CHOSEN

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this feast of Christ’s Baptism is, “Chosen.”

I chose that title and that theme from the first sentence from one of today’s possible first readings - Isaiah 42: 1, “Thus says the Lord: Here is my servant whom I uphold, my chosen one with whom I am pleased.”

And we’ll find that theme in today’s gospel when Jesus is baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River. The Holy Spirit descends upon Jesus and a voice from heaven says, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”

FEELINGS - EVOKING FEELINGS

So after spotting that theme of being chosen, I began thinking about what “Chosen” is about.

It hit me that This theme of chosen - being chosen - feeling I’m chosen - can evoke some powerful feelings.

We’ve all heard stories about issues of being chosen when it comes to sports. Who starts - who doesn’t? Who makes the team - who doesn’t? We’ve heard parents screaming from the stands at coaches for not putting their son or daughter into the game.

It happens in academics. Somewhere along the line we choose or accepted ourselves as a A or a B or a C student. That choice or acceptance could have sculpted our future classroom and life experiences. Who makes the National Honor Society - who doesn’t? That might have brought scholarship money or getting into a college of our choice. It could also have brought bragging rights. Not making the National Honor Society or a  Dean’s List can impact our whole life. It can also cause angry phone calls. It can cause people to take their kids out of a school or write letters or make nasty phone calls to principals and to teachers.

Being chosen happens at work - who gets jobs - who gets the glory - who gets a name for herself or himself.

It can happen in families. One kid feels that mom and dad prefers an older or another brother or sister much more than me.

A key word that is often found in all these situations is the word, “fair”.

Listen to kids for 30 minutes and you’ll hear the word “fair” a half dozen times. It could be size of cake cuts and slices or the amount of frosting on a piece of cake.

Another key theme when it comes to this issue of being chosen is comparisons.

Then there is the opposite - being rejected - and feelings of being rejected or being in second or last place.

I’ve heard people talk about so and so being a teacher’s favorite - and getting an award - and that person is still angry about a specific teacher and the other kid and this happened 55 years ago.

Not fair.

Take the major reality of life - falling in love and marriage. Here humans can experience both being chosen by another as well as rejection by another. A wedding and a divorce - and all that leads up to both these realities - the stuff of life. 

I played baseball for the Bay Ridge Robins in my grammar school years and the manager put his brother in to play first base the whole season - except for one out. That was my only chance  to star. I didn’t. I sat on the bench that whole season. So I can relate to being a sub - a person in waiting.

Not fair.

THE CHOSEN

Somewhere along the line you might have heard mention of a book entitled, The Chosen. It was chosen for various awards. It sold 3.4 million copies worldwide. It was written by Chaim Potok - a writer and a rabbi. He served in the Korean War as a U.S. Army Jewish chaplain.

It deals with two Jewish boys - Danny and Reuven - who grew up in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York. It deals with their fathers. It deals with religion - and different groups within a religion. It deals with comparisons.

Danny Saunders one of the boys was chosen since childhood to be a rabbi of a strict Jewish Sect when he grows up. His  friend, Reuven Malter, is from another Jewish sect - more liberal.

It won’t ruin the book to say that Reuven in the end decides to be a rabbi and Danny the Chosen One decides to become a psychologist.

The book begins with both boys playing baseball for their respective Jewish  religious teams. Danny hits Reuven in the face with a baseball - forcing him to go to the hospital and Danny goes to see the kid he hit in the face smashing his glasses.

It takes a while, but they become lifetime friends.

The book deals with how fathers raise their sons - and how fathers deal with sons who choose a different way of life than the one’s their fathers choose for them.

A reader - especially a man - will certainly do a lot of thinking about his dad - and compares their dad to the dads of their friends.  For example, in The Chosen Reuven notices that  Danny’s father, the Rabbi, only speaks to - better - at Danny. And when he speaks it’s only religious comments. All else is silence. And surprise Reuven’s father is the one who gets Danny to read a lot more than Jewish religion material.

It will get a father thinking about a son’s choices.

The book is weak on women, moms and daughters - but the issue of choices - influencing - what we want for our kids - certainly will hit us.

So too the book will get us thinking about religious choices - going to worship - not going to worship - being stretched and being challenged - all the struggles young people go through as they move into their futures.

BACK TO JESUS

When we read the Gospels, when we hear the story of Jesus, we hear over and over again the question of Father and Son. We also heard in the gospel last Sunday - the feast of the Holy Family - about Joseph and Mary searching for Jesus - who stayed behind in Jerusalem - feeling he has to do his Father - God’s - business.

Certainly he surprised Mary and perhaps Joseph if he was still alive when Jesus a carpenter becomes a rabbi.

Was he surprised when he heard in the waters that day - a voice from on high, “You are my beloved Son, with you I am well pleased”?

I’ve read that Jesus wanted everyone he met to experience the same feeling he felt in being recognized, chosen, called, and told he was pleasing to God our Father. So he went about choosing and calling people by name.

US

Each of us has to deal with this issue of “chosen”.

As well as the theme of fairness and comparisons.

All our lives we wrestle with how our dads and moms saw us - interacted with us.

We’re here in Church - so we deal with God and religion issues.

Catholics - Christians - Jews - Mormons - Muslims - deal with chosen questions.

I would assume each religious group, parish, sect, sub-groups - has to deal with feelings of who we are. Am I in the right religion - the right community?

I would assume we have to listen to Jesus on how we see, how we treat each other, Jesus had the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Scribes, judging him constantly.

I would assume that issue of judging others - feeling better or worse than others - because of looks, clothes, skin color, weight, height, age, nationality, background, place of origin - what have you - being chosen or feeling I’m on the bench or not even on the team - are life issues.

CONCLUSION

In giving out communion - especially at high school Masses - I’ve seen kids having the name of their boyfriend or girlfriend - ballpoint penned on the palm of their hand. “Body of Christ! Amen.”

Well, I would think it would be a good reflection to imagine ourselves going up the aisle to God in communion and opening up the palm of God’s hand. Surprise we see our name carved right there. [Cf. Isaiah 46:16]

Then we look God in the eye - eye to eye - and see his smile and his love for us. Then to hear God say, “You are my beloved daughter - my beloved Son - with you I am well pleased.”

And hopefully, we figure out the great life message of Christianity. Jesus starts as a baby - with great drama - angels and shepherds and Magi - come to see him. Jesus is the chosen one. Then we get hints of possible rejection.  Then we realize by Lent that Jesus is the Big Rejected One. The beatings, the crown of thorns, the death on the Cross, is the ultimate rejection. That’s Good Friday. Easter Sunday - the Resurrection of Jesus - screams out - loud and clear - that Jesus is the Great Chosen One. Amen.

January 10, 2016

RESERVATION AT THE TABLE

Did you know your name is at a place

at a table in the banquet? It is. Okay

some people better show up wearing

a wedding garment - but some prodigals

just have to show up - and they will be

welcomed. You’re kidding? Nope. Well,

that’s how I read the Good News. 

How about you? Are you going to show

up and look for your name and your table? Are you going to sit down and go, “Phew!

I made it. Can’t believe it, but I made it.

Thank You God. Thank you! Wow!"

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2016
Cf. Luke 15;
Matthew 25;
Matthew 22: 11-14

January 9, 2016

PICTURES

Show me your pictures and

you’ll tell me who you are.

And out came wallets and

out came cellphones and

you showed me all those

pictures - all those stopped 
moments - glimpses into you

and the people in your life.

Show me your pictures and

you’ll tell me who you are.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2016

SKIN DEEP

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this Friday after the feast of the Epiphany  is, “Skin Deep.”

In today’s gospel Jesus touches the hand, the skin, of a someone with a skin disease. 

In Jesus’ times many skin diseases - “uneasies” with other’s skin - were called leprosy.  Most of the Bible commentaries say the skin disease of leprosy or Hansen’s disease - was not what these folks in the Bible had.

Whatever….

Whatever! People are scared of skin diseases in  our times as well as in Jesus’ time …..

What I like is that Jesus’ touched skin - pressed the flesh. He washed feet and let his feet be washed.

Without rubber gloves….

Of course we can catch stuff by touching stuff and touching skin. In every hospital there are dispensers everywhere to squirt away germs. They didn’t know about germs and microbes in Jesus’ time - like we know today - but they had inklings.

SKIN PROBLEMS

As we all know there are multiple skin problems - skin cancer, lupus, measles, acne, eczema, rosacea, cysts, cellulites, shingles, psoriasis, rashes, cold sores, what have you.

Many of us saw Mikhail Gorbachev’s birth mark - called a Port Wine birthmark or “nevus frameus”.

In our time there has developed a field in psychology called, “psychodermatology”. In looking up stuff on this for this homily I read an interesting story.  In a conference on skin - someone said there is no connection between skin and the emotions.  A person who said there was a connection said the speaker said that while his fly was open. The guy turned red - checked his fly - but not his face - which had become red. It wasn’t true about his zipper, but it proved the point - that our skin is effected by our emotions. We scratch, we itch, we bite our skin. When I’m nervous - like in traffic,  I scratch my neck and my skull.

JESUS IS A MODEL

Jesus models how to treat one another - no matter how we look - no matter how our skin is - no matter how old and how wrinkled we are.

I assume that means how we treat others - and how we treat ourselves.

I assume that means how we see ourselves in the mirror.

I assume this means how we reflect on issues of esteem of self and others.

PIZZA - LIMA

I enjoy telling the story about how I once had to undergo a skin treatment to deal with pre-cancerous skin on my face and my upper neck and shoulders.

The skin doctor had me apply this white cream to my face and neck for a month. I did and my face became red and speckled like a pizza. I was on the road and preaching at the time - so the dermatologist suggested I do this when work was slow. 

I was preaching in other parishes - mainly around Lima, Ohio at the time.

So there I was hearing confessions in the dark - on a Saturday afternoon.

Nobody went face to face - but they could. Then the last person was a lady who went to confession. She sat there 5 feet away in the semi-darkness - making her confession face to face. She didn’t look up but at the end as I said, “Go in peace” she reached out her hand and shook mine in peace - but when she saw my face for the first time she panicked.

Ooops, she didn’t know what to. She then took her hands and rubbed them on the side of her hip - as she walked out.

At that instant I knew what it might feel like to be a person with leprosy.

CONCLUSION

I’ve read in Biblical Commentaries that some New Testament writers are implying that Jesus was the most figured person of all time - the ultimate leper - and the call is to reach out for him - more than skin deep.

If you have ever seen the picture St. Alphonsus did of Christ on the Cross, you’d get the message - seeing Christ on the cross - much worse than the clean Christ on the cross up here. Amen.

January 8, 2016

CHAIRS

Guess they started with rocks

and tree trunks - then cushions....
“Wait, instead of walking further
down forest trails, let’s sit and talk.
Let’s finish the story?" ["Or argument?”] 
Guess chairs improved once people 
settled down - and stopped being 
migrants. Chairs! Chairs! Chairs! Sit down 
and tell me all your stories - all you 
heard late and deep into the dark night.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2016

January 7, 2016

DYSTOPIA

Last week I spotted a word I had never 

seen or heard before: “dystopia”.

It’s hell! It’s a place of depression.

The dictionary says it’s an imaginary
place. They got to be kidding. I’ve met

people who live in Dystopia. I don’t

know its zip code - but I suspect from

listening to them it can be anywhere.

Thinking about it. I rather live in

Utopia, even if its imaginary. It's
the Kingdom of God. It's Heaven.
It's the dream of Jesus for all of us.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2016
Painting on top by  Eleanor Buffan,
from Hell Paintings, a Series
of Paintings of Tortured Souls.

January 6, 2016

SIDEWAYS TALKING

Lately, I’ve noticed much of

our talking is sideways - so

little eye to eye, face to face,

connecting. We're making  
just comment jabs, at least 
it seems that way. We're 
speaking words that seem to
be sliding by - bye, bye, bye.

Wait a minute - that comment

you made the other day really
cut me. It stuck right in my

middle - right in my gut. And
sorry to say, it seems, better,
worse, I think that’s what you
intended to do to me - but sideways - 
on the sly. Come on now, 
let’s talk face to face, eye to eye.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2016

January 5, 2016

WEAVING

Weaving … patterns … daily living ...

when  will I see what I’m really saying,

what I’m really doing? When will

I know what’s really going on with me,

with others? I guess stopping, stepping

back, taking a walk, discovering distance

is the secret. Looking at my tapestry

and screaming, “Artist!” - “Artist!”

is the step I have to take this year.

© Andy Costello, Reflections, 2016

January 4, 2016

RETURNING

At what age do we realize

we’ve been here before?

I’ve told this story before….

I’ve been in this situation before….

I’ve been rejected for this same thing before….
I've made this same mistake before....

Oh my God, life is filled with these over 
and over again repeat performances….

“Life is déjà vu all over again.”

Didn’t Yogi Berra say that before?

Didn’t he say everything before?

Am I repeating everyone before me?
Thanks mom. Thanks dad. 
Thanks Yogi. Thanks everyone!

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2016

EPIPHANIES! 

THERE ARE  MOMENTS AND 

THERE ARE MOMENTS 

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “Epiphanies! There Are Moments and There Are Moments.”

As you know the word, “epiphany” means a moment we see differently. It’s a “showing” - a “revealing” - an “appearance” - a becoming aware of something that we were not seeing.

In theology,  it’s seeing the presence of God - seeing the miracle of God's creative power in everyday realities  - like the shining from shook foil in the words of Gerard Manley Hopkins in his poem God's Grandeur.

In Christianity, it’s today’s feast - when the Magi - see the Christ - in a baby - when the world changes because of the coming of Christ in the flesh.

As everyone knows, a baby can change everything.

WE’VE HEARD PEOPLE USE THE WORD “EPIPHANY”

We’ve all heard people use the word “epiphany”. 

Here are a few examples - a few stories I’ve heard along the line.

“It was a moment. It was an epiphany - a moment when I knew, when I was sure, absolutely sure that God  was aware of me - and I was aware of God.”

“It was a moment - I was stranded at the airport - my flight was cancelled. I knew I wouldn’t get home in time for Christmas. It was my fault. It was the weather’s fault. It was nobody’s fault. I sat there on a vinyl chair at the airport and heard people screaming at airline staff people at the counter. I saw people - lots and lots of people - on their cellphones - talking to people at a distance - using gestures. Lots of gestures. I was seeing an epiphany. This is life. This is my life. I want to be with - really be with my family at this moment and I can’t. I guess the unexpected hard, the difficult, the problem, teaches us much more than the easy - the expected. I now know once again that family and being there for Christmas is a top 5 value. I guess drawbacks show us how to find drawbridges. When things are out of control, I guess it’s then I try to control life and it’s then I find myself even more out of control."

“It was an epiphany when our  first daughter was born. Wow. I began to realize this is what it’s all about. Up till now I never saw these moms and dads walking through our streets - at the park - pushing a baby stroller - or a kid on a swing. Now it was me. Wow.”

“It was at my 5^th rehab for my alcoholism. I failed every time. I had done the first 5 steps in AA 4 times - thinking this was the time I would make it.  It wasn’t till I heard myself and my excuses and my lies to myself about myself that I had an epiphany. I got down on my knees - close to the floor - and said to God. ‘I just realized you’re at the bottom of everything - and I guess I have to really hit bottom to realize you are you and I am I and I can’t do this by myself. I surrender. I had that epiphany 11 years and 4 months and 16 days ago - and I’m still taking one day at a time. Hey, you never know.”

“It was in Vermont. We were on vacation. We were backpacking as a family on The Long Trail and it rained every day for two weeks in June. It was miserable. It was cold. It was wet. Looking back, it was the best vacation we ever had as a family. We didn’t know it then, but we realized a few years later, it was an epiphany. We played cards in our big canvas tent every night. We laughed. We celebrated. We cursed the rain drip, drip, drip, as it hit, hit, hit on our tent - all through the night - drip, drip, drip.”

“I was walking down the street and I saw someone coming out of this small church - so I walked in. It was quiet, dark, empty in the afternoon. I sat down. The candles were flickering. No sound of ambulances - trucks - what have you - from the street came through those walls and stained glass windows and as I sat there, I began to pray and I had my life’s epiphany.”

THERE ARE MOMENTS AND THERE ARE MOMENTS

The title of my homily is, “Epiphanies! There Are Moments and There Are Moments.”

We know not all days are same, not all moments are the same.

Isn’t that what makes life such a gift? Isn’t that why we turn on and tune in to the evening news?  Isn’t that why we say to each other, “What’s new?” or “How was your day?”

I was visiting a couple I had married.  They were showing me their small apartment. They didn’t have much furniture yet. In fact they had a fold up card table for their dining room table. But in their bedroom they had a nice big king sized bed and on a nice dresser and on the mirror of that wooden dresser was a picture of a baby. I said, “Who’s that?”  The answer came back from both of them: “That’s what we’re aiming for?”  I got changed and didn’t visit them for a few years. They had a dining room table by then and also a son. I’m sitting there and little Charlie is at the window - holding onto the window sill - and standing on the metal radiator below - making lots of noise - and grasping at something coming through the window. I asked, “What’s he doing?” And his mom said, “Oh he’s trying to grab the light.”  Then she added, “Oh he does that all the time.”

THE READINGS

We come to church to grab some light - to see better in our darkness.

The readings for this feast of the Epiphany were grabbed to tell us about the light - revelations - a star that points to Bethlehem.

In the first reading from Isaiah, it happens in Jerusalem. Clouds breaking open and light shines through. Darkness disappears. Wasn’t it nice to see sunlight on Friday after 5 or 6 gray days. So Isaiah tells us in that first reading about the economy coming to life - business is great. Ships have arrived in our ports. Caravans of camels have arrived packed with gold and frankincense.  

In the second reading we have the radiant light that  happened in the mind of St. Paul.

In the gospel it happens to the magi from the East and the new born baby in the crib.

In this homily I’m asking you when has this happened to you: when you saw the light.

The title of my homily is, “Epiphanies! There Are Moments and There Are Moments.”

CONCLUSION

This weekend - this week - this beginning of a new hear take some time to look at the times in your life - when you have had epiphanies about yourself, your parents, your family, work, health, the meaning of life, God.

Painting on top: 

Epiphany by Art Enrico

January 3, 2016

OOOOPS

Oooops. It’s obvious who was who.

It was you who was in the elevator -

and at the water cooler - and in the room

where our coffee and donuts are. It was

you who brought up the complaint about

the smokers just outside the front door

of our building. Well, nobody wants to

tell you, but I will: some people prefer

tobacco scent to this perfume or yours.

Ooooooooooooooops! Now you know.

Ooooooooooooooops! I almost forgot

Jesus’ words about seeing specks in

the other’s eyes and missing the log

in our own eye. Ooops! I forgot the

scent of that message. Ooooooops!



© Andy Costello, Reflections 2016

January 2, 2016

UN-REASONS

Do we ever know the real reason why

we do what we do?  Motive? Can it -

[it being the reason, the motive, the why] -

can it be surgically located in our brain?

Let’s be honest. Sometimes we don’t know

why we said what we said, did what we did,

avoided what we avoided, till long afterwards.

Some marriages crumble, some marriages

get better, years after the falling in love -

long after the moment we gave the ring,

long after the moment we vowed the vows.

This is scary stuff for the moralists and

for the other we committed ourselves to.

I guess the only solution is daily communication

with our spouse, with our others, daily renewals

of our motives to each other. But wait a minute!

What about homes, family, money, security,

contracts, others? Wouldn’t society fall apart with

such relativity talk when it comes to reasons?

Yes, yes, yes…. But no, no, no, know, know, know, know, isn’t this one reason why we have the problems and the issues we have: dumping and disappearing from each other, taking drugs and drink to drown our sorrows and felt failures,

people unable to stick to their commitments and

not looking deep into the possible consequences

of our un-thought out - un-prayed on - un-talked out - un-understood - un-reasoned out decisions.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2016

HAPPY  NEW  YEAR, 

OPEN  DOOR  POLICY 

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “Happy New Year, Open Door Policy.”

It’s 2016. 

It’s a new year.

We said and will say 50 or 100 or 500 times, the message: “Happy New Year” - to those around us last night, today and this week. And they will respond with a "Happy New Year!" in return.

“Happy New Year.”

It works. I took my daily walk yesterday to get my 10,000 daily steps in on my Fitbit - and I said to all kinds of people while walking along downtown and then through the Naval Academy, “Happy New Year.”

Most people said it back, “Happy New Year.”

SECRETS - INGREDIENTS - KEYS TO HAPPINESS

We’re wishing each other a good year ahead - 2016 - free of sickness and problems, peace and joy.

And most of us - if challenged - could give a few keys to happiness that we have discovered.  

Question: What are your 2 or 3 or 5 or 7 or 10 keys?  Pick a number and pick out what you see as key ingredients, secrets, best practices - for happiness. We used to call these New Year’s Resolutions.

It could be a year of listening, no grudges, no gossip, volunteering, giving, forgiving, respect.  It could be a year of reading one good book per month. It could be a year of spirituality, prayer, church, walking, exercising, cleaning up our clutter or our language. It could be a year of taking one day at a time. It could be a year of  giving our energy, time, expertise, our best at work. It could be a year of more time with the family - more looking in the eye - less looking at TV - eating better, etc. etc. etc.

HERE’S 2

Here’s a possible 2. There are a lot more.

You can find various suggestions from others in the papers at this time - as well as on line. It’s something we do on New Year’s Day. We make plans resolutions, dreams, for a better New Year of life.

FIRST: OPEN DOOR POLICY

Pope Francis declared this year a Year of Mercy. He used the symbol of the door - that opens and closes at St. Peter’s in the Vatican. He asked dioceses around the world to select different parishes to do likewise. St. Mary's has been chosen - so let's hope our church feels like a welcoming church this year of mercy. 

Better may all of us in this parish take a look at the doors of our lives - those places we enter into and go out of each day.

We’ve all heard people say, “Don’t go there.”  Or “I wouldn’t open that door.”

We’ve all seen scenes in movies of a room or a cellar or cave filled with snakes. "Hiss! Hiss!"

"Oooh!" we say as we steo back or slide and slither in our chair. "Oooh!" 

That scene is worse than the image of opening a can of worms.

We keep some doors shut - because we were in the room with so and so and it was messy. 

Yet Pope Francis opened up some doors and asked the church to do likewise. I’m waiting to see how far he and we are going to open up various doors.

Divorce and remarriage and communion are being looked at - as you probably heard during the synod on the family in Rome last fall. We’ve heard his call for non judgmental comments about people who are gay - or whoever and wherever.

I’m sure all of us have done some thinking about those who are transgender and those who are different from us.

I remember an old priest saying, “I’d give that woman a wide berth.” Meaning: whenever she came into the room or into a circle he was in, he would step back because she would bring a hornet’s nest or a pit bull with her into that room. 

When docking a boat or parking a car, some people need a wide berth.

I have a theory that strange rangers become stranger because people avoid them because they are strange - and this makes them even stranger.

Some circles can be vicious.

Maybe some people are a bull in a china shop because everyone has given them a wide berth and just avoided them.

Hopefully this will be a year of mercy and change - peace and conversion - surprises of grace - and more people will open more doors that were closed.

Maybe if we took a chance with someone who spoke with sandpaper covered words - in time they might began to talk with silk covered words.

I know our Redemptorist Congregation was founded to go to people whom nobody else really wanted to go to.  With that in mind, I know in life, I’ve tried, but sometimes I’ve failed.

I remember being in a church in Kingston New York once. I went there to hear a speaker giving a lecture one evening. I walked down the aisle and saw someone sitting all by herself. My belly said, "Uh oh!" because the church was packed except for this one section. It was like the church had a ball spot. 

So I walked into her pew. Soon, I discovered why nobody was sitting near her. 

I found out afterwards that they called her, “The Cat Lady” because she had a lot of cats and seemed never to have showered or bathed.  

As I sat there I didn’t hear one word the speaker said, but I heard a lot of inner chatter in my brain about this whole issue of opening doors to those who have doors closed on them or slammed on them. 

I did hear later on that some ladies in the parish approached her about bathing, etc. but she didn't listen.

I remember having the Wednesday night talk while giving parish missions out in the Midwest for 8 and a half years before coming here to Annapolis. That talk was about forgiveness - reconciliation - opening the door of the confessional - but also looking at family problems.

After doing that for 3 years I learned to say, “Sometimes it’s better to let sleeping dogs lie.”  Sometimes it’s better to keep some doors closed. Sorry to say, “Sometimes people reached out and the situation got worse.”

So - study your doors. See which ones are open and which ones have rattle snakes inside. There are consequences. And sometimes it’s better not to look under the hood.

SECOND KEY OR SECRET FOR HAPPINESS - OUR LADY OF PERPETUAL HELP

This year we Redemptorists are relooking at the picture or ikon of Our Mother or our Lady of Perpetual Help.  150 years ago the pope at that time told us to promote this image of Mary. 

So this year, stop and kneel at the ikon of Mary and see what the picture will say to you. 

An ikon is like a window. You open it up.  This year, we’ll say it’s like a door, open it up.

Knock on that door.

I don't know if you heard about Pope Francis' favorite picture of Mary. It's called, "Our Lady of the Knots." 

He has reflected on, "What are the knots in my life that need to opened."

Well, I'm saying here: "Look at the ikon or picture of Our Mother of Perpetual Help and ask your self, "What are the issues in your life which cause you to scream, 'Help!' What are your lifetime struggles, issues, where you need help?"

Today’s a good day to go there. This year is a good year to go there.

I went to that picture and I had a surprise.

I started looking at the image and heard myself wondering about something new. The angel Gabriel - the angel holding the Greek Cross - is in the picture - along with Michael - also an angel and an archangel. Well, Gabriel is the one who brought the revelation of Jesus to Mary. Surprise - in Islam - it’s Gabriel who brought the revelation called “Islam” to Mohammed.

I need to explore that - and see if I can finally get a grasp on Islam.  I’ve read the Koran and studied Islam. Still don’t get it. But I better.

CONCLUSION

Happy New Year.

Stand at the door of 2016 and knock on 2 or 3 key doors.

January 1st, 2016

NEW CALENDAR

Clean - free of spaghetti sauce finger
prints  - salad oil imprints - ballpoint

pen jottings about a wedding, a meeting,

a lunch. It’s a new calendar - January -

newly hanging there in the kitchen -

waiting for phone calls. Then life will fill

in those little boxes. Life goes on - day

after day after day - just one day at

a time - but it’s that surprise day -

that unexpected day - that day we

didn’t see coming - the one that

causes that, the “Oh no!  Oh no!”

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2016