March 18, 2019
Thought for today:
“Waiting sometimes is the only thing left to do. You learn to wait, or your forfeit the lesson you were supposed to learn.”
Anonymous
Monday, March 18, 2019
March 18, 2019
MY MEMORY
I thought my skin, my bones, my body
were aging - but you should see my memory.
Pea shooters, toy guns, games, fire crackers,
Coney Island, Little League games, school ….
Those were my memories at 13 - but now
at 79, my memory is like a November night….
Clouds gliding by a silver moon, empty trees
scratching the skin of the night sky ….
Birthdays, burials, sights, sounds from trips
and great friends: failures but so many wins….
© Andy Costello, Reflections 2019
March 18, 2019
If we’re stingy with compassion and understanding, yuck. There’s a better way to be.
THREE THOUGHTS
ABOUT JUDGING
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily for today -this 2nd Monday of Lent - is, “Three
Thoughts About Judging.”
Today’s gospel - Luke 6: 36- 38 - addresses the issue
about judging - which many people - judge themselves guilty about on a regular
basis.
Like everyone, I have often thought about this issue
about judging others. So let me give 3
thoughts about judging in this homily.
FIRST THOUGHT: SAY, “I’M WRONG.”
The first thought is to say to oneself, when one makes a
judgment about another, “I’m wrong.”
Everyone thinks differently. Even identical twins. Our
experiences effect our thinking - so our motives for doing what we do, comes
from our experience with why we say what we say, why we think what we think,
and why we do what we do.
1 million things, inner conversations, outer experiences,
are all different in every human being - so how can we think alike?
We get angry or we inwardly say when another judges our
motives, “Wait a minute. You don’t know why I just said or did what I just did, so stop judging me from your
motives. They are your projections - not
mine.”
Golden rule: We don’t like it when others judge us, so
stop judging.
I’m wrong every time - because motivation is multi-layered,
multi-reasons, multi-backgrounded.
Wait a minute! Get your hands on a memory when you judged someone and you
found out you were dead wrong. Say to yourself, “Remember that experience, that
last time you judged and wow was I so
wrong.”
Here’s an experience: Someone is sitting there and they
see a boy turn around and look back at a girl - 3 rows behind. He keeps doing
it. Surprise we find out that he’s not
looking at her, but he’s turning to check the clock just over her head on the
back wall. He wants out of there because he has to go to the bathroom. She
thinks he’s looking at her. We think he’s checking her out. Nope.
2) THERE IS A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN JUDGMENT AND
PERCEPTION AND SECOND JUDGMENT.
Second message: some people are big on perceiving; some
people are big on judging.
It’s not’s virtuous.
People are often just one way more than the other.
A person walks into a store or a church or a room and
says, “This room is stupid, the way it looks or is laid out.”
Another person walks into a store or a church or a room
and says, “Interesting, the way the pretzels are right across from the Coca
Cola.” Or, “Interesting the way the benches are.”
I score high on perception. Others score high on judgment
on Judgment-Perception Surveys or Self-Tests.
It’s the next step where judgment takes place - after we
understand our first reaction.
Some people automatically make a judgement. There is no
sin involved. Some people automatically
make a perception. There is no virtue involved.
3) GO FOR BIG COMPASSION
My third point comes from today’s 2 readings - especially
the Gospel.
Jesus says have great compassion and mercy in judging
others.
Jesus says that the measure we measure with comes back at
us.
If we’re stingy with compassion and understanding, yuck. There’s a better way to be.
I love the joke about the one armed fisherman or a one
armed golfer.
Did you hear about the one armed fisherman? He caught a
fish this big.
Did you hear about the one armed golfer. He missed the
putt by this much.
In both cases I’m putting one arm out.
Well, with regards judging someone, miss by this much.
Hold out one arm.
Enough.
How are you judging my homily? Sorry, I had a crazy morning - and didn't get enough time to do this better.
Sunday, March 17, 2019
TRANSFIGURATION
MOMENTS AND PLACES
The title of my homily is, “Transfiguration Moments and
Places.”
I like these 2nd
Sunday in Lent readings: the transfiguration scene. We hear 3 versions of it:
Mark last year, Luke this year, and Matthew next year.
For this homily I would simply ask you to do what I’m
about to do: go through your life and pick transfiguration moments and places
that transfigured you - changed you - stunned and stopped you.
I’ll give you a list of some of the places and moments I
picked - so that you might do the same.
They could be an early morning moment at Rehoboth beach
when you got up all alone and walked down to the water to watch the sunrise -
or a night time moment - when you
stopped to look up at the sky like Abram did in today’s first reading and you
counted the stars - and there you were with God.
Here are 7 places I picked. What are your 7 or 10 great
moments - or places - where God was transfigured before you - and you saw the
light - and you said in prayer, “God it is good that I am here.”
# 1 - MOUNT OF THE TRANSFIGURATION
The first would be the day we took a bus up to the Mount
of Transfiguration place in Israel. It might be the place. It might not be the
place. But it was a place there or near there that got the tradition: “It was
here that Jesus experienced a transfiguration moment.”
We went by bus - 24 priests with a Franciscan, Father Stephen Doyle leading us -
up the mount of the transfiguration. The bus was easier than doing it on foot.
We had Mass in the church up on top. Stephen read the gospel story of the
Transfiguration and then after Mass he gave us an hour of silence.
For the hour of quiet prayer, I went up the roof of another building up there. I was all by myself in the quiet - seeing the Golan Heights in the distance and the green pasture lands down below.
A guy had asked me when he heard I was going to Israel,
“How do the sheep get fed? Whenever I
see Israel on TV, it’s desert and dryness. Well when I got back I told this
guy, “In the north there is plenty of green pastures and sheep and goats.
After the hour of quiet we had a lunch at a Franciscan
monastery up on top as well. It was a
spaghetti dinner.
Lord, it was good
to have been here. The bread was good as
well….
# 2 - ZION NATIONAL PARK
The next place I would pick is Zion National Park in
Southern Utah. I never knew it existed till I went there.
If you ever get a chance to see National Parks in the
southwest - make sure you include Zion National Park. If you get to the Grand
Canyon, you’re in striking distance of Zion.
Wow. Well worth it.
I was with another priest, Tom, whom I worked with for 8 ½
years before I came to Annapolis. I was preaching in Tucson - and he flew out
when I finished and we had a great 2 week vacation. Zion was the best.
Lord, it was good
to have been here.
# 3 - LAKE
OF SOLITUDE
The next place would be Lake of Solitude in the
Rockies. 4 of us were backpacking - and
were headed for a place called Black
Lake. Well, we met these 3 guys from
Boston who were also backpacking. They asked us where we were headed and we
said, “Black Lake.” They said they were
there - but much better was Lake of Solitude.
They gave us directions and we had maps - and we changed our plans.
We made it. Sure enough. it was like a church without a
ceiling - and the sanctuary was a pool of water - holding the blue sky and some
clouds. that flowed into a small lake - listed as the Lake of Solitude. We
immediately started saying an Our Father.
Lord, it was good
to have been here.
# 4 CHARTRES CATHEDRAL
I always wanted to go to Chartres Cathedral - not that far a distance from Paris - and it was all I hoped for.
Lord, it was good
to have been here.
Chartres was Lourdes and Fatima - a great Marian Shrine -
long before Lourdes and Fatima - and people from all over Europe made
pilgrimages to there.
# 5 THIS CHURCH
Sense all the prayers still moving around this sacred
place.
Think of all the tears shed in this sacred space.
I mention this church to trigger the thought: What have
been the sacred places and spaces - the churches of your lifetime.
Where is your spot in this church?
Do you have a favorite bench?
Is it up here where babies are baptized or right there
where couples make their vows.
Is it a confessional - or a place where you went to a
special communion - maybe having dropped out for a while.
Let me point out two spots in this church - that have
deep lingering feelings for me.
A woman died right there - after a wedding - when they
were taking pictures. [Point]
I had a funeral for a 3 day old baby. Her remains were on
a small table - right there [Point]
Lord, sometimes it’s sad to be here. Lord sometimes we’re
glad to be here. Lord sometimes we need you.
# 6 MOM AND DAD’S
BURIAL VAULT
Next - and this is true for so many people - there is the
place where our loved ones are buried.
Where are you cemeteries?
My mom and dad are buried on the 4th floor of
an enormous building - a mausoleum at St. John’s Cemetery in Queens, NY.
It’s neat. It’s clean. It has piped in music. It has
marble seats. It’s a sacred place.
I was looking this up today on line and Google said that
Lucky Luciano, John Gotti, Carlo Gambino and Vito Genovese are buried in this
same cemetery. Fine Irish men to mention
on a day like today.
Lord, it was good
to have been here.
# 7 IRELAND - FIRST
TIME.
The green was beautiful that bright morning.
Lord it is good to be here.
CONCLUSION
The title of my homily
was “Transfiguration Moments and Places.”
I just mentioned 7 places that are sacred - and I ask you
to name 5 or 7 of yours.
And tell them to each other. Amen.
March 17, 2019
PEACE AND QUIET TODAY
Peace and Quiet within our hearts today.
Amen.
Peace and Quiet within our families today. Amen.
Peace and Quiet within our families today. Amen.
Peace and Quiet within our neighbors today. Amen.
Peace and Quiet within our world today.
Peace and Quiet within our world today.
Amen
So we can hear the roar of the deep ocean called, “God” within us today.
Amen.
So we can hear the music and the dancing
in our neighbor's homes today as well.
Amen.
© Andy Costello, Reflections
2019
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