THAT  MAN  IS  YOU

INTRODUCTION

The title of my  homily for this 3^rd Saturday in Ordinary Time  is, “That Man Is You.”

Around 1964 – 1965 – there was an insightful  spiritual reading book, That Man Is You – by Louis Evely.

I’m sure some of you here had a copy of that book. It was a best seller in the world of religious books.

I looked it up last night on Google and one can still buy a copy of it: used. Today's prices are from 6 dollars to 60 dollars to $851.90. Same book. I noticed that it was only $1.45 on its cover.

2 SAMUEL 12: 1-7A, 10-17

The title and the thought for that book comes out of today’s first reading from 2 Samuel 12.

You know the story; you heard the story Nathan tells David the king.  A rich man has lots of sheep; a poor man has one sheep – a lamb.

The rich man has guests and steals the poor man’s one sheep for a dinner for his visitors.

David upon hearing that story – screams – “Who is this rich man?  I’ll make him pay back fourfold.”

And Nathan  the prophet says, “That man in you.”

“What?”

Nathan explains: “You got it all and yet you steal this poor soldier’s wife – one of your own soldiers – Uriah the Hittite – and then you have Uriah placed in a situation where he’ll be killed in battle.” 

David gets the message and repents.

HOW TO READ THE BIBLE

Louis Evely who wrote the book, That Man Is You, says there is a secret here – a great way to use and read the Bible here.

Read the stories of the Bible and put yourself in the place of every person in a  story.

This person is me.

Be Adam. Be Eve.

Be David. Be Uriah.  Be Bathsheba.  Be David’s other wives.  Be the soldiers who saw all this.

Be Nathan.

Be the Pharisee. Be the Tax Collector.

Be the Lost sheep. Be the Good Shepherd.

Be the father, the older brother and the younger brother in the Prodigal Son story.

Be the good tree, the good grape vine, or the tree that isn’t producing figs or the vine that needs pruning.

It’s basically the apostles’  question at the Last Supper. Hearing that one of them is about to betray Jesus they ask, “Is it I, Lord?”  [Cf. John 13: 25.]

In prayer, in reading the scripture, we can ask of many characters, “Is this me, Lord?”

Louis Evely wasn’t a Jesuit, but that’s how Ignatius told people making the exercises – how to read and how to get the scriptures.

It’s what Shakespeare and the storytellers know.

I’ve been doing this for some 55 years now and it still works – especially when we put ourselves into the stories, into the parables, especially when we think about what it’s like to   someone we probably wouldn’t ever think ourselves to be.

You know the old American Indian metaphor: walk a mile in the other persons moccasins – or as Hawthorn put it in a story.  He told of a lady who walked around town going, “Tch. Tch. Tch” with her nose up in the air – till another lady said to her – sort of Nathanesque.  “You ought to go out and commit a really good sin and then maybe you’ll understand the rest of us.”

That’s like saying, “Walk a mile in someone else’s sins.” 

Those of us who are “Pro Life” people or verbal rock throwers – need to walk around town with that kind of attitude – walking a mile in someone else’s sins.”

February 1, 2020

BLACK  HISTORY  MONTH

It’s February – Black  History  Month.

Not a bad idea – in fact, it can be a

great idea – if …. that is …. If we ….

To take a whole month to focus on

and understand better who we are

as a people – neighbors with each other.

A day, a week, would not be enough.

The Chinese have a whole year …

“What’s this the year of?”  we ask in a

Chinese Restaurant? A year wouldn’t

work what a whole month can do.

So we have a month to concentrate

on who we are in the quilt called we the

people of the United States of America.

Customs, cuisine, culture – pride in who

we are – with our gifts, our diversity,

our sameness, our hopes and dreams

and a thousand other variables.

A whole month, year after year, to take

some good looks on what we might be

missing – to laugh, to cry, to hear, to

step back and know that history is all

the stories of all the people in our midst.

So this February 1^st – we begin with

2 simple questions:  What do we want

to look at this Black History Month?

What do we want to celebrate together?

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2020

February 1, 2020

Thought   for  Today

“Faith in God yields a double self-understanding. 

We experience ourselves as both gift and task. 

At some times we receive ourselves as funded from beyond; at other times we receive ourselves as enticed from beyond. 

E. B. White once reflected that people are torn by two powerful drives: the desire to enjoy the world and the urge to set it straight. 

These two drives cannot be successfully reconciled but greatness lies in the struggle to respond to both of them. 

To live out of God is to live in the alternating-rhythms of enjoyment and transformation. 

It is to relish the gift of ourselves as it abundantly arrives and to engage in the task of ourselves as it imperatively calls. 

Faith makes us a people of both Sabbath delight and Kingdom passion.”  

John Shea

January 31, 2020

UNDOING  A  KNOT

Colors, letters, numbers …

mothers comment to each other

about their kids learning their

numbers, the alphabet, their colors,

but knots -  no. There’s no year ….

There’s no best time in childhood

to teach a kid how to undo a knot –

nope.   But when they happen,

just don’t make it worse.

“Here …. Let me try it.”

“Here …. You try it. You have

better nails than I do.” And together

one or both of them learn that time

and fingernails and patience and

just trying not to make the knot tighter –

but looser - is the trick – now as to

teenage knots and relationship knots

and life’s nots – hopefully we still

have our moms and dads and others

to help us - to undo the knots and

not to make things worse. Amen.

© Andy Costello, Reflections

January 31, 2020

Thought for Today

 “Self-image sets the boundaries of individual accomplishment.”  

Maxwell Maltz

WHEN  DID  JESUS  KNOW 

WHAT HE  KNEW? 

INTRODUCTION

The title  of  my homily for this 3^rd Thursday in Ordinary Time  is, “When Did Jesus Know What He Knew?”

Or as a sub-title a similar question from the gospels: “Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers? Isn’t he the carpenter’s son….” [Matthew 13: 54-55]

Last night I was working on a short homily for this morning – while shooting back and forth a few times to check out on TV the Impeachment Hearings.

It was all questions and answers yesterday – so I wondered if that’s the reason I came up with the question I came up with for a possible short homily for today.

The people who were picked from either side were given 5 minutes to answer questions.

Would we all want 5 minute homilies for weekday homilies – if that?

I remember a book for Sunday homilies: Ten Responsible Minutes.

BACK TO MY QUESTION

When did Jesus know what he knew?

In today’s gospel Jesus said, “The measure with which you measure will be measured out to you, and still more will be given you.”

I thought about that and asked, “When and where did Jesus come up with that?”

It’s a profound observation about the human condition.

Did Jesus know the thoughts of Sigmund Freud, Anna Freud and Carl Jung about  projections – how human being project their motives and ways of judging people onto other people?

Did Jesus know the Hindu thought of Karma – as people are using it more and more today – not for incarnation – but for next week? How I treat my neighbor and others today is going to come crashing onto me or to embracing me – as I go on with life in the weeks to come.

How many times in life do we inwardly say of another, “I know why you said that? I know why you did that?” when in reality we’re really saying, “I know why I would say that?  I know why I would do that?”

DEEPER CONSIDERATIONS – DEEPER QUESTIONS

I was thinking last night: Good thing the speaker or the preacher has only 5 or 10 minutes – because that’s his take on the text.  I assume some of you here have years of thoughts and experiences and probably doctorates in this stuff – from psychology and from scripture and human development as well as family and community and teaching experiences.

CONCLUSION

In the meanwhile, I like what Jesus warns and wants here – about being generous in our judgments and projections on others.  I like it when the policeman doesn’t give me a ticket for having a tail light out or the kid at the ice cream cone counter gives me extra butter almond or rum raisin ice cream.  I like it when the other person is kind with his or her comments about me and my lateness or ill prepared or too complicated homily. I like it when the preacher says, “I don’t know where Jesus came up with this stuff – but as life goes on, sometimes Jesus says something that really hits me.  Nice. Thank you Jesus.

January 30,  2020

SOMETIMES

Sometimes you have to say the

wrong thing before you figure out

what you should have said.

Sometimes you have to lose the ring

or drop the dish or have the moment

after the fight before you really know.

Sometimes you understand the words the

first time you hear them, but wouldn’t you

rather get them in the middle of the night?

Sometimes it’s 37 days after the 37^th

anniversary that your marriage vows

mean a lot more than the first time.

Sometimes you have to read the

poem a dozen times before you

figure out what it’s really saying.

© Andy Costello, Reflections