Thursday, April 13, 2017

April 13, 2017



LENIENT

I know the word, but I don’t remember
anyone ever being called, “lenient”.

“Lefty,” “Liberal”, yes, but “lenient” no.

Yet, come to think about it, who of us
wouldn’t mind being called, “Lenient”?

That’s the father of the Prodigal Son.
That’s Jesus on the cross. “Forgive them…”

That’s my hope when I come out of
my tomb and walk my way into heaven.


© Andy Costello, Reflections  2017


Wednesday, April 12, 2017

April 12, 2017

LANDSCAPE

Coming over a hill,
coming around a curve,
all I could see were trees,
fences, roads, cows, homes,
and a bridge and a church in
the distance…. enough to get
me to - where I know I have to go -
and the church is still a bridge -
even with the scandals and the
nonsense - in the landscape of
my mind.  Christ, thank you, for
being both bridge and church to me.

© Andy Costello, Reflections  2017




Tuesday, April 11, 2017

April 11, 2017


SOUNDS
  
So many sounds
in the distance:


Train whistles ….
Boat horns ….
Ambulances screaming ….
Someone playing a guitar ….
A baby crying ….
Birds singing ….


God’s tears ….
A mother crying ….
A home run at the ballpark ….
Prayers ….
Worries ….
A shouting, “Hey, I love you ….”


So many sounds
in my ears.



© Andy Costello, Reflections  2017



Monday, April 10, 2017

PAINTINGS OF 
THE TWO MEN 
NAMED "LAZARUS" 
IN THE GOSPELS


_________________________________________

Before we get to the paintings, there are two places in the New Testament where someone has the name of Lazarus:

                  Luke 16: 19-31

                 John 11: 1 to 12:11

Read each text before looking at the pictures.

_____________________________________

Here's the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus in Luke 16:19-31 in the New International Version (NIV)

The Rich Man and Lazarus

19 “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. 

20 At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores 21 and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.

22 “The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. 

23 In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. 

24 So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’

25 “But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. 

26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’

27 “He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family,28 for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’

29 “Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’

30 “‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’


31 “He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”

_________________________________________

Here's the story of the Death of Lazarus and other stories in the mix of that story in the gospel of John 11: 1 to 12:11.


This is also the New International Version (NIV).


The Death of Lazarus

11: 1 Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.

(This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.)

So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.”

When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.”

Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.

So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days,and then he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”

“But Rabbi,” they said, “a short while ago the Jews there tried to stone you, and yet you are going back?”

Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Anyone who walks in the daytime will not stumble, for they see by this world’s light.10 It is when a person walks at night that they stumble, for they have no light.”

11 
After he had said this, he went on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.”

12 
His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.”

13 
Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.

14 
So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, 15 and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”

16 
Then Thomas (also known as Didymus[a]) said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”


Jesus Comforts the Sisters of Lazarus

17 On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days.

18 
Now Bethany was less than two miles [b] from Jerusalem,19 and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother.

20 
When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home.

21 
“Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”

23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”

24 Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”

25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; 26 and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

27 “Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”

28 After she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside. “The Teacher is here,” she said, “and is asking for you."

29 
When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him.

30 
Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him.

31 
When the Jews who had been with Mary in the house, comforting her, noticed how quickly she got up and went out, they followed her, supposing she was going to the tomb to mourn there.

32 
When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

33 
When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and trouble.

34 
“Where have you laid him?” he asked.

“Come and see, Lord,” they replied.

35 
Jesus wept.

36 
Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”

37 
But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”

Jesus Raises Lazarus From the Dead

38 Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. 39 “Take away the stone,” he said.
“But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.”

40 Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”

41 
So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father,I thank you that you have heard me.

42 
I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.”

43 
When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”

44 
The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.
  
Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”

The Plot to Kill Jesus

45 Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him.

46 
But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.

47 
Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin.
“What are we accomplishing?” they asked. “Here is this man performing many signs.

48 
If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our temple and our nation.”

49 
Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, “You know nothing at all!

50 
You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.”


51 He did not say this on his own, but as high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation, 52 and not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one.

53 
So from that day on they plotted to take his life.


54 Therefore Jesus no longer moved about publicly among the people of Judea. Instead he withdrew to a region near the wilderness, to a village called Ephraim, where he stayed with his disciples.

55 When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, many went up from the country to Jerusalem for their ceremonial cleansing before the Passover.

56 
They kept looking for Jesus, and as they stood in the temple courts they asked one another, “What do you think? Isn’t he coming to the festival at all?”

57 
But the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that anyone who found out where Jesus was should report it so that they might arrest him.

Jesus Anointed at Bethany

12 
Six days before the Passover celebration began, Jesus arrived in Bethany, the home of Lazarus—the man he had raised from the dead.

A dinner was prepared in Jesus’ honor. Martha served, and Lazarus was among those who ate[a] with him.

Then Mary took a twelve-ounce jar[b]of expensive perfume made from essence of nard, and she anointed Jesus’ feet with it, wiping his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance.

But Judas Iscariot, the disciple who would soon betray him, said,“That perfume was worth a year’s wages.[c] It should have been sold and the money given to the poor.” Not that he cared for the poor—he was a thief, and since he was in charge of the disciples’ money, he often stole some for himself.

Jesus replied, “Leave her alone. She did this in preparation for my burial.

You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.”

When all the people[d] heard of Jesus’ arrival, they flocked to see him and also to see Lazarus, the man Jesus had raised from the dead.

10 
Then the leading priests decided to kill Lazarus, too, 11 for it was because of him that many of the people had deserted them[e] and believed in Jesus.

 _________________________________________________________________

First Lazarus the Beggar at the door of the rich man:


The Rich Man and Lazarus
by John Everett Millais (1829-1896)
on display at Harvard College

Lazarus the Beggar, 
by Fedor Bronnikov, 1886.


by Laura Jeanne Grimes

Lazarus and the Rich Man, copyright, 2006, by Slavujac


Lazarus and the Rich Man
copywright, 2006 ,  Slavujac


The Rich Man and Lazarus
by John Kohan


James Janknegt, 
Lazarus and the Rich Man


Lazarus and the Rich Man,
Hampton Road Church


_____________________________________________________________

Second: Lazarus, the brother of Martha and Mary and Friend of Jesus, whom Jesus raised from the dead.









ONE QUESTION 
FOR LAZARUS

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this Monday in Holy Week  is, “One Question for Lazarus.”

LAZARUS IN THE GOSPLE OF JOHN

We heard in today’s gospel that lots of people - a large crowd of people - came to Bethany - to the home of Martha, Mary and Lazarus - to see Jesus - but I dare say, probably more - to see Lazarus - whom Jesus brought back from the dead.

My question: if you could ask Lazarus one question, what would it be?

Now the details of his story is only in one gospel, John’s gospel, in chapters 11 and 12. His name is mentioned 14 times there - and that’s it. Lazarus: the brother of Martha and Mary; the friend of Jesus.

LAZARUS IN THE GOSPLE OF LUKE

However, there is the other Lazarus in the 16th Chapter of the gospel of Luke - who also dies - and we find out a lot more about what happens after death to him - than the real life Lazarus in the gospel of John.

This Luke is mentioned 5 times all in that 16th chapter of Luke.

Luke’s story is a parable. John’s story is history - Biblical history.

ONE QUESTION

We don’t know if anyone asked the gospel of John’s Lazarus any questions. I would assume everyone who had a chance asked him, “What did you see in the next life?” “What was it like?” “Did you meet people?”  “Did you meet people whom you knew - people like your parents?”  “Hey, you were in the grave 4 days”  and the ever practical Martha said, “By now he has to be  stinking big time.” “Did you stink? Were you starting to decay? What was that like?”

What would be your one question, if you could ask Lazarus one question?

Would you ask, “Did you see God?”

Would you ask, “Do people have  bodies?” If they don’t, would you then ask a follow up question, “If they don’t have bodies, how do you see or know what’s what, what’s going on in the life after death?”

In the gospel of Luke, Chapter 16,  with the story - the parable  - of the other Lazarus, we have bodies and the visual. We have a big gap or chasm in between Hades - the down below - that is all flames, fire, to the up above, the bosom of Abraham.  The selfish, the self-centered rich man is dying of thirst down below and he finally spots the man he never spotted before, Lazarus, the poor man, now in the bosom of Abraham.

The Rich Man - he doesn’t have a name, some have called him Dives - asks two questions of Abraham. He makes two requests.

First, “Could Lazarus dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in agony in these flames.” Abraham says, “Sorry you had your chance while on earth - besides there is no bridge from there to here.”  The rich man changes.

Surprise. The rich man changes. He thinks of others. It’s  his brothers. he starts thinking about. He asks Abraham a second question: if he could send Lazarus to his brothers and warn them before they die to do for others, so that they don’t end up here in torment.”

“Nope,” says Abraham. “They have Moses and the prophets, let them listen to them.”

It’s a great dialogue. The rich man yells back, “No, Father Abraham, but if someone comes back from the dead, they will repent.”

Once more Abraham says, “If they will not listen to Moses or to the prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone should rise from the dead.”

So that’s the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus.

BACK TO THE LAZARUS IN THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

Now let me get back to the story of Lazarus in today’s gospel from John.

Did people ask great questions and make great comments to Lazarus?

Would we ask, “Did you get a glimpse of heaven - as well as - a glimpse of hell?”

CONCLUSION

So that’s my homily for today.

I’m asking you to come up with one question you would ask someone who has come back from the dead - dead for 4 days.

Obviously the big message is: Jesus rose from the dead - some listened to him and some didn’t. Do we?

Some people are like the rich man or like Judas - who also didn’t care about anyone but himself? That’s hell here - and hereafter I assume.



Some people are like Mary and Martha - who were concerned about  others. That’s heaven here - and I assume afterwards. 

______________

Painting on top: Vincent Van Gogh, The Raising of Lazarus. [1889-1890]
APRIL 10, 2017

MISFITS

Misfits feel like they don’t fit ….
And others let them know it ….

They find themselves on the out ….
So they want to scream and shout ….

Nervous - can I sit here?
Wondering - or should I sit there?

Solution - we misfits need to find each other.
Solution - we misfits need to fit together.


© Andy Costello, Reflections  2017




Sunday, April 9, 2017


EMPTYING  ONESELF 

The title of my homily - it will be short…. a page and a half - 14 pica - is, “Emptying Oneself.”

In today’s second reading - from St. Paul’s Letter to the Philippians - we read the following about Jesus, 

“Christ Jesus, 
though he was in the form of God, 
did not regard equality with God something to be grasped.  
Rather, he emptied himself, 
taking the form of a slave, 
coming in human likeness; 
and found human in appearance, 
he humbled himself, 
becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

During this Mass, during this short sermon, take another sneak peek at today’s second reading from Philippians 2: 6-11.

This text is dated - to have been written between 54 and 57 AD.  That’s before all 4 Gospels. Moreover some scholars think  that today’s text - is part of an earlier hymn - possibly written in Aramaic - that Paul borrowed or used here in his letter. That would make all this - very early stuff about how Jesus was seen - and beginning to be understood - well before the written creeds and written gospels.

He was God - equal to the Father. He became human -  equal to us.

Christ -  Trinity - Divinity - Human.

Us - Human - but in Christ - because of Christ - we can slowly become Divine - entering into God - the Trinity.

After all - as the first book of the Bible, Genesis,  puts in in its first chapter, Genesis 1; 27, “God created us in the image of himself, in the image of God he created us, male and female he created them.”

Profound stuff…. Deep stuff …. Get this stuff - and stuff this stuff into ourselves.

This week, Holy Week, we deal with profound stuff.

First: hear the call - to empty ourselves of ourselves. Less selfies. More otheries.

This week - shut up - empty our mouths of our words and our stories - and listen to the others.

Holy Thursday is all about a meal. A meal is a great place to be in communion - holy communion - with each other.  A meal is a great place to listen to others, “How was your day?” “Moms, dads, brothers, sisters, kids, co-workers - friends - strangers - how is your life going? I’m all ears for you.”

Good Friday is all about suffering and the cross. Is there anyone around us who is suffering - dealing with a cross - family stuff, sickness stuff, death stuff, rejection stuff?   Make the way of the cross with them. Be there under their cross. Help them carry their cross.

Holy Saturday is all about silence. I don’t know about you and Lent 2017 for you. I failed again this year to make a Holy Lent. This week. This Saturday - take a good silent walk and sort out what has died within us or what has to die within us - what has to be emptied out of ourselves and what needs to rise.

Easter Sunday is all about resurrection and new life. Where do I have to rise as a disciple - a follower of Jesus?

To be continued….