February 29, 2016

EDGE

There are two kinds of people:

those who feel they have to 

have an edge and those who 

laugh because they are neither 

into the race nor the competition.

  

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2016

SITTING  UNDER 

THE APPLE TREE 

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “Sitting Under the Apple Tree.”

As I read today’s readings - I noticed in the first reading - the story of Moses and the Burning Bush. It was a key turning point of Moses’ life.

We all have them. Lent is a good time to name them.

Moses had been running, running away. He had killed someone. He was in hiding. Here on a mountain,  he has a God experience. He was called from a life of moving away from -  to a life of moving towards.

Then I read today’s gospel from Luke and I noticed the story of the fig tree - and how that story could be a significant turning point in one’s life.

It struck me how significant trees can be in one’s life.  I remembered the old song, “Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree  With Anyone Else than Me.”

“Oh no!”

I looked it up on Goggle and found out that the song goes back to 1939 and then 1941 and into 1942 - 1943 - at the beginning of World War II. It’s a song about a young soldier going off to war and has to leave the girl he loved. The message to each other is, “Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree with Anyone Else than Me.”  Glenn Miller and the Andrews Sisters played it.  It remained Number One on Your Hit Parade from October 1942 till January 1943. That was the longest period for a war song to be Number One.

THE BIBLE AND TREES

The Bible features lots of stories about trees. Genesis tells us about the tree of life in the middle of the Garden of Paradise - as well as the tree of good and evil.

Adam and Eve have it all. They are in paradise. However, there’s a catch. They can’t eat from the fruit of a certain tree - the tree of good and evil.

There’s always a catch.

There’s always the possibility of messing up a good thing - messing up a good life.

How many lives - how many marriages - have we heard fell apart because someone began to eat forbidden fruit?

And they bit into evil and their eyes were opened and they hid from God in the shadows and the bushes in the Garden of Paradise.

Here’s Moses in today’s first reading experiencing God in the burning bush. He asks God, “What is your name?”  That’s another great question for Lent - asking God his name - asking God, “Who are You?” And God gives his name and who He is, “I Am Who Am”. That’s Yahweh in Hebrew.

The Psalms begin with Psalm One saying we have a life choice of being a tree planted near running water giving fruit every season or we can be a dead leaf scattered in the wind. Our choice. Our move. We know the difference between an apple tree and a dead leaf or a dead apple blossom.

Jesus says we can be a good tree or a bad tree. And here in today’s gospel he says we can be a fig tree that produces figs or we can be a dead tree.

In Matthew the fig tree doesn’t get a second chance. In Luke - true to character - we are told that the fig tree has a second chance. This is the year of Luke. Luke is the gospel of mercy and forgiveness. We’ll hear his stories this year - especially Luke 15 with its three get parables of mercy and forgiveness - the stories of the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin, and the Lost Son. These stories are key to this year of mercy that Pope Francis is stressing and pushing.

Judas hung himself from a tree.  He gave up. Oh no.

Jesus was killed on the tree of the cross. He gave us himself. Oh yes!

Trees. It’s Lent. It’s cold here in Maryland and I don’t see us sitting under a tree these cold days. But I can see us sitting here in church on the wood of trees - benches - sitting under the tree of the cross.

I’ve gone into many churches in my life - outside of Mass times - and I’ve seen many people sitting there quietly - in late morning - or afternoon - sitting quietly on wood under the tree of the cross.

Here in St. John Neumann we have this gigantic tree of the cross - and right underneath it,   is the Eucharist - and we can hear Jesus say to us - the words of life, “Take and eat! Take and drink.”

Bread and wine - like trees - planted in the earth - growing - becoming the food of life for us.

And many people find church as holy ground - like Moses discovered the ground to be holy where he experienced God in a new way - when God called him to bear fruit in a new way - and God said out of the burning bush, “I Am Who Am.”

Lent is a good time to drop into church and sit quietly - with our God.

This year is a good year to come through the doors of this church or St. Mary’s  - designated as one of holy churches for this year of mercy. Our doors are open and it’s good to think of the doors of our lives. Have we shut any doors on others? Have we had a door slammed in our face? Do we feel the church has shut its doors on us?

Lent is a time to take a seat and eat the great messages of God to us.

Lent is a good time to have a Moses moment.

Oh yes.

TREES

When I lived in Tobyhanna, Pennsylvania, from 1976 - 1984 I was driving up Route 611 one late afternoon and I was driving into the sun and it was coming through a red beautiful Japanese maple tree and I had a God experience. I was seeing the burning bush - while driving.

I say this to get you thinking about God experience moments in your life and have any of them been connected to trees?

Around 1975 I was attending a weekend conference by Father Tom Berry a Passionist priest - who was world famous to some as an earthologist - anthropologist - poet - theologian etc. etc. etc. It was being held at the Cardinal Spellman Retreat House on the Hudson River.  He invited people to attend a conference where he wanted to give a New Creation Account - pulling together everything he and we knew up to that moment in 1975.

The priest - a friend of mine - that I went with - told me that I would understand only about 1% of what Tom would be saying. He was correct - but what I got that weekend was 100 doors to open - like what were the Native Americans about - what science,  so too Confucius, so too Buddha, so too Mao of the Chinese revolution and on and on and on.

However, that Friday evening as Tom Berry began he told us as he pointed to the glass doors along the side of the big room we were in - that at the bottom of the lawn just out there - that leads to the Hudson River - is this gigantic 450 years old oak tree. Tom Berry said, “I think we’d get more out of this weekend if we all simply sat down under that old tree and watched the Hudson River go by this weekend.”

In time I understood that message 100 per cent. But it took time. Oh yes.

People get 100 times more of God and Holy Ground stuff and life when they sit in sacred places  much more  than from sermons and talks.

Has that been your experience? Like moments sitting in airports or malls watching the world going by. Like sitting in a quiet room in a rocking chair holding a baby while babysitting for our kids. Like sitting in a window seat on a bus or a plane and looking out the window at the world we live in.

Like the moment Jesus said to Nathaniel, “I know you. I saw you sitting under a fig tree the other day.” Like the moment Sir Isaac Newton sat under an apple tree and an apple fell to the ground and he realized the law of gravity.  Like the moment Buddha after trying both extremes of life - pleasure and complete fasting - discovered, was enlightened, realized under the Bo Tree - that the answer to the mystery of life was in the middle.

Like when I think about all this I remember in the 1940’s - as a family going to Bliss Park in Bay Ridge,  Brooklyn and climbing this neat hill and sitting under this great big gray bark tree - my dad and mom setting up a blanket there - with food for a picnic - and we four of us kids would roll down the hill or run down the hill - the same hill we snow sled down in winter and then have a family picnic in summer there. Under that tree we were learning: This is the meaning of life. There is holy ground. There is God. There is the gift of life together under  a great tree of life.

CONCLUSION

The title of my homily is, “Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree with Anyone Else than Me.”

“Oh no!”

It’s Lent. Take the time to sit with the most significant person - persons in your life and talk and listen to each other about your life together. Oh yes.

Take the time to sit together with God - and thank God for the gift of life - and talk about the fruit of your womb - the fruits of your work - the fruits of your life.  Oh yes.

And if you feel like a fig tree than hasn’t been producing, here in Luke, hear Luke tell you that Jesus says, “Start cultivating the ground around your life - get fertilized, so that you’ll start bearing fruit again. Tell God you don’t want to be cut down. Oh no!

February 28, 2016

10   QUESTIONS

Do couples hold hands walking towards

a church more than other times in their life -

especially when they are going to the

funeral of a friend their own age?

Do Italians really get angry when someone

cuts their spaghetti with a knife before eating?

Do marriages get shaky at 7 year markers or are

the ingredients of an earthquake always present?

Do fat people talk diet to themselves 100 times

a day and 100 times more that the diets their

family and friends recommend to them?

Are people who say they are “spiritual and not

religious” telling others, “Get off my back!”

Is death a much tougher question mark for men

than for women - especially those who had babies?

Does our unconscious talk to the unconscious

of the other person - and we both know without

knowing - what’s going on between us?

Would the way we live our life make a difference if we knew there was nothing 

after this?

Is it true that nobody really wants to be 

someone else - but everyone knows people

they would not want to be?

When people ask a question, is there actually

another question underneath that question?

  

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2016

February 27, 2016

STATUES  OF  LIMITATIONS 

We are statues of limitations.

We’re this bit tall and this bit wide.

We’ve got this face and this name.

We have our roots and our history.

We have our questions and our mystery.

We end where our skin begins.

We can never say all we want to say.
We can never do all we want to do.

We’re limited. We’re caught in this body.

We only have so much time.
We only have so much energy.

We have a birthday and a death day.

We are statues of limitations.

That is till we close our eyes - and enter

into God - who is no statue - no idol -

but unlimited mystery, grace, laughter,

a God who has tears about our not-knowing,

but that is small potatoes - because we

don’t know God - nor how far out into  

the night the universe goes - if that’s

the way it goes - and why in the world

there are hippopotamuses, owls, murdered

sons and raped women and why some

dead leaves hang onto trees till Spring.

 

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2016

EXPECT  MESS 

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 2^nd Friday in Lent is, “Expect Mess.”

Last night I sat down to write this homily. When I read today’s two readings the thought and the theme that hit me was, “Expect Mess.”

If we expect life to work perfectly and to go according to our plan, we’re in for uneasy and antsiness of mind. We’re in for mess. 

If we know - on the other hand - at times things are not going to go according to plan - that things will get messy at times - then in the long run we’re going to be a happier camper.

TAKE TODAY’S FIRST READING - GENESIS 37:3-4, 12-13A, 17B-28A

Jacob - now called “Israel” - loves Joseph best of all his sons. 

How many parents have we heard say, “I have no favorite!”  So too teachers - they claim that they have no favorite student.

In reality we all have our favorites - for various reasons - in various ways - and this can mess things up.

We might not think we have favorites - but those who watch us in action, know. They see us favoring one kid over the other. Then sense we like so and so better than so and so. 

So what else is new?

In this first reading from Genesis Joseph’s brothers want to kill him. They just don’t like him. They don’t like his mouth. They don’t like his dreams. 

Next comes a change in the story. Reuben  speaks up. Instead of killing Joseph directly, he suggests that we throw Joseph in a cistern.  This will give him time. He  plans that he can come back and rescue Joseph.

Next comes the great change in the story. A caravan of Ishmaelites come up the road. They are merchants on their way down  to Egypt. Judah says, “Why kill our brother? Let’s sell him to these traders and tell our father that he was killed by a wild beast.”

Keep reading. We’ll find out how good things will happen out of this complete family mess

TAKE TODAY’S GOSPEL - MATTHEW 21: 33-43, 45-46

In the parable for today the chief priests and the elders are trying to mess up Jesus - so he tells them about the parable of landowner.  Like God the Father, the land owner keeps sending his agents to pick up some produce from his land. The tenants want the land to be theirs - so they kill and maim and mess up everyone and everything - so as to get their way.

The obvious message from Jesus to the Pharisees is that life has its payback. Life has its crosses and difficulties and disasters and it’s going to hit them some day. Expect the cross. Expect mess.

SIN AND SUFFERING

Today’s readings also triggered for me the mess called “sin”.

They also trigger the reality of  “suffering” - which at times is part of the mess of sin.

The Stations of the Cross are not just on Church walls - they are on the walls of our own homes.

Lent is a good time to take a look at how we deal with sin and suffering - how we deal with mess - how we make our stations of the cross.

SAYINGS & STORIES

It’s been my experience that people have sayings and stories to deal with mess.

The other day something went wrong about a Mass at St. Mary’s. I heard a lady respond by saying philosophically, “This too shall pass.” That saying works for many people. I remember reading way back a story about that saying. A great king  of Persia asked his wise men to come up with a saying that will sum up the secret of happiness. He added that it has to make the happy sad and the sad happy. The saying that won was, “This too shall pass” - and it can be inscribed on the inside of a ring - to be looked to at times of turmoil.

Do you have a saying like, “This too shall pass” that helps you deal with the messy moments of life. Or do you have a story that helps you deal with mess? I’m sure you heard the origin of “This too shall pass.”

The other day I added that I follow the July 4^th Principle: “What difference will it make next July 4^th what happened today.” I’ve heard other people say, “What difference will it mean in 20,000 years what happened today.”

A man told me that his old Irish mother used to say, “It could be worse.”

CONCLUSION

We can learn a lot from mess - the messes of life.

Pat Livingston wrote a whole book on this entitled, Bless this Mess.

The great baseball pitcher Christy Mathewson. - said, “You can learn little from victory. you can learn everything from defeat.”

So when mess hits us, pray, Bless this mess.”

When the messes of life hit us,  ask, “What’s the learning here?”

Think of before and afters - and make the afters a beautiful mess.

February 26, 2016

A LIGHT AT NIGHT

Driving down dark roads - on dark nights -

I see here and there - a light in a house off

to the side - or a plane’s flickering lights

high in the sky. I know I’m not alone on the

dark roads of life - but sometimes I find

myself screaming, “Morning…. Come

quickly. Hurry up the dawn. More light!”

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2016

February 25, 2016

MINDFULNESS

“Mindfulness.” I am hearing that word a lot lately.

Awareness of the wind, the sounds, the scents

in the room and on the train platform  - all round me.

“Mindfulness.” I am eating and this time I taste

the salt and the cold butter and I see the ice cubes

in the water and the words and faces around me.

“Mindfulness.” I pause and hear scripture texts

in my memory. “Be still and know that I am God.”

“Even though the valley is dark, I am with you.”

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2016