October 1, 2018

NEAR  THE  END

Near the end of the movie,

                       the meal,

                       the affair,

                       the marriage,

                       the book,

                       the trip,

                       the conversation,

                       one’s life ….

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2018

October 1, 2018 

Thought for today: 

"One of the best ways to make yourself happy in the present is to recall happy times from the past. Photos are a great memory-prompt, and because we tend to take photos of happy occasions, they weight our memories to the good.” 

Gretchen Rubin

Picture: Double Exposure
of our immediate family
at Bliss Park.
Obviously, I am the favorite.

PURSUED  BY  GRACE

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “Pursued by Grace.”

I was doing what many people in the United States was doing on this past Thursday: listening to the hearings of Doctor Christine Blasey Ford and Judge Brett Kavanaugh.

I was driving up to Doylestown, Pennsylvania to see my sister Mary for the day - my day off. It’s a 3 hour drive and I heard everything in those hearings  up to 12:30 and then re-caps in the evening on my way back to Annapolis.

I am a bit nervous - in what I say from the pulpit - because it might trigger stuff that sounds political.  I’m not trying to be political in an example I want to use that I heard the other day.  I’m well aware of different takes on all of this.  I am aware of the  divisions in our country - that gets some people to say, “Let’s not talk about this - especially at the dinner table.”

Yet I was taught in preaching that it can be helpful if one uses current examples and what’s happening all around us when preaching.

THE  COMMENT  THAT  HIT  ME

Senator Amy Klobuchar was asking Judge Kavanaugh about the effects of drinking and she mentioned that  her dad - was an alcoholic - and a member of  AA big time.  She used the phrase - “pursued by grace”.  She said, her dad was pursued by grace.

That triggered thoughts in me. I even said to myself - while driving - “What a great title and thought for a homily?” 

Pursued by grace.

When I got back I looked it up and found out that her dad wrote a whole book with that title: “Pursued by Grace: A Newspaperman’s  Own Story of Spiritual Recovery.”

QUESTION: DOES THAT TRIGGER ANY THOUGHTS FOR YOU?

Have you ever felt the pursuit of God for you?

Have you ever pursued God? Of  course…. You’re here at Mass.

Better way to put this: name the moments - name the memories - when we had deep thoughts and experiences of Grace and God that hit us

There are two directions for all of  this: God searching for us and our searching for God.

It goes both ways.

We’re using the Gospel of Mark this year, but in thinking about this, the gospel stories in Luke 15 - right there in the middle of the gospel of Luke - hit me. It has  3 stories.

The first and second story is about God in search of us: pursued by grace.

The third story is the story of God waiting for us to start pursuing Him.

The first story is about a shepherd in search of a  lost sheep. The second story is the story about a woman looking for a lost coin. The third story is the story of a Father waiting for his lost son to come home.

There they are: two experiences we have all had - searching and being searched for - being found.

Picture yourself as a sheep wrapped around the neck of God. I’ve had that experience in prayer. It got me crying tears of joy.  Imagine the stinky underneath - underbelly of a sheep around God’s neck. Thank You, God.  Thank You God, for finding me - stinky me.

Picture yourself as a lost coin. Biblical commentators think it’s one of the precious wedding coins women in the middle east sew to their best party garment - and this woman lost one coin - and would not let go till she found it. Picture God as the woman embracing that found coin - or ring - of what have you - anything that is precious - us in the warmth of God’s hand.

I assume searching and finding, pursuing and being pursued, is part of  the marriage story of all of you who are married.

Who chased whom?

I like the saying, “A man chases a woman till she catches him.”

I love the love story of my mom and dad.  I’ve thought about it a lot. I like to ask couples where and how they met and what happened next. I assume you have all asked your parents their story.

My father liked the look of my mother when they were teenagers in Ballynahown, County Galway, Ireland. I talked to my father’s brother once when I was in Ireland. My Uncle Cole told me that my dad would hide up on a hill and watched my mother down in the field below near their houses. Her friends knew he was up there. She knew he was up there. He didn’t know they all knew he was up there.

My father’s brother, Cole and my mother’s sister, Brigid, got married and lived all their life in Galway, Ireland. My mother and father, came to America separately. My dad wrote love letters from New York to my mother in Boston for 10 years  asking her to marry him. His last letter said, “If you don’t marry me, I am going to become an Irish Christian Brother.”

I’ve told this story before - but I love it, because - if she didn’t finally say, “Yes” - I wouldn’t be here. Moreover, if they didn’t have that 4^th child, I wouldn’t be here either.

Surprise! I didn’t find out till this year, that there was to be a number 5 child, but my mom slipped and fell and had an early on miscarriage. What else don’t I know?  Family history is very important history.

When I heard about that miscarriage,  I said, “Bummer, I can no longer say the youngest in every family is the best, because they quit when they finally got one right.”

Lost  and found - pursuing and being pursued - discovering and being discovered….

Human pursuits. That’s my first thought when I hear the phrase, “Pursued by grace.”

Grace  pursuits - God pursuits … the theme of this homily.

So first of all, I think of those 3 stories by Luke.

Next, I think of the titles of two books by Abraham Joshua Heschel: Man’s Quest for God, 1954 and God in Search of Man, 1955.

Next, I think of Francis Thompson, the British poet, who wrote the famous poem, The Hound of Heaven. He the addict, with a hundred problems, pictured God as a Hound, picking up his scent and chasing, pursuing him. Look that poem up. Make it part of your spirituality.

I think of Saint Augustine who both sought God and ran from God and he tells it all in his tell all book, The Confessions of Saint Augustine.  I hope that too is part of your spirituality.

Listen to these words and thoughts from Augustine: “You called, You cried, You shattered my deafness, You sparkled, You blazed, You drove away my blindness, You shed Your fragrance, and I drew in my breath, and I pant for You.”

That’s God pursuing us.

“Here’s another famous quote from Augustine: “You have created us for Yourself, and our heart cannot be stilled until it finds rest in You.”

Here are the words of his famous conversion moment in a garden, “I was weeping in the most bitter contrition of my heart, when I heard the voice of children from a neighboring house chanting, “Take up and read; take up and read.” I could not remember ever having heard the like, so checking the torrent of my tears, I arose, interpreting it to be no other than a command from God to open the book and read the first chapter I should find. Eagerly then I returned to the place where I had laid the volume of the apostle. I seized, opened, and in silence read that section on which my eyes first fell: “Not in revelry and drunkenness, not in licentiousness and lewdness, not is strife and envy; but put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.” No further would I read, nor did I need to. For instantly at the end of this sentence, it seemed as if a light of serenity infused into my heart and all the darkness of doubt vanished away.”

CONCLUSION

Today's readings bring out that the Holy Spirit, the Wind of God, blows into our lives in many different ways.  Feel the breeze of God.  Breath God into our lives.

I don’t know how this national story will turn 
out - but it will be part of our history.  It has blown into our bodies - into our mind -in ways we're not used to it yet. 

And it will have its impact on us for the rest of our lives.

I didn’t read Jim Klobuchar’s book: Pursued by Grace: A Newspaperman’s Own Story of Spiritual Recovery. I’ll look for it - because of that short comment by his daughter, Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota. I have always suggested to folks to read biographies and autobiographies, memoirs and diaries, and write and talk to each other about each other’s lives.

Now I have an added question: Looking at your story, how were you pursued by grace, how were you pursued by God?

FOUR  WAYS  

TO  GO  TO  HELL  

 THEME

Today’s readings challenge us to avoid various ways of “going to hell” as well as causing “hell” for other people.

OPENING IMAGE

In the Thirteenth Century, Dante Alighieri wrote an epic poem called, The Divine Comedy or “Divina Comedia”. In the 19^th century, there was renewed interest in this great work. Books, studies, lectures on Dante were in vogue. Wouldn’t it be great in the Twentieth Century, if someone would put together a 13 part series on Public Television, called, “The Divine Comedy”? If done well and with commentary, it could be an extremely effective educational experience. Hopefully, it would also be a conversion experience for anyone who would watch it.

The Divine Comedy has all the ingredients of science fiction and fantasy movies. It can catch our imagination. In brief, Dante takes his audience on an imaginary journey through the circles of hell, into purgatory, and then finally into heaven.

It seems that there have been people in every century who have been fascinated by his message. What about us? Is it now time for the people in our century to look at this man and this man’s powerful message?

Ours is the century of the here and now. Ours is the century of The Denial of Death. Ours is the century of the denial of hell. Ours is the century when we need to look at the reality of heaven, as well as the absence of a sense of hell. Ours is also the century of two world wars, Hiroshima and Auschwitz, Korea and Vietnam, millions of abortions and millions of people starving to death. All we have to do is open our eyes and we can see hell. All we have to do is open our eyes and see the hope of God breaking through in the here and now. The human hope for: Incarnation! Resurrection! Ascension! Pentecost! Redemption! “I have come that you might have life and have it to the full” (John 10: 10)

Dante wrote with pictures and images. He visualizes hell, purgatory and heaven for us. Where did he look to see what he saw? Of course, he had a great imagination. But he also said, “I found the origin of my hell in the world which we inhabit.” Read the poem and you’ll see what he means by that. See whom he puts in hell and where he puts them in hell. It’s better than the best soap operas.

The poet seems to see more than we see. Oscar Wilde said, “We are each our own devil, and we make this world our hell.” Or take T.S. Eliot. He spent a lot of time reading Dante. And after pondering both Dante and the beginning of this century, T. S. Eliot put Dante’s thoughts into new words. For example, read his poems, “The Waste Land” and “The Hollow Men” and you will discover two of his ways to describe this century.

In our century then, Dante could give us a sense of both the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Hell in the here and now.

HOMILETIC REFLECTIONS

When we read today’s readings, especially the Gospel and the Second Reading, don’t we get a picture of hell, both here and hereafter?

Jesus does exactly what Dante does. He tries to scare the hell out of us. He tells us, it’s better to go to heaven crippled, missing an eye, or a hand, or a foot, than to go to hell with a perfect 10 for a body.

In the second reading, James goes the same route as Jesus and Dante. He describes people crying and weeping. He tries to get us to visualize the rotting of clothes, silver and gold. He tells the rich, as well as anyone else who is listening, that if you create a hell here on earth for others, you are creating a hell for yourself here and hereafter. All those who store up treasure by cheating or overworking others, better be careful. You might think you’re storing up silver and gold. Actually you are storing up “a burning fire ... as your treasure for the last days.”

So our readings are quite strong today. They are a warning about hell. They are a prophetic cry for the Kingdom of Heaven. They give the negative, so that we will move towards the positive.

PRACTICAL CONCLUSIONS

Now to be practical, what I would like to do now is to continue to reflect on today’s readings, and present 4 ways that they point out we can go to hell, so that all of us will go the opposite way.

                    1) Be Narrow and Jealous,

                    2) Be Selfish and Greedy,

                    3) Give Bad Example,

                    4) Deny Hell and Forget About Heaven.

The goal is not to be sensational, but to do what Jesus and James and Dante tried to do: Picture Hell, so that you won’t want to live there. Picture Hell, so that you won’t make life a hell for anyone else. Picture hell, so that your goal will be heaven for yourself and your neighbor.

1)       Be Narrow and Jealous

The first way to live in hell and create hell for other people is to be narrow and jealous. Wilson Mizer wrote, “The most pitiful human ailment is a birdseed heart.”

In today’s first reading, we see what a birdseed heart looks like. Joshua, as well as two young followers of Moses, become jealous when two men, with the interesting names of Eldad and Medad, begin prophesying in the camp. The Spirit of God had come on both of them. Unfortunately, the Spirit didn’t inform Joshua or the two young followers of Moses about it. They went to Moses to try to drag him into their jealousy and closed attitude towards Eldad and Medad. Moses answers with a big heart, “Are you jealous on my account? If only the whole people of the Lord were prophets, and the Lord gave his Spirit to the all!”

In today’s Gospel, we see the same human problem arise. John becomes jealous of a man who is an exorcist, who uses Jesus’ name without asking permission, or was it John’s fear of losing prestige? Jesus, answers as Moses answered, “You must not stop him: no one who works a miracle in my name is likely to speak evil of me. Anyone who is not against us is for us.”

A psychiatrist was visiting a mental hospital. While sitting at lunch, the head of the hospital said to the visitor, in the presence of 5 or 6 of his staff, “See that lady over there: the one with the beautiful smile behind the counter there, serving mashed potatoes. She is the most important person in the hospital. In fact, she is the best therapist here. Everybody goes to her with their problems: the doctors, the patients, the maintenance people, the people in the kitchen. Would that we had 10 more like her.” Three of the doctors on hearing that almost choked on their mashed potatoes in jealously and anger. After all they were the most important people in the hospital. They had laminated plaques to prove it.

So we see jealousy and narrowness, not only in religion, but in all areas of life or should we say death? Those in religion don’t have a monopoly on jealousy and narrowness. But those who are jealous and narrow have a monopoly on creating hell for others.

2)       Be Selfish and Greedy

The second way to go to hell and create hellholes for others is to be selfish and greedy. This is obvious. It doesn’t need too much explanation.

Dostoevski said, “What is hell? I maintain that it is the suffering of being unable to love.”

Hell is the inability to love. It’s the inability to give. It’s the inability to share. If there is any one message that Jesus proclaimed from the housetops, it’s that. Read Matthew 25. You go to hell, if you don’t give cups of water and clothing, if you don’t visit the sick and take in the stranger.

Or read today’s second reading again. James does not tell us that being rich is the problem. The problem is either in how we get our money or in the not sharing of it. In today’s gospel, we hear those strange comments about plucking eyes out, cutting hands and feet off. Obviously, Jesus is not telling us to start cutting ourselves up. He’s telling us that eyes are for seeing others in their needs and not just ourselves. Hands and feet are given, so that we can better serve our brothers and sisters. Hands are for giving a glass of cold water or a cup of hot coffee. Hands are for helping, not hurting, especially children. Hands are for patting others on the back and not ourselves. If you don’t use them to make this a better world to live in, you might as well not have them.

Be selfish and greedy and you start living in hell. Start being selfish and greedy and you start making living for those around you a hell as well.

3)       Give Bad Example

The third way to go to hell is to give bad example.

Today’s gospel, which contains a series of very early catechetical sayings of Jesus, also warns us about not giving bad example to the “little ones”. Bible commentators point out that the “little ones” could be new believers, as well as little children.

Sweet, sweet Jesus, doesn’t seem so sweet, when we listen to his saying about the millstone being tied around our neck and being thrown into the sea. Picture that saying along with the words about cutting off one’s hands and feet and plucking out one’s eyes, and you’ll see that Jesus is talking pretty strongly to us today. Yes, he could tell us to look at the birds of the air, but he could also paint some pictures with sticks of dynamite for a frame.

Dante puts people like Judas and Lucifer, Brutus and Cassius, down at the bottom of hell because of their betrayals. We are warned quite clearly about leading others into temptation.

But what do we zero in on when we think of bad example and temptations? Too often we limit temptations and bad example to sex and movies and drugs. We get hot and bothered about those who invite young people to try drugs.

But what about all the invitations we give to others by our behavior and our values? What do we stress as important in life? Is it stuff? Money? Watch our for Number 1? What are we pumping into the minds of the next generation?

Do we ever read and discuss the gospel with others we live with? Do people ever see us praying? Do others ever see us putting in a full day’s work for a full day’s pay? Or do we tell new workers, “Coast. The boss is never around?”

4)       Deny Hell and Forget About Heaven

The fourth way to go to hell is to deny it exists, to forget about the Kingdom of Heaven and only concentrate on the kingdom of stuff in the kingdom of the here and the now.

We have here perhaps one of the main values of pushing people to read Dante’s Divine Comedy. In this the Twentieth Century, we have heard more and more people get off statements about not believing in hell anymore. It’s as if by denying something, we could make it disappear. Try that principle next time you catch a cold or get a dent in your car.

The New Testament and our Creed affirm Sunday after Sunday, that there is a heaven and a hell. “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, what things God has prepared for those who love him.” The gospels, like Dante, take us through imaginary trips to both heaven and hell.

And why? It’s to warn us of their reality, both here and hereafter. It’s to warn us to serve others and not be self serving. It’s to try to challenge us to do our part to make this world the Kingdom of Heaven and to try to put an end to the hell some people have to face each day.

Our pope, John Paul II, in his social statements, keeps warning us about the hungry and the thirsty of our world, the poor who are at our doorsteps. And what image does he use to try to wake us up? So often it’s the image of heaven and hell in the story of Dives and Lazarus. Read it. It’s in the 16^th chapter of Luke. It’s much shorter than The Divine Comedy of Dante. But it too will scare the hell out of us. (Cf. Luke 16: 19 - 31). Now of course, heaven won’t be resting in Abraham’s bosom and people won’t see a big chasm between heaven and hell. But what is real is that there are people in our midst today who are living in hell and we walk by them every day. Of course, we can apply this parable of Jesus only to people on the bowery and miss people in our own homes. The people Jesus warns us about not seeing might even sleep in the same bed with us or eat at our table. They might be in the same office with us or in the same bench in church. Do we see them? They might be starving for affection or a good word. They might be starving for a better job or more food. Do we see them? They might be starving for a second chance. Do we know they exist at our very door step? If we don’t, we are already in hell.

CONCLUSION

Poets like Dante, prophets like Jesus, tells us then, that we have a choice: heaven or hell? We can choose to be:

                    1) Jealous or generous?

                    2) Selfish or self giving?

                    3) Giving bad example or giving good example?

                    4) Dying in heaven or living in heaven?

The choice is always ours. And as Moses says at the ending of today’s first reading, “If only the whole people of the Lord were prophets, and the Lord gave his Spirit to the all.” Surprise! Listen to Jesus, and you’ll find out that he has. If only, we would accept that Spirit. It would be heaven! There would be no more hell!

PROPHECY

INTRODUCTION

This morning I would like to preach on the theme of prophecy. I read today’s three readings and that’s the theme that jumped out at me: Prophecy.

All of us are called to be prophets. Not in the sense of predicting that Giants will win the Super Bowl or that the New York Rangers will win the Stanley Cup. No. But in the sense of knowing that going this way or living life this way is good and going this way is bad.

PROPHET, PRIEST AND KING

Our call by our Baptism is to be prophets, priests and kings. All of us.

As priests, we are called to worship God. Liturgy. To thank God each Sabbath for the gift of life -- for our daily bread -- for each other.

As kings we are called to be servant kings, to be the kind of king and leader Jesus was: a foot washer.

As prophets to go in the right direction and lead others there too. As prophets we are called to speak out -- to speak the truth -- even when it’s difficult.

FIRST READING

In today’s first reading we hear about these two characters, Medad and Eldad. Great names. The scene is the Israeli camp in Sinai. They have fled Egypt and Moses is leading them to the promised land. Well, here we have these two men, Medad and Eldad, preaching. Joshua, who has been an aide to Moses from his youth comes running to Moses and says, “Moses, these two fellows are preaching. Stop them.” And Moses says, “Are you jealous?” Then Moses gives one of his best lines, “Would that the Lord might bestow his spirit on everyone.”

SECOND READING

In today’s second reading we have something to prophesy about. It’s this eternal rat race for money. It’s this ongoing horse race for riches.

For the last few years I’ve been with people who say, “Excuse me for a moment.” They turn on the TV and turn to the stock ticker. To me it’s a horse race -- a big one -- an ongoing one -- where big betting is going on.

The jockeys are all those guys and gals in the pit or at the TV screen in countless offices buying and selling, selling and buying.

Yes it keeps the economy going.

I would say that we need prophets to speak out about extremes when it comes to this profit stuff.

James talks about wages being held back from farm hands who harvested your fields. Then he goes after those who life in wanton luxury and in the meanwhile are killing the just man.

There are people out there being hurt because of excess when it comes to wanting big returns on the stock market. Companies move without regard for towns and families, etc.

Someone needs to speak out. The prophet in all of us needs to examine this.

GOSPEL

In today’s gospel Jesus runs into the same situation as Moses did. People are preaching in Jesus name and helping people.

Jesus answers in a similar vein.

He tells his disciples to give. To give glasses of cold water.

He tells his disciples to beware of taking in or on what kills us.

Modern Prophets are saying the same thing. In the book, Life’s little Instruction Book, H. Jackson Brown urges us to buy lemonade from kids who are selling it. He says to stop and listen to street musicians and give them a buck.

Modern prophets - these talk show hosts - tell people to cut off from their life relationships that kill us.

It’s difficult cut it gossip -- but think of the consequences: garbage in, garbage out.

Picture a paparazzi who makes his money getting salacious or invasive photographs for bad stories. Imagine if someone says that this is not the way to live one’s life. Get another job. It will mean the loss of money, but if he does it, he’s onto a better life.

Picture someone at work saying to his or fellow workers, “There is too much laziness around here. Everyone is on an eternal coffee break. No wonder companies move out.

CONCLUSION

Today’s readings call all of us to live our calling to be prophets. Amen

TWO  TYPES  OF  PEOPLE

There are two types of people:

those who tire us out 

and those who restore us.

Which leads us to the obvious questions:

“What tires us out? 

Why do some people, drain us?”

Which leads us to the obvious answer:

“The people who restore us,

don’t try to control us.”

  

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2018

September 30, 2018 

Thought for today: 

“But as a wise man once said, just because we are done with the past doesn’t mean the past is done with us.”   

Quoted by Sarah Hepola 

in a New York Times article, 

“Kavanaugh and the Blackout 

Theory," September 29, 2018.  

Sarah Hepola is the author 

of the best-selling memoir “

Blackout: Remembering the 

Things I Drank to Forget.”