Tuesday, March 30, 2021

March  30,  2021


 UNFAIR

 

Do little kids feel unfair feelings
100 times more than fair feelings?
 
Do they kick their feet against their high chair
when they see the adults sitting at the big table?
 
Do they hate it when the older folks
can stay up and they have to go to bed?
 
Do they hate it when their face is washed
with the sink cloth and others use clean napkins?
 
Do folks get it when they see Les Miserables and Valjean 
goes to jail for 19 years for stealing just a loaf of bread?`
 
Did the people of Ireland make The Fields of Athenry
their national anthem because Michael is sent on a prison ship to Australia for taking some food for his kid.
 
Do we move from “Unfair” to “Fair” when we learn
to say, “Thank You” for all the blessings we receive?

  

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2021

 

March  30,  2021

 

Thought for the Day

 

“All the great thinkers have been masters of metaphor because all vivid thinking must be images  and the philosopher whose metaphors are blurred and diluted is one whose thinking is blurred and diluted."

 


Thomas Sharper Knowlson [1867-1947]



THE  METAPHOR  OF  FRAGRANCE


INTRODUCTION
 
The title of my homily for this Monday in Holy Week  is, “The Metaphor of Fragrance.”
 
Or perfume.
 
We go into church on Easter Sunday morning.
 
We pause. We’re stopped. We stand there.
 
We breathe in the fragrance of the lilies.
 
“Uuuuum good!”
 
It’s Easter.
 
Christ has risen from the dead.  Alleluia.
 
Again and again.  Alleluia.  Alleluia.
 
Have you heard Leonard Cohen’s Halleluiah.



 
A lot of people are singing it and variations on it.
 
It contains various narratives.
 
Sorry to say, some of them  are fuzzy for me – but the way they sing the word “Halleluiah”  seems to sell the different versions –the different narratives.

But there are variations with wonderful spiritual soundings as well.



I would hold that  the Easter Vigil Exultet Resurrection Narrative is deeper and better – and has more religion – Christianity and Judaism.

 
THE FRAGRANCE METAPHOR ON AN ELEVATOR
 
The title of my homily is, “The Metaphor of Fragrance.”
 
Spring has sprung.
 
We get on an elevator.
 
A beautiful young woman gets on the same elevator with us.
 
It’s Monday morning.
 
The elevator rises upwards.
 
The young woman fills the elevator with the fragrance of a rich perfume – as well as her beauty – her youth  - and her smile.
 
The fragrance is not overwhelming.
 
We close our eyes and breathe in everything.
 
She gets off on the 5th floor in her dark blue suit. It’s the floor for an accounting firm – where she works.  
 
Her fragrance remains – in the car – along with us.
 
We’re going to the 8th floor of this same office building. It’s filled with lawyers – one of whom we are scheduled to meet -  to take care of some family business – paper work -  for our mother – who is in a nursing home – sometimes with the fragrance of mom’s perfume and now incontinence at times.
 
Life.
 
The old and the young.
 
Fragrance.
 
We get the metaphor – the fragrances of life.
 
TODAY’S GOSPEL
 
We get today’s gospel – John 12: 1-11-  the story of Jesus feet being anointed by Mary.
 
We get the words  in today’s gospel, “the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil” – “the  liter of costly perfumed oil made from genuine aromatic hard”  - which Mary used to anoint the feet of Jesus and dried them with her hair….”
 
As priests here today on retreat we know what it’s like to be like Martha.  We serve.  We sweat the little stuff of service.
 
As priests we know what it’s like to be like Mary too.  We anoint babies with the sacred oil.  We anoint people when they are dying.
 
And the fragrance  of the sacraments remains with us – after the baptism – after we walk from the church – or the drive home from the hospital or the home of someone who is sick and we just visited them.
 
We itch our nose or chin and the fragrance of the oil is still on our right thumb.
 
We like the change of pace today’s gospel gives us.
 
The house of Martha, Mary and Lazarus – has the scent of wonderful.
 
Lazarus catches the scent and smiles – Lazarus who recently had the scent of death all over him – till Jesus showed up and  brought him back from the dead.
 
That house was sacramental.
 
That house had the scent of Christ in it.
 
A MESSAGE
 
We Christians are called to be like Christ: to be salt and light.
 
The world needs both.
 
How about the metaphor of fragrance?
 
How about the world needing the fragrance of Jesus Christ in it?
 
How about the Christian being described as a breath of fresh air?
 
None of us hopefully would like  to be described as “stinkos” – of full of s or being a bs-er.
 
None of us hopefully wants to be described as dead.
 
Death stinks.
 
Hopefully we are alive – all our life – that we fill the rooms we enter with the fragrance of grace – the  fragrance of Christ.
 
I love the question: what happens when we walk into a room?
 
Do we get an “Oh yes!” vote or an “Oh no!” vote?
 
I was stationed with a priest who told me he was standing there in the back of church and the announcer announced his name – Our main celebrant today is Father X – and he heard someone say out loud, “Oh no!”
 
That hurt – the fragrance of that hurt lingered in his brain for weeks.
 
I found out who said that.
 
I told him that the “Oh no!” voice guy was a PITA  person – but that didn’t help.
 
CONCLUSION
 
I’ve said enough for this homily on the metaphor of fragrances. 
 
Right now I gotta come up with a conclusion.
 
I guess today it could be – Be like Mary and spray the world with words of beauty – with the fragrance of love and care – not hurting words, etc.

Monday, March 29, 2021

 March  29,  2021

WHAT TO SAY AND
WHAT TO SING
AT  A  FUNERAL!
  

If you’re ever asked to say something
at someone’s funeral, “Don’t say ‘No!’”

Pray about it, think about it, and then say
something about the good of this person.
 
Make us laugh, make us cry, help the rest
of us deal with this person who has died.
 
Keep it short, keep it sweet, tell us their story
with faith and hope and please God, lots of charity.
 
Of course, they made mistakes, but we’re not
here for hell – we’re only here for heaven. Amen.

 

 
© Andy Costello, Reflections 2021

Video above from George Jones Funeral






March 29,  2021




Thought for the Day

“A comprehended God is no God at all.”

"Ein begriffener Gott is kein Gott.")


 

Gerhard Tersteegen

Sunday, March 28, 2021

 March  28,  2021

 

THIS  IS  ME!

 
Everyone once in a while we have
to say it – loud and clear, “Well, this is me!”
 
Type those three or four words on a card
and keep it in your wallet till the right moment.
 
Then take it out and hand to the person who
won’t accept you as is – and as you are.
 
Let them read that card you handed them.
Let them read, “Well, this is me!” “This is me!”
 
 © Andy Costello, Reflections 2021

 


 March  28,  2021

 


Thought for the Day

 

“Each person can interpret another’s experience only by his own.”

 

Thoreau