told me that she had a few more weeks to live at the most. She was in a big double bed in the middle of their living room. Her hair was beautiful. She told us her husband was perfect and combed it for her every day.

The four of us - deacon, husband, the lady who was dying and I -  said some prayers and we had communion with Christ.

In the 15 minutes alone with this woman I received the gift of a lifetime - her legacy to me.

I didn’t realize it - but the woman in Pittsburgh from the week before - was still in my mind. So I asked this woman in Columbus, Ohio, “Are you scared - in that you’ll be seeing God in a short time.”

Wide awake she turned towards me and said, “Scared? Hell no? In about two short weeks I’m going to be seeing the shining face of God.”

And her face was shining.

CONCLUSION

Well, thinking about this - and all this  - last night, what a legacy.

Whoever taught her that message, that Good News, “For a Legacy, Not Bad.”  Not bad!

And the lady in Pittsburgh, if she got that message from someone, or some pulpit, bad, bad, legacy.

That’s the total opposite of the Redemptorist Message and Legacy, With Christ there is abundance, overflowing, copious redemption.

Oooops! I forgot   to mention the one liner that really triggered this whole homily. It’s the last sentence in today’s second reading from Saint Paul’s Second Reading to the Thessalonians, “May the Lord direct your heart’s to the love of God and to the endurance of Christ.”

For a Legacy. Not Bad. For a Legacy. Not Bad.

I hope I put that in your leather bag. Amen.

November 10,  2019

Here are  the words of the song "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" - on the Anniversary of its sinking - November 10, 1975.

WRECK OF THE 

EDMUND FITZGERALD

The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they called 'gitche gumee'
The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead
When the skies of November turn gloomy
With a load of iron ore twenty-six thousand tons more
Than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty
That good ship and crew was a bone to be chewed
When the gales of November came early

The ship was the pride of the American side
Coming back from some mill in Wisconsin
As the big freighters go, it was bigger than most
With a crew and good captain well seasoned
Concluding some terms with a couple of steel firms
When they left fully loaded for Cleveland
And later that night when the ship's bell rang
Could it be the north wind they'd been feelin'?

The wind in the wires made a tattle-tale sound
And a wave broke over the railing
And every man knew, as the captain did too,
T'was the witch of November come stealin'
The dawn came late and the breakfast had to wait
When the gales of November came slashin'
When afternoon came it was freezin' rain
In the face of a hurricane west wind

When suppertime came, the old cook came on deck sayin'
Fellas, it's too rough to feed ya
At seven pm a main hatchway caved in, he said
Fellas, it's been good t'know ya
The captain wired in he had water comin' in
And the good ship and crew was in peril
And later that night when his lights went outta sight
Came the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

Does any one know where the love of God goes
When the waves turn the minutes to hours?
The searches all say they'd have made Whitefish Bay
If they'd put fifteen more miles behind her
They might have split up or they might have capsized
They may have broke deep and took water
And all that remains is the faces and the names
Of the wives and the sons and the daughters

Lake Huron rolls, superior sings
In the rooms of her ice-water mansion
Old Michigan steams like a young man's dreams
The islands and bays are for sportsmen
And farther below Lake Ontario
Takes in what Lake Erie can send her
And the iron boats go as the mariners all know
With the gales of November remembered

In a musty old hall in Detroit they prayed,
In the maritime sailors' cathedral
The church bell chimed till it rang twenty-nine times
For each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald
The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they call 'gitche gumee'
Superior, they said, never gives up her dead
When the gales of November come early
Writer/s: Gordon Lightfoot
Publisher: Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

SACRED,  SACRED, SACRED

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “Sacred, Sacred, Sacred.”

I was  tempted to add, “Holy, Holy, Holy” - three words we say at the end of the Preface in every Mass.  But I’ll stick with “Sacred, Sacred, Sacred.”

We usually don’t say those three words - “Sacred, Sacred, Sacred” - as a prayer, but we do feel that sacred feeling from time to time - when we experience sacred space, place, things and people.

Today, November 9^th, we celebrate a sacred place, a holy place, the church of St. John Lateran in Rome.

It’s the main cathedral church of Rome -  that space going back over 1000 years before St. Peter’s. It’s the place of 5 Ecumenical Councils - plus all kinds of other major church events.

If you’ve been to Rome I’m sure you went to the church of St. John Lateran, as well as St. Mary Major -  besides St. Peter’s.

WENDELL BERRY

I noticed a quote in the opening reflection for today’s feast in the loose-leaf lectionary that they use here at Holy Cross in Rumson.  We have the same loose leave Lectionary at San Alfonso.  Here’s the quote. It’s from Wendell Berry, “There are no unsacred places; there are only sacred places and desecrated places.”

That quote got me thinking.  First of all that quote seems to miss the in between - those spaces, places, situations and people that don’t grab us.

Next:  “desecrated places.”  I’ve seen and I’ve heard about places that have been desecrated: cemeteries messed up - tombstone’s overturned, swasticated graffiti inside churches or outside on the walls of synagogues.

A COUPLE OF ACTION APPLICATIONS CONCERNING THE SACRED

Here are a couple of action applications.

First - whenever you travel, drop into sacred places and pay respects or be inquisitive or nosey.  Catholic churches [for example, check out the quality of the stations of the cross];  Christian churches [like the tall  white wooden Congregational buildings in New England], Jewish synagogues [spot the tabernacles]; Quaker Meeting places [great wooden floors], Moslem [great rugs],  etc. etc. etc. Sit there and sometimes you might get angry like Jesus as we heard in today’s gospel - with the money changers or the noise or the unawareness of people visiting.  Say to Jesus: “Now  I get it.”

Second - make it a point to visit other sacred places like Civil War battlefields, the World Trade Center, or  any cemetery. Study the stones. Read the signage. Pray for the dead. Just pause at the sacredness of the place.

Third museums: see all the stuff under glass, check paintings and sculptures.  Find the most important works in the collection.

Fourth cookie lines: I’ve experienced getting cookies in parish halls - I’ve often  noticed 12 ladies standing there behind a table. They seem to be saying, “Pick my cookies!”  I like to watch the faces of the cookie makers, when their cookie is picked. What is the history, the story about a special cookie? Where did she get the recipe?  

Fifth: ask people about their  grandkids, etc. Pictures that were mainly in wallets are now to be seen on cellphones.  Then there are the other people in one’s life. What about them?  Do we see what Paul sees - mentioned in today’s  second reading - the people who  build up the body of Christ? Do we see all the people of the planet  as one - a sacred one - a sacred whole community.

CONCLUSION: ST.  JOHN’S DELPHOS, OHIO

On this feast of the Church of  St. John Lateran in Rome, let me close with a story about St. John’s Church in Delphos, Ohio.

The church needed renovation - updating - patch work.

I heard that the folks in the parish - even though there was money for updating in the bank - didn’t want pastors to “tinker” with their parish.

Well, a pastor came in who was able to pull it off.

I heard there were a lot of complaints - till the renovation was revealed.

Surprise!  Once folks saw their church renewed they brought relatives and friends, visitors and neighbors to see how beautiful - how sacred their sacred space was.

Sacred.  Sacred.  Sacred.

November 9, 2019

MOON  RISING

From time to time,

living on the edge

of the Atlantic, I get

to see a moon rise

from up out of the deep

waters - a ball of light.  

People surprise me -

like that at times  - when

up out of their depths,

I see something rising from

their down below - realizing

I was only on their edge.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2019