Steps: as in dancing or in learning to play the piano or in recovering from an addiction one step at a time. Steps: to make sure I see the step I'm on - because people sometimes do fall if they look too far ahead or too far behind. Steps: to be grateful for getting to where I am right now - this far - and to say "Thank you" to those who helped me to get to this step in my life. Amen.
(c) Andy Costello, Reflections, 2015
Wednesday, November 11, 2015
November 11, 2015
NOVEMBER HEADING FOR DECEMBER
It's November 11th - Veteran's Day - and I can picture so many veterans sitting on the edge of nursing home beds - all alone - all alone - lonely and moaning for visitors they can tell their story too.... I sit and listen to their war stories for a while and then move on - and I wish that guy in Room 113A and that other guy in 78B could be near the front door watching visitors coming and going - none with a familiar face.... None with a listening face - none with time for them. Life in a wheel chair or walking with a walker is tough enough. The November of our life heading heading into the December of our life should not be seen and listened to away from home and alone. "Oh no!"
Lord, you healed the blind and you healed the deaf - help
us to see and to hear all that surrounds us, the scenes, the fall colors, the
music and the chatter - and all the talk about what matters.
Lord, you fed the hungry and you reached out to the
ignored - help us to be aware of the hungry and the lonely right in front of us
and next to us each day.
Lord, you called all to live life to the full and to go
beyond themselves - stretch us each day to our limits - and then some more and
some more after that.
Lord, you have given us a thousand and one and then some more opportunities to be fully alive and fully aware of the
beauty and wonder
of life and all its gifts - help us to welcome these
opportunities each day.
Lord, help us see that it takes a family, a school, a
church, a temple, a village to round out a world - with restaurants, stadiums,
classrooms, Bingo halls, hospitals, roads, airports, planes, trains, buses, cars,
bikes, skateboards, surfboards,
sidewalks and highways to explore, to serve and to make each day to be a good
day.
Lord, lastly, thanks for so many opportunities - and
tonight we’re celebrating all the opportunities that come from sports - soccer,
football, field hockey, cross country - playing, managing, coaching, cheering,
driving, teaching kids how to lift weights and lift themselves to greatness,
goodness and lots of fun. Amen.
ENVY KILL US
EVERY TIME
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily for this 32nd Tuesday in
Ordinary Time is, “Envy Kills Us Every Time.”
In the second sentence of today’s first reading I noticed
the word “envy”.
Let me read the opening paragraph of today’s first
reading again. “God formed us to be imperishable; the image of his own nature
he made us. But by the envy of the
Devil, death entered the world, and they who are in his possession experience
it.” [Wisdom 2:23-24]
FIRST THE
DISTINCTION BETWEEN ENVY AND JEALOUSY
People often mix up the meanings of envy and jealousy.
It’s not a big deal, but I think knowing the distinction
can help us to be more aware of what’s going on within us at times.
Envy is wanting something I don’t have. Jealousy is being afraid to lose what I have.
These two evils - sins - can destroy us.
In this short homily I just want to focus on envy - the
wanting to have what I don’t have.
TWO KEY QUESTIONS
What do others have that I don’t have? Skills? Stuff?
Do any of these irk me, make me ugly, cause me stress?
For example, I have no skills in music. I tried the
trombone and the piano - and gave up on both. Does that make me envious of
those who have great musical gifts. I believe the answer is no. I don’t like people making fun of me for
having a tin ear - or being off key - or what have you.
It would have been nice to have had speed when running.
Once more I’m realistic - that I was not a fast runner. Envious - a bit.
At times I wish I could have a good hand when it comes to
drawing. My mother, my sister Mary and my nephew Gerard have that gene or skill
or whatever it is. I tried it, but nope, no luck in that department.
So once more those two questions: what do I lack and does
it kill me that others have certain gifts and I don’t have them.
SIGNS OR
EVIDENCE OF ENVY
If you envy, you’ll never be satisfied
Envy is its own torture. It can become an inner itch that
irritates the underneath side of my soul.
When you envy, you’re telling yourself, I feel inferior.
Those who have it all - leave a trail of envious people.
The greatest mischief you can do to the envious is to do even
better or have even more.
Scratch a bitter person and you’re looking at an envious
person.
There is a Tamil quote, “Envy has you when it’s
refreshing to hear that there was a fight in a neighbor’s house.”
Here is an envy comment - that has an interesting
complexity mixed in: Envy has you if you’re trim - and you get that secret delight
in standing next to a fat person.
CONCLUSION
This morning I’m simply asking to look at the reality of
envy. It appears in today’s first reading from Wisdom - where the author of Wisdom
says that the envy of the devil is what brought death into our land.
Learn how the ability to laugh about all this makes a lot
of sense.
Discover I have gifts and others wish they had mine. You’re
kidding.
Reflect about envy and how my lacks can force me to make leaps
and come up with new understandings about life.
November 10, 2015
NEWSPAPER NAMES
Every day the newspaper presents the names of thousands and thousands of people. Obituaries, married, arrested, honored, dishonored, athletes. Surprise! There's the name of someone I went to school with. That must be the daughter of that gal I worked with. That must be a mistake. Oh no! Then we spot the sad headlines: plane crashes, boat sinks, and our heart sinks because we know the horror of it all. Kids left behind. Impact for life. Then for some reason someone writes a song about a horror and the song helps the rest of us for years to come - like The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
