Monday, February 13, 2017


THE MARK OF CAIN

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 6th Monday in Ordinary Time is, “The Mark of Cain.”

These powerful stories in the Book of Genesis give us plenty of life issues to think about.

In today’s story from Genesis 4:1-15, 25, we hear about Cain - a tiller of the soil - a farmer - who killed his brother Abel - a shepherd.

Motive: thinking God liked Abel better than God liked him. Cain thought God thought Abel brought the better gift as an offering. Motive: jealousy, envy, and anger - and probably stuff that goes way back into their history.

Here it is Chapter 4 and the authors of Genesis have already brought up and put on the stage the question of Good and Evil - and that God creates good, so who brings about evil? Answer: us.

We eat forbidden fruit. We hide from God. We blame the other. We want to be equal to God. And here we have brother killing brother.

Cain then wanders the earth: restless and filled with remorse. And on his being is the mark of his mistake: the mark of Cain.

YETZER HARA

Jewish rabbis like to point out that we all have the mark of our sins on the blackboard of our soul.  We have the chalk dust - still there - even though we try to erase it. We have scars. We have memories. We know our big mistakes.

Jewish rabbis also  like to point out - using this story of Cain killing his brother Abel - that there is lurking at our doorstep - at the flap of the tent of our mind - something called, ‘The Yetzer Hara”. That’s Hebrew for the Inclination to Sin.

Yetzer - inclination. Hara - sin or evil.

They also like to point out that there is also the opposite - right there at the edge of out being: the Yetzer Ha tov: the inclination to good.

They teach when a boy hits 13 and a girl 12 - it’s bar or bas mitzvah time - to point out that we have choices. Choose good; avoid evil.

We Catholics have confirmation. Other religions and tribes - more or less have these puberty rites. The Amish have the Rumspringa - literally “Run Springing  - running around - when young people are put out there for roughly a year - not to get into evil drug parties - that some documentaries like to televise. They want to give their young ones the freedom to choose Amish.

The rabbis like to teach that every person has to move from the physical to the spiritual. We have desires to eat and drink, but there is the inclination to be a glutton and overdrink. They like to teach that we have sexual powers, but we need to fight the yetzer hara to over indulge. So too speech…. So too to have fun, but we can overdo it - and get marked down for life.

FOR LIFE

Cain carried the sin - the mark - of his evil deed for life.

As priest I know that people carry the sins of their youth, young adulthood, old adulthood for life.

So the message is obviously to choose good and have that marked on our being for life.

IN TOUCH WITH

I would think it is important that we know about evil and good - how they lurk at the edge of our life.

I would think it’s important to help kids choose good - and to encourage.

I would think it’s important for us to give good example.

I would think it’s important to help kids realize there is evil. 

It's Black History Month and I would think one good movie to watch is, "42" - the story of Jackie Robinson breaking into the major leagues as the first African-American baseball player. Relevant to this sermon is a scene in Cincinnatti - where Robinson is taunted and made fun and called the "N" word.  The camera puts a close up and the focus of a little white kid watching Jackie Robinson - his new found hero - till he hears his father and his father's friends calling Jackie the "N" word and then after a long pause - the kid does as well.



The evil inclination. The Yetzer Hara is always around.

I would think kids learn that for beach week at the end of high school and during spring break in college, there are opportunities to work on houses - like habitat for humanity.

I would think it’s smart to know kids need supervision - when the superego - chaperone’s are talking  - kids are plotting. I always remember boat rides up the Hudson as a kid - altar boys - there would always be Catholic high school seniors throwing chairs overboard - and making mischief.

CONCLUSION

Regrets and remembering dumb and dirty tricks, hurting and killing one another, sins and selfishness and a lot more are the marks of Cain.



Forgiveness from our brother Jesus  - who has become our keeper - is a way to recover and we can be redeemed and walk with the mark of forgiveness on our hands and soul.

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Painting on top: Cain and Abel,  by Keith Vaughan Tate, 1946.

Sunday, February 12, 2017

GET  IT  RIGHT! 
  
INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time  [C] is, “Get It Right.”

The gospel readings for these early Sundays in Ordinary Time - this year we’re listening to Matthew - are from the Sermon on the Mount.  That’s found in  Chapters 5, 6, and 7 of Matthew.

In preparing this homily, I noticed that one commentator said: the main theme of the Sermon on the Mount is righteousness.

Can I translate that to: “Get It Right.”

I don’t know if I can, but I decided to do just that for this homily.

It gets me thinking about that comment we hear from time to time: “Get It Right.”

How many times have we heard parents, teachers, coaches - even our inner monitor say: “Get it right.”

MOTIVE

It that a key life motive: to get it right?

Ever since I was in my late teens, one of my life questions has been motive.

Another does something. Another says something.  I notice their behavior.  I hear their comment. I think about what was said or what happened and my mind says, “Motive!”

That’s been a lifetime question for me.

How about you?

What are your lifetime questions?

Motive.

So I’m asking, Is getting it right a lifetime motive?

That’s my beginning  question in this homily - but I hope at the end to get beyond that.

Does every one of us want to get it right?

Does every one of us want to look like we know what we are doing? Does every one of us not want to look or to appear stupid or dumb?

Is that right?

I don’t know. I want to think about this. And I know I learn the most by working on a sermon or a homily - with a question that hits me.

I want to get it right.

I don’t want to look dumb - or unprepared.

So maybe that is a lifetime motive.  Maybe that’s one of life’s top 5 motives.

I don’t know, but I want to think about this.

TODAY’S READINGS

Today’s first reading from the wisdom in the Book of Sirach says we have the power of choice. Choose the commandments - and you’ll be choosing wisely. Choose life not death. Choose good not evil. Choose water not fire.

Choose water not fire. I don’t get that one, but I’m assuming he’s saying, “Keep cool! Don’t get burnt.  I think that’s what that Sirach means - but I’m not sure. Is covering one’s a or b a subdivision of getting it right?

Today’s second reading from Paul’s First letter to the Corinthians tells us to choose God’s Wisdom not the surface wisdom of our age. Paul is telling us to go deeper. Go underneath.  Find the hidden, mysterious, revelations from God - the stuff eye has not seen, ear has not heard, heart is not aware of, the stuff God has prepared for those who love him.

Is that Paul’s way of saying, “Get it right?

Today’s gospel reading tells us some really inner wisdom - that gets below the law, underneath even the smallest part of the law. The law says not to kill or get angry, not to yell nasty names at our brothers or sisters, not to commit adultery or to lust - but to face motives - inner motives.  On the surface, a marriage or a relationship or a family, can look great, but shake the deepest stuff out on the table with each other and we’ll begin to see there is a lot more work to be done - to have not just a right marriage or family - but it a great family.

So it takes work to get things not just right - but better.

So when someone is setting the table, we wonder on what side to put the second fork - or the smaller fork - or glass or napkin. We might actually say, “Is this right?”

Is Jesus saying, “Good.  But isn’t the purpose of eating - having a meal - having a supper -  having a family Mass together -  celebration, relationships, love, serving, laughing, listening, talking to each other?

Is that right?

I go crazy as priest when people say you said a word wrong or different - or you added something or forgot something - in the Mass - this meal of Jesus - this last supper - this eternal banquet. The rubrics are there to guide us - but am I right to accidently change something on the spur of the spirit or the moment - like eating the meal with the small fork and the pie with the big fork - or the potatoes with the soup spoon?

Am I right to think that way? Is the other wrong to think I’m wrong?

Of course they are right.

I LOVE THE RABBI STORY

Once upon a time there was a rabbi who was known to be the best marriage counselor for 200 miles around.

His wife couldn’t understand this. She lived with him.

But whenever she went to market, dozens of women would say to her, “You are the luckiest woman in the world - married to such a wise rabbi. He really helped our marriage.”

One day, while in the meat market, a lady said to her. “My husband and I are having marriage problems so we’re going to see your husband, the rabbi, tomorrow afternoon at 1, so say a prayer for us.”
The next morning, the rabbi’s wife said, “I’m going shopping tomorrow afternoon after lunch.”

He nonchalantly said - without thinking, “Yeah, good, okay.”

She spots a couple coming up the front walkway and she says to her husband, “I’m going out the back door.”

When he goes to the front door - she, instead of going out the back door, slips into his study and hides behind the drapes.

The couple come in. The rabbi greets them. The rabbi says, “Who wants to go first.”

The wife says, “Honey you go first.”

He goes into the rabbi’s study. He tells the rabbi everything. The rabbi listens and says, “You’re right. But do me a favor. Don’t tell her.”

The man says, “I knew it. Thank you.”

The rabbi then invites the wife into the study.

He listens to her carefully. At the end he says, “You’re right. But do me a favor. Don’t tell him.”

She says, “I knew it.”

They both leave by the front door - walking down the path holding hands - with a great smile on both their faces.

He closes the front door and there she is, his wife.

She says, “You hypocrite. I was hiding in your study and you told the husband he was right and then you told his wife, she was right. How could both of them be right.”

The rabbi paused and said with a great smile on his face, “You’re right, but don’t tell anybody my secret.”

CONCLUSION

The title of my homily is, “Get It Right?”

Is that the secret of life?

Or is it deeper?

Is it, “Do it better?”

Is it, “Are you missing anyone?”

Is it, “Are you loving enough?”

Is it, “The ability to say, ‘I don’t know. I might be wrong. But don’t tell anyone?”

General Omar Bradley once said, “We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the sermon on the mount.”

Is that right?

He also said, “I am convinced that the best service a retired general can perform is to turn in his tongue along with his suit and to mothball his opinions.”

Is that right?


Smile: should old priests follow that last bit of advice - mothballing opinions that might not be in the gospel?
February 12, 2017

GEOGRAPHY

Is geography me?

Would I be different if I looked out my
morning window and saw a mountain?

Right now I look out my window and see
a bridge - over to Eastport, Annapolis?

Growing up hearing gunshots, fire engines,
police cars, do they crush future poets?

How about a sweet family, classical music,
chocolate chip cookies and grandparents?

Is geography me?



© Andy Costello, Reflections  2017

Saturday, February 11, 2017

February 11, 2017

LECTURE

Was there a “Life Lecture” for you -
some time back there in the spring
or even fall of your life? Was there
a talk that you can still hear - because
the speaker spoke inside you - sat
down at your inner kitchen table?  
You connected. You chatted. You
sipped the tea or wine or beer of
wisdom and you went, “Oh, okay,
that’s how life works.” And by the way,
if you were asked to give a  lecture of
your 5 keys to life or 7 secrets of happiness
or the 10 commandments  how to treat
one another, what would it sound like?



© Andy Costello, Reflections  2017





Friday, February 10, 2017

February 10, 2017


SOUNDS FROM A DISTANCE

There are always sounds in the distance -
drums that distract is - making our heart
beat faster - or a violin that sooths us -
sounds from a distance - a fire truck,
a church bell, a kid in the park yelling,
“Mira! Look at me!” But the ones we
really listen to - are the words that return -
an acid comment that put us down 45 years
ago - when a teacher or a coach said the 
wrong thing - and we let those sandpaper words
still rub us the wrong way - some every day.



© Andy Costello, Reflections  2017

Thursday, February 9, 2017

February 9, 2017

UNNOTICED

Isn’t it funny, in any given scene,
if there’s seven or more people,
there are two who don’t want to
be noticed and one who definitely
wants to be noticed? The rest, I
don’t know about them and I certainly
don’t want them to notice that I’m
trying to notice what’s really going on.



© Andy Costello, Reflections  2017
- Painting: Pierre -August Renoir,
Luncheon of the Boating Party.




Wednesday, February 8, 2017

February 8, 2017

SHRINES

You spot them, sometimes
when you least expect them….
Walking through the woods
or going by someone’s yard….
A neckless with a tiny picture
of one’s husband along with
his big solid metal wedding ring….
A statue to Saint Lucy - on a book shelf,
with a pair of glasses and a small candle....
A gravestone - with a plastic flower,
a baseball hat and two bowling shoes….
A wallet with pictures of all one’s
grand kids - along with one’s parents….
A Kyoto garden, raked sand, flowing
water, three big well chiseled rocks....
A church, front bench, right side, in front
of a picture of Our Lady of Perpetual Help....


© Andy Costello, Reflections  2017