LISTENING
Quote for Today - February 4, 2011
"Last night I sat and listened. I heard and understood what two people were saying instead of just realizing they were talking."
Anononmous
Friday, February 4, 2011
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Monday, January 31, 2011
Sunday, January 30, 2011
CROWDS
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily is, “Crowds”.
VINCENT NICHOLS
Last week I picked up a back issue of the British Catholic magazine, The Tablet. Paging through it, I began reading an article entitled, “The Field Narrows”. It featured 4 possible bishops who might be appointed bishop of Westminster, England – the big job. In describing Vincent Nichols, the then bishop of Birmingham, who eventually got the job of Westminster, the Primatial See of England and Wales, the article tells the story of Vincent going to a Liverpool Football club game – which he loved to do as a young man. Standing in the stands, being part of a big crowd at a soccer match, he says to God whom he inwardly hears calling him to think priesthood, “Why don’t you just leave me alone? Why can’t I just be one of the crowd?” (1)
With this inner comment, he was being vintage Isaiah and Jeremiah, prophets, who had similar reactions when God was calling them.
“Why don’t you just leave me alone? Why can’t I just be one of the crowd?”
WE KNOW THE FEELING
We know the feeling. We’re at a meeting and someone asks, “Who wants to be secretary and take minutes?” Hide!
When we were little kids and the teacher asked a question, every kid in the classroom raises his or her hand, yelling, “Teacher! Teacher!”
It hit me as I remembered being at kids’ Masses that every kid seems to raise their hand when the priest asks a question. Are there any kids who don’t raise their hands? Are there any kids who hide behind other kids? The next time I’m at a kids’ Mass and I ask a question – if I remember – I’m going to try to see how many kids don’t raise their hands. Are there any little kids who never raise their hand?
When we’re teenagers, and the teacher is the type that loves to call on kids, our head goes down. We want to hide. We want to be part of the crowd – because we know that some in the class make fun of those who are smart or not scared to step out of the crowd and into the limelight and raise their hands and answer questions.
Today’s three readings trigger for me thoughts about the question of crowds and individuals.
TODAY’S GOSPEL
The gospel begins with these words, “When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain, and after he had sat down, his disciples came to him. He began to teach them saying, ‘Blessed….’”
Scholars tell us that Matthew is presenting Jesus here as the New Moses – the new Law Giver. Just as Moses came down from the mountain with the 10 Commandments and the Law, so Jesus goes up the Mountain and preaches from there the new law – as the New Moses – to the crowds.
In January of 2000 I was with 22 priests in Israel. We got out of the bus and the retreat master and tour guide, Father Stephen Doyle [1934-2010], a Franciscan. took us to the Church of the Beatitudes. It was more on a hill than a mountain. Standing outside he read the Beatitudes we just heard from Matthew and then said, “We have an hour of quiet – so do some thinking and praying in quiet.” I found a great spot looking down these big green fields that led down to the Lake of Galilee in the distance. Off to the side I noticed a group of folks coming out of 3 buses – all Koreans – with cameras and Bibles and they turned right and paraded down a road towards the Lake. Halfway down they stopped and went into the field and sat down and I noticed their leader open up what I figured was the Bible and the gospel of Matthew. I couldn’t hear him – and I don’t understand Korean – but I imagined even better what the Sermon on the Mount looked like.
For this Sunday and every Sunday till the First Sunday of Lent – March 13th, we’re going to hear the Sermon on the Mount. Today we begin to hear Jesus’ big sermon with the 8 or 9 Beatitudes.
All through the gospels we notice Jesus talking and being with crowds. But we also begin to hear about different individuals who stand up or stand out in a crowd: the couple who run out of wine at their wedding feast, the woman who touches the hem of his garment, the blind man who screams out from the side of the road, Zaccheus whom Jesus spots up a tree, the woman in the crowd who yells out, “Blessed is woman who gave you birth”, etc. etc. etc.
Here we are in church – a crowd – but we are all individuals. I knew a priest in Ohio who began Mass every Sunday by asking the crowd, “Is anyone celebrating their birthday today or this week?” A few would raise their hands and he’d ask the different people to stand up and give their name and their birthday. Then he’d ask, “Is anyone celebrating an anniversary today or this week?” He’d ask their name and what the anniversary was. There might be a laugh or some clapping. Some loved it – to be singled out; some looked at their watches and went crazy with the delay.
On TV the last few days we see these vast crowds of folks in Egypt marching and running and throwing rocks and being hit with gas canisters.
On Friday night the news showed a crowd and then someone put a circle around a man in a big plaza to point him out. Then he fell to the ground – shot – dead.
There are around 7 billion of us on this planet – alive – but some of us die and are killed every day. We are quite a crowd! We are billions of stories.
Sometimes we’re a crowd – in malls, in traffic, at games.
Sometimes we become individuals. We get a phone call and we’re one to one with someone, somewhere when right in the middle of a vast crowd. Then there are moments when we are big time special and singled out in a crowd. It’s the moment of our wedding and we’re married and the whole crowd knows who we are. They know our names without having to look at the program or the matches or napkins or wedding favors. That is our moment – when we’re not the crowd at a wedding, but we’re the bride and groom and we’re standing out above the crowd – and if you’ve been to a Jewish wedding, you know the moment when they lift the bride and groom up in chairs and dance them all around the room.
We know the difference between crowd moments and individual moments: a kiss with a beloved, lunch with a friend, coming in the front door and being greeted by a two year old after a long day at work, shooting a foul shot in basketball and the game is tied and there are 2 seconds left, or we’re at bat with two outs, bases loaded, last chance in a game, and it’s all up to us – or we’re the pitcher and it’s all up to us to get that last out.
I went to the Turkey Bowl up in Ravens Stadium for a few Thanksgiving games to watch Calvert Hall play Loyola – because my grandnephews, Pat and Mike, who played for Calvert Hall High School. When they were on the field, I didn’t just see a team on the field, I saw Patrick and Michael on the field.
We know we can treat others as a crowd – as nobodies – as unnoticed – or we can make each other’s day.
TODAY’S FIRST READING
Today’s first reading from the Prophet Zephaniah has the word “remnant”. In Hebrew it’s the “Anawim”. I remember hearing a sermon by a priest named Arthur Finan – who preached a whole sermon on just that word, “Anawim” or “Remnant”. He said, “Often we don’t notice the tiny crumbs by the side of a toaster. Sometimes they fall to the floor unnoticed. Tiny bread crumbs. Well they are like the Anawim – those unnoticed people – nobody cares about or notices. Well, God notices them. Their names are written on the palms of his hands.”
I got that message. I hate it when people sweep crumbs off a table or a counter onto the floor. They are much easier to pick or sweep up from a counter or a table.
I got that – and ever since then I try to see waiters and waitresses by the name on their uniform – or I try to catch their name when they say, “Hello, I’m Carrie, and I’m your waitress today.” That was the name of our waitress at Bob Evans in Middletown, Delaware, the other day when Joe Krastel and Jack Harrison and I had lunch on our way back to Annapolis from our big meetings in New Jersey. They got Big Farm hamburgers and I ordered last and got a salad and busted them for being Big Boys.
That sermon about the Anawim or Remnant impacted me – so I talk to strangers and toll booth folks – I don’t have E-Z-Pass. I try to notice and say “Hi” to people when walking around, when going in and out of stores, especially when I’m don’t have my priest uniform on.
CONCLUSION: TODAY’S SECOND READING
And let me conclude this sermon by reading today’s second reading which has this theme big time. These words from Paul in his First Letter to the Corinthians can give us an attitude of respect towards all people – and like the Beatitudes in today’s gospel, if we take on these attitudes, we will have beatitude.
We heard the New American Bible translation from the Greek (2) – now let me close with a reading of the Good News Bible’s translation from the Greek of 1 Corinthians 1: 10-13, 17
“Now remember what you were,
my brothers and sisters,
when God called you.
From the human point of view
few of you were wise or powerful
or of high social standing.
God purposely chose
what the world considered nonsense
in order to shame the wise,
and he chose
what the world considers weak
in order to shame the powerful.
He chose what the world looks down upon
and despises and thinks is nothing,
in order to destroy
what the world thinks is important.
This means that no one can boast
in God’s presence.
But God has brought you
into union with Christ Jesus,
and God has made Christ to be our wisdom.
By him we are put right with God;
we become God’s holy people and are set free.
So then, as the scripture says,
‘Whoever wants to boast
must boast of what the Lord has done.’”
* Painting on top: "The Sermon on the Mount" (1442) by Fra Angelico [c. 1395-1455]
(1) The Tablet, “The Field Narrows,” A Tablet Special Report, page 6, March 7, 2009
(2) “Consider your own calling, brothers and sisters.Not many of you were wise by human standards,not many were powerful,not many were of noble birth.Rather, God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise,and God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong,and God chose the lowly and despised of the world,those who count for nothing,to reduce to nothing those who are something,so that no human being might boast before God.It is due to him that you are in Christ Jesus,who became for us wisdom from God,as well as righteousness, sanctification, and redemption,so that, as it is written,“Whoever boasts, should boast in the Lord.”
(1) The Tablet, “The Field Narrows,” A Tablet Special Report, page 6, March 7, 2009
(2) “Consider your own calling, brothers and sisters.Not many of you were wise by human standards,not many were powerful,not many were of noble birth.Rather, God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise,and God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong,and God chose the lowly and despised of the world,those who count for nothing,to reduce to nothing those who are something,so that no human being might boast before God.It is due to him that you are in Christ Jesus,who became for us wisdom from God,as well as righteousness, sanctification, and redemption,so that, as it is written,“Whoever boasts, should boast in the Lord.”
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Friday, January 28, 2011
WINTER NON-SAMARITAN*
was there, there in the dark, there in the shadows,
but you dare not admit it? You dare not notice them,
that is, till you are at least 30 feet away.
There I was walking down a cold January night,
Manhattan, restaurant and theater district, New York City,
and I passed by somebody, someone there in a plastic bag,
someone up to their neck in cold and trouble and hurt,
someone trying to keep warm, someone surrounded
by other garbage bags, garbage bags neatly lined up
all along the curb, and their eyes still follow me,
still follow me all these years, as I keep on walking
by so many hurting people, as I keep on walking away
from them down all these same, same streets,
down these same, same roads, from Jerusalem to Jericho.
* Cf. Luke 10: 29-37; Galatians 6: 2
Manhattan, restaurant and theater district, New York City,
and I passed by somebody, someone there in a plastic bag,
someone up to their neck in cold and trouble and hurt,
someone trying to keep warm, someone surrounded
by other garbage bags, garbage bags neatly lined up
all along the curb, and their eyes still follow me,
still follow me all these years, as I keep on walking
by so many hurting people, as I keep on walking away
from them down all these same, same streets,
down these same, same roads, from Jerusalem to Jericho.
* Cf. Luke 10: 29-37; Galatians 6: 2
© Andy Costello, Reflections 2011
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Sunday, January 23, 2011
ALONE OR WITH OTHERS?
The title of my homily is, “Alone Or With Others?”
There used to be an old question some priests would ask in confession, concerning certain sins, “Alone Or With Others?”
As I read and reflected on today’s readings, the thought of “with others” hit me and then along came the old question: “Alone or with others?”
LIFE
Life? Am I doing it alone or with others?
And this morning, this priest asks the question from the pulpit – and not the confessional: “Is it a sin to go it alone – and not walk and talk and be and celebrate and work with others?”
We’ve all heard the old saying, “A person wrapped up in themselves makes a pretty small package.”
It took two to make one me – and sometimes the me forgets that.
And sometimes the me forgets the me – and knows life is all about the we. “Whee! Whee! Whee! All the way home,” as the little piggy says in the old story and in the Geico ad.
I remember the story I read somewhere about the quarterback who went bragging about how well he was doing – without ever giving any mention or credit – to the line in front of him – so on one play the offensive line let the defensive line of the other team come rushing in big time – and the quarterback got it. Sometimes pain is the best teacher.
My life – looking at my life, have I been a loner or a mixer – have I gone it by myself – or am I traveling with others?
FACES
If life was a merry-go-round, who else is on the ride with me?
Close your eyes – and see faces – the faces in your life and in your story.
Close your eyes and picture being 7 to 10 years old again. Whom did you play with after school – or at recess in the play ground at school? Whom did you sit next to on the school bus – or the bench at a Little League game – or whom did you pal with during the summer? Picture those people. See their faces again. I would guess if you come up with 3 names – you’re blessed. Check out the old photos.
Close your eyes – and picture yourself from 10 to 16 years of age again. More names and faces should appear than from our 7 to 10 years of age period. Who are they? What happened to them? Do you still have any contact with any of them? Who was your best friend?
Close your eyes – and picture yourself your last 2 years of high school - or your 1st year of college or a job or the military. See people you knew whom you laughed with – and did things with – and enjoyed life with.
Picture yourself 20 to 30? Name some names – of key people in your life – other than your immediate family – from that period of your life.
Who was your best man or maid of honor at your wedding? Who was in the bridal party? Why did you pick each person for your wedding?
Jess Lair – or some writer like him said, “If you have 5 friends in a lifetime you’re lucky.”
Name your five.
Whom do you want as your pall bearers? Whom do you want to give your eulogy? What will they say about your connection to them?
Who are and who have been the key people in your life?
BACK TO THE BIBLE
The Bible is all about people. The Bible is all about God – and us.
One of the great Biblical texts – right from the beginning of the Bible – has God saying in the Book of Genesis, “It is not good to be alone” – so God created us – male and female he created us – and we are told to fill the earth – together.
Who am I creative with? Who am I walking the journey of life with?
Who are the characters in our story?
Evidently – meaning with the evidence we have – ourselves – and our surroundings – God discovered God did not want to go it alone, so God created us and this great big world we live in. Who knows what it will be like 35 or 55 thousand years from now? How much further will we evolve? Did God create it all because he loves stories – and the people in them? Certainly God knows what Dante discovered: comedy and tragedy – Divine Comedy – Divine Tragedy.
Life? Am I going it alone or with others?
Life? Am I laughing and crying alone or with others?
Some people are loners.
Some people choose not to go it with God.
Some people chose not to go it with neighbors.
Life? Am I doing it self-centered? God centered? Others centered?
It took time – and deep reflection and struggles and heresies on the words Jesus spoke to us – that God is not alone – God is Three – yet One.
Now that’s mystery – but if we are a we – and not a me only – we can get that.
And we are made in the image and likeness of God and so we are only looking like God most when we are in threes – or two’s or fours or more. It’s called marriage and family – relationships and neighbors.
TIGER IN THE HOME
Last week I was with about 70 Redemptorists at our assembly – or chapter up in New Jersey. We have to go back up today to finish our business. It was great to be with classmates and friends – and guys I went to school with or were stationed with or were at other chapters with and what have you. We were a we – planning our future.
At breakfast or at a coffee break someone asked me if I had read the article in the paper about raising and educating children – Asian versus other type parenting. I said I hadn’t.
The guy at breakfast or the coffee break said that it’s a hot topic. Some Asian parents push and take no, no’s for an answer. My kids will all get A’s – will all learn to play the piano or what have you. If you want to get into the great schools and have a great life, you have to push your kids to get perfect scores in everything.
Then this guy I was talking with said that the newspaper article asked about social skills – like negotiating in the cafeteria – teenage girls experiencing sleepovers – and other times teenagers are together. Fairness, sharing, being aware of others is as important an education as getting A’s in Math and being able to play the piano or violin.
Without knowing it when I was at breakfast with this guy or maybe it was a coffee break – I began thinking about all this during last week – especially when the sessions got long winded. It triggered all sorts of wonderings and thoughts.
How do young people deal with coaches and parents who are into win at all costs? As a result some kids have to sit the bench and only the best play – and these other kids never get a chance to play?
How do young people deal with tough parents or laissez-faire parents – or tough teachers or broken marriages – and all that.
Life? Alone or with others?
DAVID BROOKS – NEW YORK TIMES
I forgot whom the guy was I was talking with that triggered all this.
I’m at Father Denis Sweeney’s mom’s funeral in Brooklyn last Friday morning – and there was a guy there and I asked him if he was the guy I was talking with about some article. He said he wasn’t but he said, “Tell me more!”
Then he said, “The article was by David Brooks. It was in The New York Times recently and the book he’s talking about is by Amy Chua and it’s called, ‘Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother.’"
When I got back to Annapolis late Friday afternoon, I went hunting for all this and found out it is a hot potato. An article by Amy Chua in The Wall Street Journal had over 7000 comments in just a few days. The article by David Brooks had about 300 comments already. Then Saturday I noticed the cover of Time magazine which just came in the mail. It was all about the controversy this lady stirred up about different ways of raising children.
Amazing. It’s getting people talking. Check it out – if you haven’t already.
I was interested for starters what Amy and her husband Jed’s marriage relationship is about. Everything indicates that they talk and they are different – both from very different backgrounds.
CONCLUSION: TODAY’S READINGS
Today’s readings and that breakfast or coffee break conversation triggered these thoughts for me.
Today’s gospel has Jesus walking down to the water – of the Lake of Galilee – after what seems to have been a quiet life till he hits 30 and then the hits the road – not alone – but he calls 4 men: Peter and Andrew – brothers and James and John – brothers – and then we have the gospels to learn about what its like to be with others. And then he called some more – and we read in the gospels about various women in the group. Jesus certainly didn’t want to go it alone!
Jesus was the light in the darkness – as mentioned in the First Reading and today’s Gospel. He saw his disciples slipping into the darkness from time to time.
Jesus had to deal with his disciples struggle with jealousy and wanting to be # 1. Thomas had doubts. Peter could shoot his mouth off. James and John were nicknames “Sons of Thunder”. In one story there, they wanted God to burn down a town – because they rejected Jesus – and on and on and on.
Then in today’s reading from Corinthians we have Paul’s experience with rivalry and bickering – the stuff in an early Christian Community – the stuff we see in the gospels – the stuff we see in the Old Testament – the stuff we see on teams and parishes and most groups.
Life? Alone or with others?
Maybe some go it alone because of the sin of the world – especially between people – but to be like God – we got to be with God’s people and the rewards are wonderful.
As we all know it’s easier to be in communion with each other here at Mass as we sit together and receive Christ together – but it’s tough when we get out into the parking lot and the roads of life – but we also know – hopefully, we wouldn’t want it any other way. Amen.
Saturday, January 22, 2011
HE’S OUT OF HIS MIND
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily for this 2nd Saturday in Ordinary Time is, “He’s Out of His Mind.”
That’s a comment about Jesus from the end of today’s very short gospel. “He’s out of his mind.” [Cf. Mark 3: 21]
Imagine that. They are saying, “He’s crazy.” They are dissing him. They are saying, “He’s nuts.”
STOP! THINK ABOUT THAT
Jesus said things that were not in the mind of his listeners. He thought outside their box.
He said and did the unexplained and the unexpected.
We have the 4 gospels. Some Bibles – in the Matthew, Mark, Luke and John books, have all the words of Jesus in red. Has everything Jesus said been planted in our minds yet – and better, not only planted, but taken root, has grown, and has borne fruit in our lives?
For example: going the extra mile. For example: giving the shirt off our back. For example: being a Good Samaritan. For example: loving our enemies. For example: forgiving 70 times 7 times. For example: washing another person’s feet. For example: giving our body and blood, our whole body and self to others and they eat us up – eat up our time and our lives.
Have we ever done something so loving, so giving, so letting go for another, or others, that someone said, “Are you crazy? Are you out of your mind doing that for them?”
JUDGE JOHN ROLL
I read in the newspapers that John Roll, the judge who was shot and killed in Tucson Saturday morning two weeks ago, went to Mass every day. President Barack Obama in his talk in Tucson said he had gone to Mass that Saturday morning and then went to the meeting place outside the Safeway to meet Gabrielle Giffords. The surveillance video from the supermarket shows John Roll pushing Ron Barber his friend to the ground – helping him crawl under a table and then lying on top of him. Then Roll was shot in the back and died as a result. There is a strong indication that he saved the life of Ron Barber. The gospel for January 8th was not, “Greater love than this, no one has, that they lay down their life for their friends.” However, at every Mass we hear Jesus’ crazy words, “This is my body. This is my blood. They are being given up for you."
ST. ALPHONSUS
St. Alphonsus described God as crazy – “PAZZI” in Italian. God is crazy in love for us. St. Alphonsus said that because he was overwhelmed with God’s love for him – for all of us.
God is crazy in love for us.
God is so crazy that God – this God of ours – sent his only Son, sent him out of his mind – an Idea, a Word, a Logos, and this Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
God is crazy. What a crazy plan!
Who would believe that that God could and would send his Son – as seed, into Mary’s womb – mystery – and blessed is the fruit of that womb – Jesus?
Crazy.
Believe that and I’ll tell you another one.
God became a baby, a kid, a teenager, a carpenter, and sort of kept quiet till he was around 30 and then he went around doing good – preaching, healing, and helping others –and they arrested him, had him crucified, died and he rose from the dead and 2 billion, 200 million plus people follow him Are they crazy?
CONCLUSION
The title of my homily for this 2nd Saturday in Ordinary Time is, “He’s Out of His Mind.”
That’s a comment about Jesus from the end of today’s very short gospel. “He’s out of his mind.” [Cf. Mark 3: 21]
Imagine that. They are saying, “He’s crazy.” They are dissing him. They are saying, “He’s nuts.”
STOP! THINK ABOUT THAT
Jesus said things that were not in the mind of his listeners. He thought outside their box.
He said and did the unexplained and the unexpected.
We have the 4 gospels. Some Bibles – in the Matthew, Mark, Luke and John books, have all the words of Jesus in red. Has everything Jesus said been planted in our minds yet – and better, not only planted, but taken root, has grown, and has borne fruit in our lives?
For example: going the extra mile. For example: giving the shirt off our back. For example: being a Good Samaritan. For example: loving our enemies. For example: forgiving 70 times 7 times. For example: washing another person’s feet. For example: giving our body and blood, our whole body and self to others and they eat us up – eat up our time and our lives.
Have we ever done something so loving, so giving, so letting go for another, or others, that someone said, “Are you crazy? Are you out of your mind doing that for them?”
JUDGE JOHN ROLL
I read in the newspapers that John Roll, the judge who was shot and killed in Tucson Saturday morning two weeks ago, went to Mass every day. President Barack Obama in his talk in Tucson said he had gone to Mass that Saturday morning and then went to the meeting place outside the Safeway to meet Gabrielle Giffords. The surveillance video from the supermarket shows John Roll pushing Ron Barber his friend to the ground – helping him crawl under a table and then lying on top of him. Then Roll was shot in the back and died as a result. There is a strong indication that he saved the life of Ron Barber. The gospel for January 8th was not, “Greater love than this, no one has, that they lay down their life for their friends.” However, at every Mass we hear Jesus’ crazy words, “This is my body. This is my blood. They are being given up for you."
ST. ALPHONSUS
St. Alphonsus described God as crazy – “PAZZI” in Italian. God is crazy in love for us. St. Alphonsus said that because he was overwhelmed with God’s love for him – for all of us.
God is crazy in love for us.
God is so crazy that God – this God of ours – sent his only Son, sent him out of his mind – an Idea, a Word, a Logos, and this Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
God is crazy. What a crazy plan!
Who would believe that that God could and would send his Son – as seed, into Mary’s womb – mystery – and blessed is the fruit of that womb – Jesus?
Crazy.
Believe that and I’ll tell you another one.
God became a baby, a kid, a teenager, a carpenter, and sort of kept quiet till he was around 30 and then he went around doing good – preaching, healing, and helping others –and they arrested him, had him crucified, died and he rose from the dead and 2 billion, 200 million plus people follow him Are they crazy?
CONCLUSION
In this homily I'm saying, "God is out of His mind."
Have you ever reflected on why would God create these gazillions stars – we don’t know how far out they go – as well as billions and billions of mosquitoes and babies and Lady Bugs. Why God? Why?
And God I don’t know why you do what you do. I don’t know Your Why.
But I do know I want to thank You God for being so crazy as to creating me? Thank You!
Friday, January 21, 2011
Sunday, January 16, 2011
THE BRAIN
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily for today is, “The Brain!”
Last week lthoughts about the brain have been bouncing around in my brain. It started with prayers and hopes for this Congresswoman, Gabrielle Giffords – who had a bullet enter her brain from the back and come out the front. Please God she will live. Please God she’ll recover – along with all the wounded – and prayers and hopes for the families of those who died.
Then when I saw the 3rd picture of Jared Loughner, the alleged shooter and killer, the picture of him without any hair on his head, I wondered what his brain is like. Prayers for him too – and his parents. Then I saw pictures of the shrine in his backyard with candles near a skull – which seems to be the centerpiece of his shrine. A skull – where a brain once resided.
My brain kept saying, “Crazy, madness, insanity!”
I’m sure your brain did your own unique wonderings. I’m sure this got you thinking about all this – as well as your wonderings about what others were wondering about.
Then I read that there is a gun show going on this weekend on the outskirts of Tucson. I wondered if anyone had the brains to ask: “Shouldn’t we cancel this or postpone this?”
The title of my reflections for today is, “The Brain.”
DIFFERENCES
One of life’s greatest discoveries is to realize that not everyone thinks the same way. Thank God. This simple truth is forgotten at least 7 times a day. Remembering this is the first step in communication.
At times I think of something I read somewhere along the line, “The greatest sin is our inability to accept the otherness of other people.”
I assume marriage and family and the home are the great classrooms where this lesson can be learned.
I know I learned it by living in a family of a mom and dad and 4 of us kids – two boys, two girls, and then in a religious community with so many different priests down through the years.
How about a parish? Look at us. Look at how different we are and how different we think and yet we can be one parish? That’s why I love the word, “Catholic” – which means “with wholeness”. The Greek prefix, “kata” means, “with” – and “holos” means, “whole”. We’re in union with each other in this whole world of ours. We are a world wide religion. We are almost 2 billion Christians and 1.166 billion of us are Catholics. I hope every Catholic has the opportunity to stand in St. Peter’s Square on a sunny day and look around and see our unity and our diversity. In the meanwhile drive 45 minutes on Route 50 to Washington D.C. Get off at South Dakota Avenue and go to the National Shrine and see all the diverse shrines to Mary – which bring together all kinds of cultures and backgrounds and countries that we Catholics in the United States are and come from.
People are similar and people are different.
We’ve all heard the old story about the man in the French Parliament who said out loud in the assembly, “As we all know, there is a slight difference between men and women!” And the whole assembly stood up to a man and shouted, “Viva la differerance!”
Hopefully, all of us can celebrate our differences!
Walk around Annapolis when it’s the outdoor “Paint Annapolis Competition” and you’ll see how so many brains are working in so many different ways. An artist who won several times once said, “Every street in Annapolis has at least 10 different scenes.”
I remember hearing somewhere, “You think human faces are different, you should look at human brains.”
Is that true? I’ve wondered about that in my brain - not having seen too many brains – maybe one or two somewhere along the line and two or three in a movie or what have you. They all look very similar to me.
This triggered the thought to do some searching about Einstein’s brain – because I heard it was a very interesting brain. I found out that a Doctor Thomas Harvey, a pathologist, removed it from the dead body of Einstein the morning after Einstein died – April 1955. Einstein didn’t want this to happen – but Harvey did it anyway and lost his job because of it.
However, he ended up keeping Einstein’s brain for some 40 years. Through the years he gave sections of it to various people for study. They have pointed out differences in his brain compared to other brains. However, others say, “No! you can’t prove what you’re saying.” So the brain keeps on being studied.
In doing my research on the brain I found a quote by Martin Luther King Jr. I’ll put it here because this is his holiday weekend: “Segregationalists will even argue that God was the first segregationalist. 'Red birds and blue birds don't fly together,' they contend. ...They turn to some pseudo-scientific writing and argue that the Negro's brain is smaller than the white man's brain. They do not know, or they refuse to know that the idea of an inferior or superior race has been refuted by the best evidence of the science of anthropology. Great anthropologists, like Ruth Benedict, Margaret Mead, and Melville J. Herskovits, agree that, although there may be inferior and superior individuals within all races, there is no superior or inferior race. And segregationalists refuse to acknowledge that there are four types of blood, and these four types are found within every racial group.” from 'Love in Action', Strength To Love (1963, 1981), pages 45-46.
I also read that Thomas Harvey took out Einstein’s eyes and gave them to Einstein’s eye doctor and they have been kept in a safe deposit box in New York City – and from time to time there are rumors that they are to be auctioned.
I found it fascinating that Doctor Thomas Harvey kept Einstein’s brain in 2 jars in a cardboard box marked “Costa Cider” – under a beer cooler in Wichita, Kansas – as well as in Missouri – as well as in the trunk of his Buick Skylark. At one point he tried to give it to Einstein’s granddaughter, but she didn’t want it. Eventually it made its way back to the original lab in Princeton, New Jersey.
SACREDNESS
This is a homily or sermon, so my brain is supposed to come up with something sacred to say – so that’s what I would say: it’s sacred.
I don’t know about you, but I sense a great sacredness about the human brain. From the accounts of the way Einstein’s brain was kept, that sacredness seems to have been violated.
I would much rather have seen it in a neat jar – in a big museum somewhere. I sense I would feel the same sense of sacredness I feel at a casket or when I saw the Rosetta Stone in the British Museum or when I touched a rock from the moon at the Airo Space Museum.
So having a sense of sacredness – for the human brain – for the dead in cemeteries – for churches – for all human beings – for all life – for all of creation – would be the point in his sermon.
And the sense of sacredness – is an attitude – an awe – that ought to reside in the human brain.
President Barach Obama called for a sense of civility the other night in his speech. I would call for that and a lot more. I would call for a sense of the sacred – in each other – and the more we build that up – the less the violence I would hope.
Somewhere along the line – I heard in a homily – something like this. The preacher said that Catholics have a sense of the sacred, a sense of the holy, a sense of awe at the consecration of the Mass – as well as the time of communion – when they receive the body of Christ.
The preacher next said, “If we have that attitude, that sense of the sacred, that feeling of awe, it is because we believe that this is the Body of Christ, Amen.”
Then he said something I have never forgotten – something that helped change my spirituality and outlook on life. He said that a man named Saul was going around arresting as well as killing Christians – and one day on the road to Damascus he fell to the ground in shock. He was blinded by a light and a voice said, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” And Saul in his blindness asked, “Who are you, Lord” and the voice answered, “I am Jesus and you are persecuting me.” [Acts 9: 4-5] This Saul becomes the great Saint Paul.
Acts and Paul and his Letters don’t tell us exactly how long it took Saul – to become Paul – how long it took him to realize what this was all about. But in his brain – there was a change. He realized that people are the body of Christ. Amen.
In doing my research on the brain I found a quote by Martin Luther King Jr. I’ll put it here because this is his holiday weekend: “Segregationalists will even argue that God was the first segregationalist. 'Red birds and blue birds don't fly together,' they contend. ...They turn to some pseudo-scientific writing and argue that the Negro's brain is smaller than the white man's brain. They do not know, or they refuse to know that the idea of an inferior or superior race has been refuted by the best evidence of the science of anthropology. Great anthropologists, like Ruth Benedict, Margaret Mead, and Melville J. Herskovits, agree that, although there may be inferior and superior individuals within all races, there is no superior or inferior race. And segregationalists refuse to acknowledge that there are four types of blood, and these four types are found within every racial group.” from 'Love in Action', Strength To Love (1963, 1981), pages 45-46.
I also read that Thomas Harvey took out Einstein’s eyes and gave them to Einstein’s eye doctor and they have been kept in a safe deposit box in New York City – and from time to time there are rumors that they are to be auctioned.
I found it fascinating that Doctor Thomas Harvey kept Einstein’s brain in 2 jars in a cardboard box marked “Costa Cider” – under a beer cooler in Wichita, Kansas – as well as in Missouri – as well as in the trunk of his Buick Skylark. At one point he tried to give it to Einstein’s granddaughter, but she didn’t want it. Eventually it made its way back to the original lab in Princeton, New Jersey.
SACREDNESS
This is a homily or sermon, so my brain is supposed to come up with something sacred to say – so that’s what I would say: it’s sacred.
I don’t know about you, but I sense a great sacredness about the human brain. From the accounts of the way Einstein’s brain was kept, that sacredness seems to have been violated.
I would much rather have seen it in a neat jar – in a big museum somewhere. I sense I would feel the same sense of sacredness I feel at a casket or when I saw the Rosetta Stone in the British Museum or when I touched a rock from the moon at the Airo Space Museum.
So having a sense of sacredness – for the human brain – for the dead in cemeteries – for churches – for all human beings – for all life – for all of creation – would be the point in his sermon.
And the sense of sacredness – is an attitude – an awe – that ought to reside in the human brain.
President Barach Obama called for a sense of civility the other night in his speech. I would call for that and a lot more. I would call for a sense of the sacred – in each other – and the more we build that up – the less the violence I would hope.
Somewhere along the line – I heard in a homily – something like this. The preacher said that Catholics have a sense of the sacred, a sense of the holy, a sense of awe at the consecration of the Mass – as well as the time of communion – when they receive the body of Christ.
The preacher next said, “If we have that attitude, that sense of the sacred, that feeling of awe, it is because we believe that this is the Body of Christ, Amen.”
Then he said something I have never forgotten – something that helped change my spirituality and outlook on life. He said that a man named Saul was going around arresting as well as killing Christians – and one day on the road to Damascus he fell to the ground in shock. He was blinded by a light and a voice said, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” And Saul in his blindness asked, “Who are you, Lord” and the voice answered, “I am Jesus and you are persecuting me.” [Acts 9: 4-5] This Saul becomes the great Saint Paul.
Acts and Paul and his Letters don’t tell us exactly how long it took Saul – to become Paul – how long it took him to realize what this was all about. But in his brain – there was a change. He realized that people are the body of Christ. Amen.
The priest who said this said that – our whole life – our whole attitude toward each other – can change – once we realize we are the body of Christ – and that’s what Paul would announce to the world – especially in 1st Corinthians – the beginning of which we had as today’s first reading. How we treat one another is how we treat Christ.
Great message. If your brain gets that, you get Matthew 25: 31-46. That’s what we’re going to be judged on at the end. What you do to the least of my brothers and sisters you do to me.
CONCLUSION
Bring that into your brain this week – treat everyone as the Body of Christ – and see if that makes a difference how you treat those in your family, those in traffic on the road to Damascus or wherever you are going. Amen.
In the meanwhile, don’t forget what Erma Bombeck said, “Anybody who watches three games of football in a row should be declared brain dead.”
Great message. If your brain gets that, you get Matthew 25: 31-46. That’s what we’re going to be judged on at the end. What you do to the least of my brothers and sisters you do to me.
CONCLUSION
Bring that into your brain this week – treat everyone as the Body of Christ – and see if that makes a difference how you treat those in your family, those in traffic on the road to Damascus or wherever you are going. Amen.
In the meanwhile, don’t forget what Erma Bombeck said, “Anybody who watches three games of football in a row should be declared brain dead.”
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