September 22, 2020

 

Thought for Today

 

“Two pessimists met at a party. Instead of shaking hands, they shook heads.”

 

Someone

September 21,  2020

SOUNDS  IN   A  SILENT  CHURCH

 

Wooden benches adjusting
after a customer left 5 minutes ago
and went back into the street.
 
A candle in a red glass holder
going out after 13 hours of
praying for a worrying mother.
 
An ambulance rushing down
the street  - taking a dying
person to the nearest hospital.
 
The wind trying to get inside
the church through a crack in
a stain glass window.
 
The opening of a side door
for an old man who drops into
this silent church every afternoon at 3.

 

                                                                                       © Andy Costello, Reflections 2020

September  21,  2020

Thought for Today

“For those who could use a bit of praise – give it to them. People can’t read their tombstone.”

 Someone

               GOD,  IT’S  NOT  FAIR

 

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “God, It’s Not Fair.”

 How many times does God hear those 4 words every day?

 “God, it’s not fair.”

 VARIATIONS GO LIKE THIS

“God, if you think this is funny, it isn’t.”

“Enough’s, enough, O God.”

Or the two word question God and parents always hear: “How come?”

TODAY’S READINGS

The title of my homily is, “God, It’s Not Fair.”

I think today’s readings can be summed up in those 4 words: “God, it’s not fair.”

We heard in today’s first reading from Isaiah 55:

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD.
As high as the heavens are above the earth,
so high are my ways above your ways
and my thoughts above your thoughts.”

How old do we have to be – to learn that we think differently from God and God thinks differently than the way we think?

We heard in today’s second reading from Philippians:

I long to depart this life and be with Christ,
for that is far better. 
Yet that I remain in the flesh
is more necessary for your benefit.

We heard in today’s gospel,

    “These last ones worked only one hour,  

    and you have made them equal to us, 

    who bore the day’s burden and the heat.’

    He said to one of them in reply,

‘My friend, I am not cheating you. 
Did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? 
Take what is yours and go. 
What if I wish to give this last one the same as you? 
Or am I not free to do as I wish with my own money? 
Are you envious because I am generous?’
Thus, the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

Sometimes things are not fair.

Sometimes you have to laugh.

Sometimes you have to look out prison bars and see stars – while the person in same cell with you – only sees mud.

A BUNCH OF EXAMPLES

One evening, four of us  went to hear Gary Snyder, the poet, speak at Bard College in upstate New York.

We got there early and got front row seats. Neat.

It was a rather small room and by the time 7:30 arrived the room was packed with people – many of them standing. Someone came in and walked to the front – went to the microphone and  said, “We’re filled. There are not enough seats, so could you all go out the door in the back and cross the corridor into the much bigger room we have there.

The four of us ended up in the back of this second room – in the corner.

I immediately thought of Jesus words, “The last will be first, and the first will be last.”

Not fair.

Recently I went to the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Bureau to switch my driver’s license from Maryland to New Jersey.

The line was around the building and then back into entrance ramp. I asked someone what time to come in the morning. I went the next morning at 6:45 and the line was even longer.  I asked a guy with a clipboard and a plastic name tag, “Is everyone of these people here just for their driver’s licenses? He said, “Yes!”  Then he said, “Wait a minute. How old are  you?” 

I said, “80.”

He said, “Go to the front of the line.” And he walked me there. And I wasn’t wearing a priest collar.

If someone  did that on  a restaurant line or a Supermarket check out line in this Coronana 19 era – there would be a lot of screaming.

Who said, “Life is fair.”

When my brother died of melanoma – skin cancer – which he got at 49 and died at 51, his buddy Marty Goldberger did one of the eulogies.  Marty said he got a letter from his son David who was in Israel for a year.  David felt bad he was missing the funeral.  He wrote that when he was a little kid he was once playing ping pong in their house with his dad.  My brother shows up and says to David. “That’s an interesting ping pong paddle you have. Can I see it.” He hands it to my brother who then says to Marty, “Okay three over for serve.”

David immediately said, “Hey Mr. Costello. That’s not fair.”

My brother standing there ready to play Marty says, “Kid let me give you your first lesson in life? Who said, ‘Life is fair.”

I think that’s one of the first things in life that kids say, “It’s not fair.”

It’s one of the first things in life that kids learn. Life is not fair.

Do mothers instinctively know, “Never buy a square or rectangular cake with icing?  They only have 4 corner pieces – pieces with double icing. When it come to kids – and also some adults:  Always buy round cakes if they have icing.

LIFE  101

If nobody died, this earth would be very crowded.

If nobody died, stock in nursing home chains would be a good stock.

Life would be boring if everybody saw the same way.

Baseball stadiums would  need cardboard cut outs all the time – if everyone hit a homerun every time – while at the same time every pitcher pitched a no hitter – every time.

Unless you’re an only child, family dynamics wouldn’t work – because someone has to be the oldest and someone has to be the youngest – and someone has to go to bed earlier than the oldest kid.

Salaries differ and sometimes the person who is a lazy loaf  gets a lot more money than the workaholic.

There would be no talk shows or Saturday Night Life or Shakespeare or Parables by Jesus – if every day – everything was the same.

CONCLUSION - SOLUTIONS

If you want to be a person of peace, you have to laugh – lots of laughter.

If you want to be a person of peace, you have to learn patience and acceptance.

If you want to be a person of peace, you have to become a philosopher.

 If you want to be a person of peace, you have to listen to the fortune cookie wisdom of Jesus: turn the other cheek, go the extra mile, know that it’s where you live, you get the weather you get, and some people are better at Algebra and some people play ping pong better than others, and PS - save some of your questions for the next life.

September  20th 2020

 

WHEN  WE  DIE

 

When we die, I'm assuming there's
more to come.  How about your thoughts?
What's your forever?  Is it nothing
or do you see a forever more something?

If it’s a something: what’s your
assumption?  Is it an infinity –
a divinity – or the Trinity – an
eternity  based  on your hopes?

 
I’m dying with Jesus’ images about
the Eternal Welcome in Luke  15. I’m
assuming there will be a continuing
personal relationship with God.
 
I’m  assuming we  finally arrive
after a long walk on the shoulders
of the Laughing Shepherd  into the
big open pen called Heaven.
 
I’m assuming I’ll be like a lost coin
found in dark corner – under a bed
or a bureau that God the Woman will
shine me up and show me off to everyone.
 
I’m assuming I be like the lost son
welcomed home by God the Running
to Greet me Father who will welcome me 
and hug me and banquet me forever.

 

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2020

September 20, 2020

Thought for Today

“Friends are made by many acts – and lost by only one.”

 Someone

September   19,  2020

DRENCHED

 
Have you ever had a day
when you felt drenched by grace?
 
Hope so. It’s a day when everything
goes right – from morning till night.
 
Hope so. It’s a day when your body
enjoys being yours – no aches – no pains.
 
Hope so. It’s a day you get what a
Hail Mary says:  “… full of  grace.”
 
And you want more – and so you pray:
“Now and at the hour of our death. Amen”

Hope so ....
 
 

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2020