February  28,  2020

Thought  for  Today

“I  prayed for twenty  years  but received no answer until I prayed with my legs”

Frederick Douglass

CHOOSE  LIFE

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this Thursday after Ash Wednesday is, “Choose Life.”

In Hebrew it’s  “Bacharta Ba’Chayim”.  Choose Life!

It’s a key command from Moses to his people – at a key moment in their lives.

They are standing there ready to cross the Jordan River and finally move  into the Promised Land.

Today’s first reading – from Deuteronomy 30 - is one of the most important Old Testament writings.

Today’s first reading begins this way, “Moses said to the people: ‘Today I have set before you:   life and prosperity, death and doom.’”

Then he spells out what he wants to say,  “If you obey the commandments of the Lord, your God, which I enjoin on you today, loving him, and walking in his ways, and keeping his commandments, statues and   decrees, you will live and grow numerous, and the Lord, your God, will  bless you in the land you are entering to occupy.”

Then he gives the if, the but, the catch, “If you don’t, you won’t have life!”

Then he gives the great statement. “I call heaven and earth today to witness against you: I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life!”

GEORGE  WALD – HARVARD BIOLOGIST  - 1906-1997

Years ago, I was driving along by myself, listening to NPR Radio. George Wald, a famous Harvard biologist was being interviewed.

He was asked one of those questions people sometimes are asked. “If you were all alone, stuck on an abandoned island, in the middle of ocean, and you could have one book, and one book only, what would that book be.”

The New York Times Book Review asks the same question this way, “What books are you reading right now – the ones on your  lamp stand, that little table next to your bed?”

George Wald answered the one book on the abandoned island question with a 2-word answer, “The Bible.”

The interviewer asked back, “Why?”

“Well,”  he answered. “I’m sort of cheating with my answer. The Bible is a whole library of a people – a portable library – with many books, many scrolls – from a long period of time – that contains thoughts that have been written and re-written to help a people with life.”

Then George Wald, I still remember his said, “Just take Deuteronomy 30. There’s a great text, where Moses calls the people together and gives them 2 choices. The stuff that gives you life and the stuff that will kill you. Choose life.”

MARY  OLIVER

A rabbi - in a sermon on Deuteronomy 30 - said  Mary Oliver in her poem, The Summer Day, said the same thing so powerfully.  He says he has a hand written note on his refrigerator door with Mary Oliver’s question which is used every May in hundreds of commencement  addresses: “Tell me, What is it  / you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

IGNATUS OF LOYOLA

All this is the basic message of Ignatius of Loyola. I once took a summer program at Wernersville PA – the Jesuit Retreat house – on Ignatius. The Jesuit Exercises help people make a serious retreat and look at their lives.  They look at what’s giving them life; more. They look at what’s killing them; less.

JESUS CHRIST

Jesus is saying the same thing in today’s gospel – but he says it in paradox and in contradiction.  It’s the message of the cross.  If you want to follow me, you have die to self and rise to new life.

CONCLUSION

This Lent there is the great question.

What are you doing with your one wild and precious life?

What’s killing you? Less.

What’s giving you life? More.

Choose the cross – it looks like a killed – it looks like death – but it brings new life and resurrection.

Choose life.

February 27,  2020

RED LIGHT

Sometimes when I’m driving

and it’s raining and I come to

a red light – I like to give the

windshield wipers a break

and watch the rain for a few

moments – rolling down my

windshield –pausing - just

enjoying the present moment.

There’s something about rain

on a rainy day – the sprinkle

of Holy Water – the whole of

the city being baptized – the

black macadam – washed –

then the lights turn green –

windshield wipers waving,

“Hello!” “Wake up!’ “Move it!”

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2020

February  27,  2020 

Thought  for  Today 

“If  you're  white and you're wrong, then you're wrong; if you're black and you're wrong, you're wrong. People are people. Black, blue, pink, green - God make no rules about color; only society make rules where my people suffer, and that why we must have redemption and redemption now.”

Bob Marley

HIDDEN

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “Hidden.”

Part of Jesus’ spirituality is, “The Hidden Life.”

Jesus must have seen too much externalism  and show in the spirituality of the Pharisees. “Hey, world, look at me.”

I’ve seen too much Phariseeism in the Catholic Church, in seminarians and in the clergy etc.

Jesus’ religious life was within life – authentic inner growth life – like the field growing and nobody sees growth happening. It’s slow and not showy.

Go back and read Mark 4: 26-29: "This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man throws seed on the land.  Night and day, while he sleeps, when he is awake, the seed is sprouting and growing; how, he does not know,  Of its own accord the land  produces first the shoot,  then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.  And when the crop is ready, he loses no time: he starts to reap because the harvest has come."

THE INSIDE, THE HIDDEN LIFE

Jesus saw and Jesus knew where his Father  was.

Our Father is in our inner room.  It’s nice when it feels like heaven.

As we heard Jesus say in  today’s gospel, “But when you pray, go to your inner room,  close the door, and pray to your Father in secret.  And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.”

I was pumping gas into my car recently. It wasn’t in New Jersey – when you can’t pump your own gas.  I saw a guy – with lots of plastic bags – sitting on the doorstep of the gas station. I figured he was a drifter. As I was paying for my gas – I spotted a 20-dollar bill  in my wallet – with an Andrew Jackson looking right at me. I walked over to the man and handed him a 20 and said, “McDonalds is right across the street.  Get yourself some breakfast and a good cup of coffee.”

He looked at me – sort of strange.  He wasn’t begging. But I was heading home for breakfast and why should I be the only one who might be hungry?

Surprise! My right hand knew what my left hand was doing. 

In today’s gospel Jesus gets at that as well.

That’s tricky – not only hiding our religious stuff from others – but also hiding our stuff from ourselves – as in inner bragging.

Jesus – this is tough stuff – to do.

ASH WEDNESDAY

Ash Wednesday is a funny one.

When we were kids – Ash Wednesday was always on a school day – and we would compare how long ashes would last on our foreheads – throughout the day.

I always laugh at the Ash Wednesday gospel: Matthew 6: 1-6,16-18.  It says when fasting,  don’t look gloomy. Wash your face. Anoint your head.

Does anyone go home on Ash Wednesday and wash their face?

THE  HIDDEN  LIFE

Jesus died when he was around 33.  Much of his life was hidden.

Our lives – in 500 years from now – whether we are cremated or what, we will be gone – hidden in a grave – maybe the stone will be long gone.  We’ll be the long forgotten – hidden dust – or resurrected dust – maybe our dust becomes part of a mosquito or maybe our dust becomes earth and becomes part of a blade of wheat or a grape on  a vine – a while back – all that is hidden from us – but our faith  is this:  we will be alive in Christ in the big inner room of eternity.

CONCLUSION

This world – has been around for over 5 billion years now – who knows what and who – and where we have been – so hear Jesus say to us when we get the ashes today,  “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

February 26, 2020

EASY

I want to be easy 

with you, and you too …. 

Easy with words …. 

Easy when chit chatting …. 

Easy in walks around the lake, 

with you, and you too …. 

Easy with the words 

and sandpaper feelings, 
the what of what  

you’re trying to tell me, 

especially when you’re hurting - 

and you feel there is no one  

to talk to, nobody who 

understands you - in this big - 

whole wide world. 

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2020

February  26, 2020

Thought   for  Today 

“I find in my poetry and prose the rhythms and imagery of the best - I mean, when I'm at my best - of the good Southern black preachers. The lyricism of the spirituals and the directness of gospel songs and the mystery of blues are in my music or in my poetry and prose, or I missed everything.”

Maya Angelou