October 21, 2020
BUTT CALL
how are you? What’s happening?”
but we didn’t plan it? Great talking
to you. Next time give me a call."
© Andy Costello, Reflections
2020
Wednesday, October 21, 2020
how are you? What’s happening?”
but we didn’t plan it? Great talking
Tuesday, October 20, 2020
October 20, 2020
MANNERISMS: HOW
TO ….
We arrive with them: our mannerisms.
They are as visible as our nose –
perhaps not to us – but to others ….
Yes ….
How we eat our food ….
How we walk ….
How we talk ….
How we leave things around ….
How we are ….
How we frustrate others ….
How we make noises ….
How we drive ….
We leave with them:
our mannerisms.
They are as invisible to us as our eyes –
perhaps not to us – but to others ….
Yes ….
perhaps not to us – but to others ….
How we eat our food ….
How we walk ….
How we talk ….
How we leave things around ….
How we are ….
How we frustrate others ….
How we make noises ….
How we drive ….
perhaps not to us – but to others ….
Monday, October 19, 2020
October 19, 2020
It moved. I thought
it was a period.
It moved and ran down the page.
From time I see these tiny bugs
in old books. Do they have hearts,
hands and feet? What do they eat?
Did it think I was looking? Did it think
I was going to squash it. No way!
I too like to read books just like you.
© Andy Costello, Reflections
2020
Sunday, October 18, 2020
CYRUS:
A CHERISHED MEMORY
The title of my thoughts for this 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time [A] is: “Cyrus: A Cherished Memory.”
When we studied the Old Testament in the Major Seminary - when we came to Cyrus – probably when we came to today’s first reading from Isaiah 45 – Pete Ellis described Cyrus as a good guy.
I still remember that sense of who Cyrus was – according to Pete Ellis – when I first heard it in 1963.
Good stuff – a good cherished memory – stuck to his name – once more when I heard it last night.
Cyrus - 590 to 530 – around then and around 60 years of life – is the guy who let the Jews back to Jerusalem – out of their Babylonian Captivity days – in 538.
Babylon – Nebuchadnezzar – is the country and the general and king – who attacked and destroyed Jerusalem in 570 or so.
He was a bad memory – along with all Babylonians and as the psalmist – in Psalm 137 - put it – bang their babies heads against the rocks.
Cyrus was a cherished memory.
So that’s the title of my thoughts: “Cyrus: A Cherished Memory.”
When we hear the Redemptorist Cherished Memories read out at evening prayer down through the years I’m sure two things happened: we hoped we will make it and we wonder what
they will say about us.
We hope we will be cherished – at least by the people we
lived with and by the people we served.
Cyrus did a lot of conquering – and one of his policies was
to try to let a place keep its gods and its culture.
Isaiah calls him the anointed one of Yahweh.
Well historians said he did that for the various places he
conquered.
He did for Babylon what he did for Israel.
The statue of one of the gods of the Babylonians was Marduk. Cyrus took him by the hand and said, “You’re still it”
He did this in various places.
Isaiah says that Yahweh took Cyrus by the hand and helped
him bop off Babylon. That one wasn’t too
difficult – because Nabonidus was very unpopular. When Cyrus army attacked the Babylonians –
their soldiers took off and ran the other way.
Since the Israelites had no statues, Cyrus had their sacred
vessels restored. They had been looted back in 587.
Last night when reading up on this stuff, I noticed the
following:
Two centuries later Alexander the Great [356 – 323 B.C.]
came to the grave of Cyrus.
It was a small stone building. It had a plaque that said: “I am Cyrus,
the son of Cambyses. I founded the
empire of the Persians and was king of Asia.
Grudge me not this memorial.”
When I read that, I got the thought, “A cherished memory is
our greatest memorial.”
May that be our legacy – to be cherished - not in stone –
but in the memory of those who knew us – that we were good and decent to each
other.
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