September 30, 2020
Thought
for Today
“You have heard of Murphy’s Law. I follow Morton’s Law – taking everything with a grain of salt.”
Someone
Wednesday, September 30, 2020
Tuesday, September 29, 2020
JESUS IS
THE LADDER
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily is, “Jesus Is the Ladder.”
The ladder is an image at the end of today’s gospel for this feast of the 3 Archangels: Michael, Gabriel and Raphael.
Jesus in this Gospel reading from the first chapter of John tells Nathanael – who represents us – and any true child of Israel – who is listening and who is hoping - that Jesus is the ladder ascending and descending from the heavens. [Cf. John 1: ]
It’s Jacob’s Ladder revisited.
Be a dreamer.
Don’t forget to dream.
JOHN CLIMACUS
We all are very familiar with steps and ladders.
I’m sure we’ve all seen from time to time a painting of a ladder from earth to heaven – with monks climbing upwards – with Jesus at the top receiving them.
John Climacus – a Greek – Eastern Rite – spiritual writer took the image of the ladder and wrote The Ladder of Divine Ascent.
It’s a classic – as popular in Eastern Spirituality – as Thomas A Kempis’ book, The Imitation of Christ, was in the West.
It has 30 rungs - with 30 steps – on how to get to heaven – on Jesus the Ladder.
We’re all aware of the step image for spirituality: whether it’s 12 step, 3 step, 8 step, 6 steps.
The Eastern Church has the image of the 30 steps – from earth to heaven – with all kinds of action not only on the steps – but from down below. Monks are holding onto monks – helping them up the ladder – with devils down below and off to the side shooting arrows and throwing spears at the monks.
Then there are angels in the upper left hand corner praying and cheering the monks onwards and upwards.
The painting is an ikon.
It’s a graphic picturing of the good guys climbing and hanging onto the good guys and guides and avoid the bad angels and temptations – and all that can drag us off the ladder.
One can find many presentations on The Ladder of Divine Ascent on line. Just type "The Ladder of Divine Ascent" into your YouTube search engine.
TODAY’S READINGS
I read up last night about the angels.
Angels have quite a history. They are in all the major religions.
They are much more than those chubby faced tiny baby angels – on banners – the ones whose cheeks you want to pull.
There are good and bad angels out there – and some traditions believe each of us has a good angel and a bad angel within.
Native Americans had sort of the same idea with the good and the bad dog within us all. Woof. Woof. It’s the one we feed that is the one who dominates our spirit.
An obvious message is to rely upon the good angels to guide us.
Today’s feast will stress calling upon Michael to fight off the devil’s temptations. Michael is power. He is featured often with a sword ready to slay our demons and our dragons. Gabriel is around as one who will give us messages – lights – insights - annunciations and Raphael is with us for healing.
We Redemptorists know the OLPH picture
and all its details. So today we’re
aware of Michael and Gabriel in the OLPH picture. Another way of making the stations of the
cross – is to sit under this ikon here – and contemplate the two angels with
the instruments of Jesus’ passion and death on the cross.
We Redemptorists are also familiar with a town in Italy – with the name, “Scala”.
Scala means steps or ladder. It’s on the Amalfi Coast. One can take a winding road up the mountain to Scala which is half way up. Or there are various stone steps. I took one of the sets of steps – that has 2000 steps. And I tripped and sprained my ankle. In the middle ages there were many churches up there – but now the main church is San Lorenzo. And on the floor of St. Lorenzo church there is an image of a ladder with a lion climbing it. It’s the symbol for the village of Scala.
CONCLUSION
Once more the title of my homily is, “Jesus Is the Ladder.”
It’s the feast of 3 Archangels: Michael, Gabriel and Raphael.
One of the main things I heard and read about angels is not to make them God. They are helpers – guides – messengers – and as we see in the scriptures – but God is God – and Jesus is the Ladder to the heavens – and angels help us to find the ladder to God the Father and help us climb to God.
They are a means – not the end.
It seems that people forget this – and rely only on Mary, angels, saints, and forget it’s the Persons of the Trinity who are our destiny and our end.
Monday, September 28, 2020
September 28, 2020
LISTENING
I wasn’t listening.
I wasn’t hearing
what you were saying.
I didn’t realize this
till I heard you say,
“You’re not listening.”
Those words hit me
like rocks. It was then
I realized I wasn’t
listening to you
because you weren’t
listening to me.
It was then I asked,
“How many times
do we spend our
lives playing,
“Payback!”
“It’s payback time.”
© Andy Costello, Reflections 2020
September 28, 2020
Thought
for Today
“But what Vatican II also made possible were
the subsequent Bishops’ conferences, such as Medellin, Columbia in 1968,where
the theology of liberation was openly articulated and embraced. I don’t know when I first heard the words ‘preferential
option for the poor,’ but it must have been
close to that time. The church in Latin
America was flowering in its base communities and imagining a confraternity
close to that known by the earliest Christians.
I read Gustavo Gutierrez a few years later, but it wasn’t till 1978 when
I first went to El Salvador, that I experienced the other, living church. In the intervening years, I had drifted away
from my Catholic practice. I was, as
they say of us, fallen, ‘a fallen away Catholic.’ The campesino Catholics of El Salvador
brought me back.”
Carolyn Forche in
A Conversation with Carolyn Forche,
in Image, A Journal of the Arts and Religion,
Summer 2003, Number 39, page 55
Sunday, September 27, 2020
September 27, 2020
“COME BACK HERE”
I’m sitting in this big empty church.
It’s around 2 in the afternoon.
In comes in a grandfather and it's
my guess, with his grandson.
The little kid runs away – right up
to the front of the church. The old
man yells, “Come here! Come
back here! Come here…. Here ….”
The kid looks around the front of the
church and then slowly works his
way back to the back of the church
and kneels down next to his Pop Pop.
I’m watching the whole moment.
I'm slowly realizing this is funny.
God are you telling me something?
Are you saying: "Come back here and pray"?
It’s around 2 in the afternoon.
In comes in a grandfather and it's
my guess, with his grandson.
to the front of the church. The old
man yells, “Come here! Come
back here! Come here…. Here ….”
church and then slowly works his
way back to the back of the church
and kneels down next to his Pop Pop.
I'm slowly realizing this is funny.
God are you telling me something?
Are you saying: "Come back here and pray"?
© Andy Costello, Reflections 2020
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