December 15, 2019

DEAF, DUMB,  AND  BLIND

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 3^rd Sunday in Advent [A]  is,  “Deaf, Dumb and Blind.”

THE READINGS

Like you – when I come to Mass - I read the readings – say a prayer – for example, “Lord, give me a message for today – starting with myself!” – and then hopefully – something hits me  - something challenges me.

Today’s first reading – Isaiah 35: 1-6a, 10 and today’s gospel – Matthew 11:2-11  talks about the blind, the lame, the weak, the deaf, the dumb – those who can’t speak – and those with leprosy.

I narrowed it down to 3: deaf, dumb and blind – but I’m moving them to metaphors -  otherwise we might not look or start with ourselves.

We might be blind and think only think of Stevie Wonder – instead of the wonder called me – the wonder called seeing.

In other words, I can be deaf, dumb and blind to today’s  words from Isaiah and from Jesus in Matthew for today.

How many times in life have we heard someone say to us?

·      “What are you blind?”

·      “Are you  deaf?”

·      “Don’t be so dumb!”

And we have our lame excuses for our poverty. There are three more issues in today’s readings: being lame,  being poor and having bad or thick skin. But let me stick with just 3: deaf, dumb and blind.

Want to give a great Christmas present to our family, to our relationships, to our places of work:  Listen, See, and Speak Up, Communicate!

Want a great morning prayer: Go to a mirror – each morning - put our finger on your lips and ask the Lord that we  use our gift of speech today only for good, for building people up. Touch our ears and ask the Lord that we  listen well today.  Touch our eyes and ask the Lord that we see the people whom we’ll be with today – that we really see them and look them in the eye – EYE  and I -  I.

Want to look for a great Christmas gift: Find the 3 monkeys who see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil – in a statue or a T-Shirt.  If you can’t find the 3 monkeys use your bathroom mirror. Practice 5 times each morning: Hands over eyes, hands over ears, and hands over mouth.

The 3 Monkeys are ecumenical: we find them in Confucian, Buddhist and Hindi thought and if we swing around and monkey around, we can find them in Christian and Jewish thought as well.

And notice I’m pushing them in both negative and positive ways: using our mouth, our ears and our eyes for positive interaction with each other  - as well as avoiding hurting each other as well – with our look, with our hearing dirt, gossip, etc. or with our words.

CONCLUSION

Could everyone put your hands on your eyes, your ears and your lips. Amen.

December 15, 2019

SUNDAY MORNING AT THE BEACH

The ocean roars – spray and pound ….

Wave after wave after wave after wave –

keep sliding  in and onto  our beach….

Non stop – here at our water’s edge.

The sun this Sunday morning  shows distance –

boats gliding  by – out there. Cruise and Container –

Fishing and Pleasure. It’s Sunday morning –

Sabbath. It’s time to rest. It’s time to see.

It’s time to be with and at this Mass of water ….

We Shore Folks Are Alive for another day of life.

Thank You God. Thank You God. Amen. Amen.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2019

December 15, 2019

Thought for the Day:



"The boughs of the oak are roaring inside the acorn  shell."

ST. JOHN OF THE CROSS

INTRODUCTION

Today is the feast of St. John of the Cross - Juan de Cruz.

His dates are 1542 - 1591. So, he lived in the time after the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus – and that burst of energy that must have erupted in Spain after the discovering a whole new world.

But I don’t know how much that experience affected his life – in the places in Spain where he lived.

·      He was a delving Spanish mystic.

·      He was an intriguing Spanish poet.

·      He fits in as  a December Saint.

He has been labeled a genius as a writer.  More important, he is a Saint.

Fortunately, we have his 3 great books:

·      The Ascent of Mount Carmel

·      The Dark Night of the Soul – The Spiritual                    Canticles

·      The Living Flame of Love.

To be read slowly. To be read very slowly and with commentary. To discover, he might not be your cup of tea.

Along with St. Teresa of Avila he is considered the founder of the Discalced Carmelites.

MESSAGE

What I take as a message from his life is the Cross and Rejection - but not just the cross and rejection, but how he dealt with the cross and rejection.

His father’s family had wealth, but when his father married someone in a class much lower than his – his family rejected him.

Then after kids came, the father died. Ugh. So, the mother was left homeless and in poverty.

At some point, John got a job as a servant in a hospital and then he entered the Carmelites. Someone spotted his talents and he ended up receiving a good education.

He meets Teresa of Avila who is trying to reform the female branch of the Carmelites and he joins with her in this reform of the male branch.

He is rejected – in fact, he’s imprisoned in the Carmelite monastery for 9 months – and is brought to the dining room at times and beaten publicly. The Redemptorists don’t do this.

CHOICE

He could have become as someone said, “a cynic or a compassionate mystic.” He became the mystic.

His life theme could be: seek God because God seeks us; desire God, because God desires us, and in the pursuit, we will meet God, often in the cross.

He is famous for his use of the theme of “The dark night” – as in the Dark night of the senses and the dark night of the soul.

F. Scott Fitzgerald and many others used that phrase, as in Fitzgerald’s line, “In a real dark night of the soul, it is always three o’clock in the morning.” That was in his book, “The Crack Up” (1936), not “Tender is the Night” (1933) or "The Great Gatsby" (1925).

2 PERSONAL STORIES

I have two personal stories concerning John of the Cross.

Years ago, I used to write a spirituality newsletter entitled, “You” – for the Thomas More Association out of Chicago. I would write  an issue, send it to Chicago, and it would be printed.

Well, I had just finished one issue on the theme of night, and it featured John of the Cross. Just at that time a classmate dropped in to visit me. 

I said, “Hey, Tom, read this and let me know what you think of it.”

Tom read it and said, “Where did you get this?” 

I said I made it up. 

He said, “It’s not  the way he put things. This is not what John of the Cross was saying.”

I said, “Oh!” Then I added, “Why do you say that?”

He answered, “Well, down in Santo Domingo we read a section of his writings every morning and then talked about it for reflection.”

I said, “Oh!”

The moral of the story is this. Reject everything you read. Don’t believe it. Give it a cross examination. If Tom hadn’t shown up, it would have been printed as is and some people who might read it, would  figure it’s true, because it’s printed.

So, I am critical of what  I read. It’s a good practice. It could be mish mash, unprepared something, made up by someone who didn’t do the research.

The second experience was a book of Night Prayers I wrote from my encounter with John of the Cross’ stuff. I finished the book and it was rejected. It’s sitting in my room, so I took it out last night and grabbed two short prayer poems.

The first one is entitled, “Presence” and the central image is bone. Did you ever have the experience of seeing someone – being with someone and you start to meditate on their skull – thinking, “This person is going to be dead, a skeleton, one of these years.”

I don’t do this all the time.

Presence

The bone

beneath the skin,

and You Lord,

present within me

throughout the night.

The second prayer poem is entitled, “Empty In The Night.” The central image in this short piece is trees without leaves against a night sky – a cold winter sky. Haven’t you ever stopped to look through empty branches and see the moon or the stars on the other side.

Empty In The Night

Barren black branches

against a December sky,

the cold and empty arms of the cross,

my wooden soul cries out

for You, O Lord.

CONCLUSION

It’s morning, but John of the Cross can help us get through the night.

December 14, 2019

KEEP  DANCING

Keep dancing ….
Keep sweeping ....
Keep watching ....

Keep moving ….

Keep singing ….

Keep planning ….

Keep learning ….

Keep teaching….

Keep reaching ….
Keep serving ....

Keep praying ….

Keep appreciating ….

Keep reading ….
Keep listening ....
Keep talking ....
Keep laughing ....

Keep on keep on ….

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2019

December 14, 2019

Thought for today: 

“What I am looking  for … is an immobile movement,  something which would be equivalent of what is called the eloquence of silence, or what St. John of the Cross, I think it was, described with the term ‘mute music’.”

Joan Miró

December 13, 2019

 RADIATORS

Radiating heat - warming everyone -

20 to 30 feet away - warming the house -

slowly - but some days the heat is off.

It’s cold. Everyone is cold. Why?

Why do we do this to each other?

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2019