ANOINTING

INTRODUCTION

The title of  my  homily for this 2^nd Tuesday in Ordinary Time is, “Anointing.”

TODAY’S FIRST READING

Here in today’s first reading from the First Book of Samuel 16: 1-13, Samuel is told to “fill your horn with oil” and  anoint as king - the one I have chosen to take over after Saul’s death.

I remember attending an evening lecture by a rabbi in New York City. It was all about David. The speaker gave example after example, how descendent and followers of  David - gave him great press in the Jewish Bible - which we call the Old Testament. The main thought from this rabbi in his talk was: the power of the pen in rewriting history.

Today’s story is great storytelling.  I love the question: “Are these all the sons you have?”  I can hear the brothers standing there saying, “What are we chopped liver?”

In today’s reading we hear all about how kings were anointed in Saul and David’s time. Part of the ceremony was an anointing with oil.

And this practice of anointing will flow into our scriptures, the New Testament, when the authors want to present Jesus  as the new David.  Notice Bethlehem in today’s first reading from the first Book of Samuel.

CHRIST MEANS ANOINTED

And we know that Christ means the Christened One - the Anointed One.

And we know that at our baptism - our Christening - oil is used  - not just water. In baptism, we are anointed two times with oil. Then there is another anointing at our confirmation in our faith.

THE STUFF OF CEREMONY

We know that as humans we are ceremony people.

We kiss babies. We baptize babies. We shake hands, bow or hug when we meet. We have symbolic ways of swearing someone in as president or mayor or head of the Elks or Knights of Columbus.

We have all been at ceremonies where set gestures and behaviors take place. We’ve seen presidents sworn - one hand raised, one hand on a Bible - as well as some in a jury room.

OIL FOR EXAMPLE

And if we think about it, symbols and gestures need to fit what they symbolize - with what's going on - with what's taking place.

Think about oil: what it is, what it does.

Oil helps machines work better.

Oil is also healing agent.

Go into any CVS store and you’ll see all kinds of hand creams, lip balm, oils for healing. Our hands get chapped during this cold weather and we go to that section of the store for something with oil and the healing magic in it.

I’m sure they find some kind of oil on the hands and feet of these bodies from 5000 BC in frozen tundras of northern Norway or Siberia.

As priest it means a lot to me to visit someone who is sick and anoint them.

But like receiving Communion or doing a funeral or a wedding, a religious ceremony that uses oil, the oil has to fit the reality of being touched and anointed.

CONCLUSION

In other words, as we heard in today's first reading, what is going on must be more than appearance, but from the heart. As we heard in today's gospel, we don't do things to enhance and to keep some law, but we do what brings new life. Amen.

January 19, 2016

CLING

Whether we like it or not,

whether we agree with it or not,

all our comments, all our words,

carry cling. Our sounds, our face,

our way of saying words - are loaded

with the glue of baggage and memory.

Psst! That’s how we hear each other.

How about this comment here?

What does it trigger for you? Any

comments? Any words in return?

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2016

HOW  SPECIFIC 

IS  GOD’S  WILL? 

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this Monday in the Second Week in Ordinary time is, “How Specific Is God’s Will?”

I think this is a lifetime question.

How specific, how particular, is God’s Will for us?

TODAY’S READINGS

When we read or hear the Bible - like at the readings at Mass - it seems God’s will is very specific.

Like these readings from the First Book of Samuel - we’ve  been hearing right now - these days at weekday Masses. Samuel gets specific orders from God. Saul - now gets specific orders from God.

Like today Samuel tells Saul that God wants him to destroy and to exterminate the Amalekites.

We seemed shocked when we hear about people killing people - claiming God wants them to do it. We wonder about their scriptures. I remember when I started reading the Koran - and I started noticing how many times the book has Allah - God - saying, “Burn! Destroy! Kill!”  Then I began to notice how many times our scriptures states that same message.

It’s enough to shake our faith. I hope it’s enough to shake up our brains - till we become thinking people.

I would think that someone who is a peace officer should try to stop someone who is trying to destroy someone else. If it could be done without killing the killer, good, but….

I would think the same of someone in the military - but there better be a lot of thinking and diplomacy and study - before entering into battle.

Today’s gospel - Mark 2: 18-22 - has the question of fasting. Is it God’s will to call people to fast - like we have Lent coming up soon. It’s early this year.

Is fasting and abstaining and religious sacrifices for God or for us?

Didn’t Jesus say something like that when it comes to observing the Sabbath?

When I’m with young couples who are planning to get married, we go through a questionnaire. I ask couples if they are getting married in church because they want it, or to make their parents happy. I often say, “In my opinion, I think there’s something wrong or funny if people go to church growing up to make their parents happy and then go to church to give good example to their kids. I assume the message is to go to Church because you have the gift of faith and you see this is good for you and your spouse and your kids if you’re blessed with them. I like to add that I hope being a Christian, being a Catholic, is what you want  - and that you’re a thinking Catholic.

GOD’S WILL

God’s will, what God wants, to me is quite a thinking question.

My first question is the title of this homily: “How Specific Is God’s Will?”

To me the answer is the  question and the answer of the Rich Young Man who came to Christ and asked, “What must I do to gain eternal life?”

To me he is asking, “What’s the  secret of life? What’s the meaning of life?”

And I hear a very simple answer, “To love the Lord my God with my whole heart, mind, soul and spirit - and to love my neighbor as myself.”

Whether we should marry so and so - move to such and such a place - that to me leads me to a God like a dad or a mom who says, “Son, daughter, we just want you to be happy and have a great life - making life making sense for you and for the good of others.”

I have heard some unhappy people who do everything to please others and they end up being miserable themselves.

I like a lot of what Martin Luther King Jr. said.

For example, "The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was: 'If i stop to help this man, what will happen to me?' But ... the Good Samaritan reversed the question: 'If i do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?'"

For example,  "Whatever your life's work is, do it well. A man should do his job so well the living, the dead and the unborn could do it no better."

For example, “If a man has not discovered something that he will die for, he isn't fit to live.”

CONCLUSION

Today’s gospel talks about the new.

Each of us is a new creation - called to do the new thing we have been created for.

What is that? That new specific is up to us to find - to discover - and to dream and to do.

Martin Luther King Jr. challenges the silent - the complacent - those who don’t climb mountains - and look down on life - and see where we can make a difference - and make things better. He died in Memphis - killed assassinated - as he was trying to make life better for those who picked up  garbage -  killed I’m sure because someone thought that was the right thing to do. I don’t know if they thought it was God’s will. I hope not.

January 18, 2016

WHAT THE KING SAID

The king said, “I have a dream….”

What are yours? Climb that mountain and see

what needs to be seen - what needs to be done.

Comfort and convenience need to be replaced

by challenge and confrontation. And that 

might mean suffering, opposition and death.

Those in the dark, need to turn on the light.

He said too many people are silent.

The narrow and the negative think me, me, me…. Those in the Kingdom see, see, see.

Quality not quantity.... Overcome inequality.

All of us are all God’s children. All of us.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2016

January 17, 2016

MIRACLES

There are miracles and there are miracles:

water into wine, wine into blood, bread into

Christ, ocean into mist, into clouds, into rain, 

desserts bloom, snow falls, skiers ski, 

a baby is growing in a womb, kids come

out, start crawling, walking, running, talking,

laughing, loving, and a wife makes an act

of faith in resurrection, in Christ, at her

husband’s tomb, and gathers her strength 

to crawl, and then go on and on and on.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2016

BLUE OWL

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “Blue Owl.”

I had trouble putting today’s three readings - for this Second Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year C - into a recognizable theme and message, so I decided to write a story about an imaginary someone - to try to give some meaning to what today’s three readings are about. I like to do this especially when I’m not sure on what to preach about. [Cf. Isaiah 62: 1-5; 1 Corinthians 12: 4-11' and John 2: 1-11]

So here is an imaginary story called, “Blue Owl.” It’s total fiction - but I know it has become reality many times over for many, many people.

BLUE OWL

Eventually, years later, when they did the paper work they discovered that Blue Owl was born with blood and family lines that were part of 4 different Indian Tribes in a dry deserted part of Arizona. He was part of the Zuni, Pima, Yuma and the Apache Native American Peoples and didn’t seem to fit into any one of them.

His parents had long ago disappeared - as well as any connection to any siblings, or aunts of uncles.

Yet he  survived - living in three different orphanages and was making it.

At 11 years of age he was living in a Catholic group home with about 45 other little kids. It was poor. It was lonely. But it was home - a home run by a small group of American Catholic Nuns.

The nuns did their best. Better days were behind them. Yet the kids had a bed, meals, schooling, and a future promise of learning some life skills so they could get a job and a life somewhere.

Things change. The nuns had a big community meeting to go to - and at that meeting - they had to face the reality they were aging - and they had to give up some of their places.

Unfortunately, Blue Owl’s place was picked to close. The 45 kids would have to be relocated - somewhere, somehow.

One of the nuns had a grandnephew who was a newspaper reporter in St. Louis and she told him in an e-mail the horrible story about what was going to happen. He wrote the story up - giving the history of the orphanage/ school  - the work the nuns had done down through the years - and how many of the kids got jobs ranching - forest fire fighting - and doing this and that - advancing in life - some doing very well by entering into the military.   He didn’t mention - he was tempted - but he didn’t mention in the article about the alcoholic problem that afflicted many Native American People.

A dad in a family in Minnesota - Minneapolis to be exact - just happened to read the paper while waiting for a plane in St. Louis - after a business meeting - before heading back to Minneapolis. He got the thought, “I wonder if we could adopt one of these kids.”

He asked his wife and family when he got home and they thought about it - and even said a prayer about it - and they all said, “Why not?”

“Let’s go for it.”

So they called the reporter who got them in touch with the reporter’s aunt and they talked and talked - and asked if any of the kids would be able to be adopted.

“Yes!” came the answer.

So mom, dad, and three boys  - one 11 and still in grade school and two in high school  - flew down to Arizona on the long Martin Luther King Jr. weekend - got a rent-a-car - and drove 156 miles to where the orphanage school was.

The nuns provided rooms for the family there and introduced them to the kids.

Blue Owl didn’t stand out. He was quiet - off to the side - sort of out of it - but Henry from Minneapolis - the family’s youngest son - went over to Blue Owl and made a dent into his brain and story.

He told his mom and dad and two other brothers, “Blue Owl’s the one!”

All hesitated - because they had other kids in mind - and Blue Owl seemed so non-descript -  but Henry insisted that Blue Owl was his choice and invited Blue Owl to eat with them that Saturday for lunch.

The other 4 hesitated - because Blue Owl seemed so “Forsaken” - so “Desolate”  - but Henry - Henry had a forceful  personality and won the day. He said, “Most of the other kids will find a home, but I don’t know about Blue Owl.”

Blue Owl arrived at their home a month later. Dad and Henry had been in contact with him and they are the ones who flew down to Arizona to get him and get his stuff - the little that he had - and come to their home in Minneapolis - and experience plenty of snow and cold - but also warmth and love, home and family.

Years and years later, looking back at that whole experience, Doctor Blue Own Peterson - that became his Norwegian American adopted name - told many an audience at Medical School where he taught surgery - how lucky he was to have someone to pick up a newspaper in an airport - get an inspiration - and then do something about it.

He would tell his students and different audiences - it was like eating at McDonald's all your life and then you’re at a wedding banquet and they are feeding you like a king. It was like living on the street and you scraped up two dollars to buy a Powerball lottery ticket and you won.

He would conclude many a speech or lecture, “I won that day when I moved from a small run down orphanage on a dirt road in nowhere Arizona to a wonderful home on a tree lined street in Minneapolis, Minnesota - discovering I had a mom and a dad and three wonderful brothers - especially my twin: Henry.”

Sometimes he would add, “I don’t know how I got the name ‘Blue Owl.’ I might have been too moody - too dark blue owl night moody like - but when I came to Minnesota I became in time Yellow Canary - a happy Yellow Canary.”

“But no, I still like the sound and feel of Blue Owl.”

January 16, 2016

2 BLESSINGS

Two blessings:
the ability to say 

some day and back when….

To have dreams and memories….

To look to the Future and the Past….

To know there is a Spring and an Autumn,
To enjoy inwardly youth and old age....

To know I am going to do and I did that ….
In the meanwhile, right now

I have to take the garbage out

and empty the dish washer.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2016

REGRETS  AND  RECOVERY

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this Friday in the first week in Ordinary Time is, “Regrets and Recovery.”

R and R

That should take care of today’s two readings.

FIRST READING

It sounds to me that today’s first reading from 1^st Samuel is loaded with regrets. [Cf. 1^st Samuel 8: 4-7, 10-22a.]  It’s also loaded with hindsight. Hindsight with negative consequences.

Of course parts of scriptures are written in the present tense - but in reality they are looking back.

A group in Israel comes to Samuel and tell him they want to have a king.

Samuel responds by telling them all that having a king will entail. It will mean you might lose your sons - your land - heavy duty taxing from you - tithing - big time tithing, etc. etc. etc.

In other words there are consequences. And they are consequences that will cost you and you will regret your decision in wanting to have a king.

It could be switching a job - a moving to a new house - getting a divorce - what have you.

The title of my homily is, “Regrets and Recovery.” 

Part one could also be entitled, “Cost and Consequences.”

It could also have the title, “Foresight and Hindsight”. That would be another reflective twosome for a homily.

RECOVERY; TODAY’S GOSPEL

Today’s gospel - Mark 2: 1-12 is a great text for reflection.

We can’t see them  - but I have a theory every person on the planet is carrying a back pack on their back. You’ve seen kids going down the street coming home or going into school with back packs.

Well everyone has their back pack. 

Question as in the Capital One Advertisements: “What’s in your pack?”

People carry their sins, their mistakes, their consequences, their regrets,  their story, their autobiography, on their backs.

And our past can paralyze us a bit.  Obviously, some more than others.

This guy in today’s gospel is paralyzed and his four friends carry him to Jesus.

They can’t worm their way through the crowd. Wait your turn.

So they go up on the roof and then  through the roof.

And they lower him in front of Jesus - and Jesus heals the man - starting with forgiveness of his sins.

And the man gets those consequences of his sins - off his back and he stands up straight healed and all are astounded and glorify God saying, “We have never seen anything like this.”

Let Jesus heal you.

CONCLUSION

The title of my homily is, “Regrets and Recovery.”

Take some time to check what’s in your pack - the stuff that might be wearing you our and wearing you down.

January 15, 2016

COMMUNION

The Eucharist, Christ in the bread,

settled down on the lonely hand, on

the lonely tongue, as if he/she were

the only person in the full church.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2016

January 14, 2016

SACRED  WORDS

What are your sacred words?

Make a list of your 10 top words

and then pick your top 3 in order

of importance?

For example:

Communion

Home

Listening

Love

Friendship

Meals - with pie

Life

Others

Cards [Playing]

Today

Top three:

                 Jesus [On the other side of the                          door into God]

Listening

Others

Tomorrow my list will be different. Smile.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2016

January 13, 2016

MORE 3 WORD SENTENCES

Here are 3 more 3 word sentences to

practice saying to an another in a mirror. 

You are awesome.

You are lovable.

You are thoughtful.

You are challenging.

You are demanding.
You aren’t listening.
You aren’t careful.
You are helpful.

You are cautious.
You are good.

You are sweet.

You are easy.

You are lazy.

You are lying.

You are quiet.

You are precious.

You are giving.

You seem nervous.

You seem scared.

You seem edgy.

You are not.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2016

PAUSE 

OR  CHECK  YOUR  SHOE  SIZE 

BEFORE  YOU PUT YOUR FOOT 

IN YOUR MOUTH 

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this Tuesday in the first week of Ordinary Time is, “Pause Or Check Your Shoe Size  Before You Put Your Foot In Your Mouth.”

How many times do we have to misjudge someone before we stop misjudging someone?

EXAMPLES

We’re at Country Buffet and we see this big - big person - going back for seconds. And we think to ourselves, “Fatso, no wonder you’re so fat - going back and for seconds.”  Then we notice they’re not getting this round of food for themselves, but for their mom or someone in a wheelchair right next to them.

We’re sitting on the porch. It’s summer. We see someone with their dog on the other side of the street. The dog does his or her business on another person’s lawn. Then the dog walker walks away without scooping up the poop. We think, “Those are the people who make this world one selfish planet.” Five minutes later we see the dog walker coming back with a plastic bag and their super dooper pooper scooper.

So and so is in the restaurant in the booth across from us with this other woman. Wow. She’s gorgeous. We think, “Hope his wife doesn’t know about this.” Surprise his wife walks in and says “Hi sister-in-law - I got caught in traffic. There was an accident. Did you order yet?  I’m starving.”

The title of my homily is, “Pause Or Check Your Shoe Size  Before You Put Your Foot In Your Mouth.” Or: How many times do we have to misjudge someone before we stop misjudging someone?

TODAY’S READINGS

In today’s first reading from the first Book of Samuel Eli judges Hanna to be drunk and says to her, “How long will you make a drunken show of yourself? Sober up from your wine.” [Cf. 1 Samuel 1:14

She says, “It isn’t that my Lord, I am an unhappy woman, I have had neither wine nor liquor; I was only pouring out my troubles to the Lord.”

Did Eli learn from his foot in mouth moment?

In today’s gospel the crazy man in the temple knows who Jesus is - the Holy One of God! - but misreads Jesus’ motive for coming into the temple.  Yet Jesus heals him and the whole crowd is amazed. [Cf. Mark 1: 21-28]

LEARNING

So a learning for today is to pause more - before our tongue jumps words out of our mouth - to make room for our foot.

Pause: think of the first 3 letters in the word mistake - or misjudge - or misread - or misquote - or mislead - or misconnect - or misperception - or mislabel - or misinform - or  misappropriate…. Mis:  the prefix simply meaning miss. Pause - something might be missing. Sometimes we might not know the whole story. Maybe we haven’t been called to be on jury duty to judge our neighbor.

Pause: before speaking. Maybe we’re wrong. Maybe what we think we’re seeing is not what we’re seeing. Maybe what we’re spreading is rumor, gossip, whispers - and not the real story, the whole story, and we’re simply putting you know what on someone else’s lawn - and not cleaning or clearing it up.

CONCLUSION

We all know the old story about the town gossip and the man with the wheelbarrow. Every day a man walked home from his gardening job with his wheelbarrow. Every day he stopped in for a beer on his way home - and left his wheelbarrow out in front. It was a safe town.  One day - when about to leave - the rain came pouring down. A buddy said, “My car is out back. Let me drive you home and you can pick up your wheelbarrow  on the way to work in the morning.  Well, the town gossip spread the rumor that he was dead drunk on the floor of the bar - all night long. She peaked out her front window every hour on the hour.  The guy with the wheelbarrow got wind of what the town gossip had done, so that night - on his way home from work - he parked his wheelbarrow right under her window just across the street from the bar.

January 12, 2016

3  WORD  SENTENCES

Here are some key 3 word sentences to

practice saying to oneself  in a mirror. 

I was wrong.

I am sorry.
I love you.
I need you.
I thank you.
I am worried.
I am lost.

I am confused.

I am hungry.
I am hurting.
I’m in love.
I’m in hate.

I am lonely.

I am asking.
I am thirsty.

I am sad.
I am happy.
I am waiting.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2016

ON BEING AND NOT BEING 

THE  FAVORITE

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this Monday in the First Week in Ordinary Time is, “On Being and Not Being the Favorite.”

How many times have we heard parents and others say, “I have no favorites”?

How many times have we said to ourselves in response, “Hello!”

How many times have we thought to ourselves about teachers, coaches, parents, bosses: “You’re playing favorites”?

When challenged - people will sometimes say, “Well, it all depends what we’re dealing with here. Sometimes so and so is better with this and so and so is better with that. And I like this about this person and that about that person. So it all depends.”

Of course - sometimes.

OUR FAMILY

I love this topic of favorites - because I enjoy watching the dynamics of daily life - and I like to needle people - because I sense that the issue of likes and dislikes, favorites and non-favorites is very much part of the fabric of life.

I think many modern folks are missing out on the great learnings that kids and parents can experience when they have lots of kids. And some of those learnings can come from comparisons and favorites or perceived favorites. Of course, how many kids people have has lots of different issues going on.  Moreover, this issue can be learnt and felt in classrooms and teams and Thanksgiving and what have together with cousins.

How many parents learn how to parent from that first and second child and the third and fourth have it so much easier. Yet the oldest have some of the raw material for different types of growth than the youngest.

In our family, my sister Peggy was my dad’s favorite. And just last week I heard my sister Mary say, “I was certainly not the favorite.”

In our family we joked that my brother was my mom’s favorite - as is true for many first sons in an Irish Catholic family. Is that true for Italians or Filipinos? I don’t know. Or is every family different?

We all have heard Leo Tolstoi’s comment in his novel, Anna Karenina, “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” Anna Kerenina, [1875-1877], pt. I, Chapter I. Is that true? I don’t know. Read the book to see what he means.

We were a happy family, but I was either the 3^rd or 4^th out of 4 favorite.

TODAY’S READINGS

I began thinking about this today for this homily because it’s one of my favorite topics and it’s an issue loud and clear in today’s readings.

In today’s first reading from the first Book of Samuel, a man named Elkanah had two wives: Hannah and Peninnah.  What would that be like? What’s it like in a harem? [Cf. 1 Samuel 1:1-8]

Today’s text says that he liked and loved Hannah more than Peninnah - but it was Peninnah who gave him sons and daughters and it was Hannah who didn’t have any kids. Did you hear what today’s text says, “Her rival - [that is Peninnah] to upset her [that is Hannah] - turned it into a constant reproach to her that the Lord left her barren.”

Woo! What would that be like?

It’s the stuff of the Scriptures - family dynamics.

And in today’s gospel Jesus calls 4 men - Peter, Andrew, James and John. [Cf. Mark 1: 14-20]

Obviously Andrew would be the best, but Jesus made Peter and John his favorites - and John in the gospel of John is called the Beloved - and sat next to Jesus at the Last Supper.

Were the others jealous?  Did any of this nag Judas?

CONCLUSION

Just some stuff to think about.

Maybe there is some stuff about growing up - that is still lingering  - that we could look at and laugh.

Maybe we do some needling that hurts others.

Now as to favorite priests, we now have Father Bob - sitting right here with us today - who will be your favorite in 6 months and you’ll ask him to do everything. Right!

January 11, 2016

JUST ONE CHOICE

And God said to me, “I’m giving you

one choice - just one choice - on how

you want me to be to you. Choose one

and that’s the way I will be to you.”

At first I said back, “You’re kidding!”

And God said, “No, I am not kidding.”

So I said, “God give me a hint.

Tell me the possibilities.”

And once more God said, “I’m giving

you one choice. Choose and that’s

the way I’ll be to you. Trust me.”

“I don’t know,” I said. “I’m confused.

What did others choose? Tell me a few.”

“Love…. Peace …. Comfort …. Presence…

Joy …. Protection….Hope…. Eternal life….

Mercy .... Forgiveness.... I got your back....”

“I don’t know God. I don’t know what to say,

I need some time - and I’ll get back to you.”

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2016