February 20, 2015

RAIN

Rain,

the wash of rain,

perfect at times,

but sometimes

rain can drain

even the optimist

amongst us.

Yet it washes

sidewalks, cleans

buildings, provides

hope to the hopeless,

and tells all of us,

there is new life coming.

Hey, without water,

we wouldn’t be here.

Without water, we

wouldn’t exist. Without

water we couldn’t pray,

Without water, we wouldn’t

yell out to you our God,

“I thirst.” And you wouldn’t

have had been able to say,

“If anyone thirsts, let them

come to me!”

© Andy Costello, Reflections, 2014

40  DAYS  TO  A MORE 

POWERFUL  YOU 

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this Friday after Ash Wednesday is, “40 days to a More Powerful You.”

When I was a kid my brother came upon a book, “Thirty days to a More Powerful Vocabulary.”

For about the next 30 days, we would see him in a real different mode.

He we would open his new word’s book every morning and start using a strange new word all day long. The word I liked the most was, “ses – qui – pe – dalion”.

It means a person who uses long words.

To break this word down from the Latin, it means “a foot and a half long”. Sesqui means “one and a half”; “ped” means “foot”.

It got us to grab the dictionary and try to stump him with a big word.

Looking back now 60 years later, the only word I remember him using  was that word, “ses – qui – pe – dalion”.

LENT

Lent is 40 days to practice some virtue or religious practice.

You know the only saying, “How do you get to Carnegie Hall: answer – practice, practice, practice.

We were taught the old Latin saying from Ovid:” Gutta cavat lapidem – non vi sed saepe  cadendo.” Drop, by drop, but not by force, the rock gets a hole in it.”

So basketball players, practice the same shot over and over and over again.

So in Lent, we practice every day something like fasting, or praying, or reading. That’s what those little books – with spiritual reading for every day of Lent is about.

So today’s first reading and gospel get at fasting.

One will lose weight from fasting of food – and if it’s well done, one becomes more disciplined.

And Isaiah 58 – today’s first reading – tells us what kind of fasting to do: being nicer to others. Not being on everyone’s case. Being more thoughtful. Less gossip. Less fighting.

Do this stuff – day by day by day – one becomes thinner in ego and unhealthy pride.

Do this stuff to be seen – one becomes fatter and   fatter with self-centeredness.

CONCLUSION

And doing all this inwardly – one notices in oneself – breakthroughs in being a more powerful spiritual person. Amen.

February 19, 2015

GREAT ANSWER EVERY TIME

“Enjoying life.”

Why do those two words

usually bring a step back response

when someone asks,

“How’s it going?’ or

“What are you doing?”

“Enjoying life!”

Actually tasting the taste of an orange

or the spaghetti sauce or the raspberry

sherbet or the coffee bean in the coffee.

Actually praying the words and picturing

an enemy or a person who annoys us– 
when we pray, “Forgive us

our trespasses as we forgive those

who trespass against us?”

Stopping to ask a kid his favorite game

or her favorite song or favorite flavor

of ice cream?

“Enjoying life.”

You can bet, I am. How about you?

“Enjoying life.”

© Andy Costello, Reflections, 2015

DISAPPEARING  ACT 

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “Disappearing Act.”

Today is Ash Wednesday.

Ashes are put on our forehead and sometime before tomorrow morning they will have disappeared.

Today’s first reading and Gospel tell us about doing acts of penance – and religious deeds – but not to do them to be seen.

So we do this public act of penance on Ash Wednesday – but now for the rest of Lent – we are called to do what we do for penance privately – pray, fast, give alms, make sacrifices for others – but not to be seen.

TWO PRAYERS

There are two different prayers or formulas the person giving us ashes can say.

The first is, “Repent and believe in the Gospel.”

The second is: “Remember you are dust and into dust you shall return.”

I prefer the second – the older formula – the almost 2000 year old formula.”

“Remember you are dust and into dust you shall return.”

Remembering that, recalling that, every day for 40 days – not a bad idea – to help us grow in spirituality – to give us a growth spurt in the spirit.

It brings us back to our origins.

Suggestion: take your rosary and say that formula on all 59 beads – thinking about what we’re saying. It takes no more than 2 minutes a day.

GENESIS 2:7 AND 3:19

In the most primitive parts of the book of Genesis – the first book of the Bible,  we have these 2 texts – that in the beginning God formed us out of the earth, the dust, the soil, the mud - Genesis 2:7. That was how we began our Genesis in our mother’s womb. In Genesis 3:19 – the message is about our ending – the other side of our life.  Someday we’ll be going back into the earth – into the dust  from which we came.

Question: What to think and pray about during Lent?

Answer: See reality. See that we are a disappearing act.

Brand new socks age. Socks get holes in them. I made sure the two socks I’m wearing today – have holes in them. They are slowly disappearing.

Skin wrinkles. We age.  We are disappearing acts. I see mine happening at the age of 75 on the inside part of my arms – right below my elbows.

The song ends. The movie ends. The piece of pie has that last bite. The banana, the pear, the apple ages. It browns. It’s tossed or we eat it and it becomes it.

Human beings are disappearing acts.

Does anyone know whom their great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, ancestors in the year 1015 were or in the year 15?

We die. We disappear. But is that it? Is this are there is?

That is the question. Everyone consciously or unconsciously asks that question all their lives – at a health scare, another’s death, or what have you.

This is the major question, wondering, worry, we are challenged to look at during these 40 days of Lent.

Come Good Friday – Christ  - God – is killed – on the cross.

Lent ends with Easter – Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again to take us to himself – into heaven, into the whole human race – who have gone before us.

CONCLUSION

Yes we are disappearing acts – but the reappearance of Christ after his death – is our ticket to ride forever.  At some point we’ll all be forgotten – unless we’re another Rembrandt or Michelangelo or Elvis Presley – we’ll have disappeared from history and anyone knowing we were here – but we believe in the reappearance after our disappearance.

We can’t make that happen – only Christ – only God – can do that.

There’s centerpiece of our existence and we’re called to reflect up this every year in this season of Lent. Amen.

February 18, 2015

SELF TEST # 9

Which of the following is more me?

Lost and Found?

Light and Darkness?

Sheep and Goat?

Prodigal Son and Complaining perfect son?

Sin and Grace?

Good Thief vs. Bad Thief on the Cross?

Good Tree vs. Bad Tree?

Wheat vs. Weeds?

© Andy Costello, Reflections  2015

HAVE  ANY  REGRETS?

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 6^th Tuesday in  Ordinary Time is, “Have Any Regrets.”

The word “regrets”  appears in today’s first reading - the Story of Noah and his Ark. It's in Genesis 6:7ff where God says he regrets having made us.

Bummer.

How many parents have had that feeling when they look at their kids – and the only thing they see is their kids destructive behavior or infighting.

Grandparents show pictures of their kids in the midst of their successes – but we tend to keep secret any disasters in the family.

Obviously.

THE STORY OF NOAH

The story of Noah and his ark is familiar to all of us.

It’s telling us so much.

Like every parent God has positive hopes for all of us.

Yet in this story, there is so much sinful behavior that God decides to flood the earth and kill everyone – except for Noah and 2 of every animal. “Male and female he made them.”

It’s a great parable – a great fable – a big story with great imagery – and has many powerful messages

It’s one of the favorite Bible stories for  kids – perhaps they only see the mysterious magical sides of the story.

In the long run God doesn’t feel total hopelessness. It sounds like he has regrets for his regrets – as well as his plan to destroy the people of the world. He expresses his hope for his original dream – by leaving room for 2 of each animal in the ark – male and female he made them.

Just as from Adam and Eve we all came forth – now from Noah and his family -  male and female we came forth.

WE ALL LIVE IN A YELLOW SUBMARINE

When I picture Noah’s ark, I hear in my mind the Beatles song, “We all live in a yellow submarine.”

                   Our house is an ark.

                   Our city is an ark.

                   Our country is an ark.

                   Our planet is an ark.

The history of the world is the history of ups and downs, good and bad times, times of “regrets” and times of “good moves”.

UNRAVELING THE REGRETS

Regrets can destroy us. We can drown ourselves in tears and self-pity – and that can be our further undoing.

Regrets can depress us.

Regrets can also be the start of something new.

George Eliot, the writer, described regrets as the beginning of a new life.

I would nuance that by adding that regrets can be the nudge to get us to move better into a better life,

Scratch a regret and hopefully we’ll find a motive for a fresh start. Better, “Scratch a regret and we might make a fresh start.”

Is that why God flooded the earth? So that we might begin a new life. Do regrets get us to face the original motive for the original start.

CONCLUSION

I said this story has so many possible implications, so many indications, so many feelings we have all felt.

A team gets sick and tired of losing – because of poor management – or because players don’t care – that the owner wipes the team clean and begins a new start up – from the bottom up.

A person gets caught in a horrible marriage. They try everything. There is abuse or affairs or alcoholism – those are just words beginning with A – that cause us to cry and eventually start screaming, breaking plates and furniture – and then after the anger and the destruction they begin once again – one step at a time.

Regrets are one of life’s realities.

Listen to them.  They can be the beginning of a beautiful new beginning.

February 17, 2015

ARTHRITIC   HANDS 

He stood there at his dad’s hospital bed –

rubbing his dad’s shoulder – knowing

there was only so much time left in his old body.

His dad must have been down to 144 pounds by now.

He knew death was now in that room along with the whole

family and tears and wonderings about, “What’s next?”

With one hand still on his dad’s bony shoulder,

he reached for his father’s hand with his other hand.

He held it. He moved it. He lifted it. He rubbed it.
He wanted his dad to give him some kind of a signal 
with a grab or a grasp that he knew we were all here.

At first there was no response – but he didn’t give up.

He then took his dad’s hand into his hand again.

He held both hands. He was gentle – because the

arthritis in both of his father's  hands had made 
him bumpy and boney.

As he was holding his daddy’s hands with his hands,
obvious memories flowed from his dad to him.

He remembered his daddy’s hands lifting him
onto his 2 wheel bike as he walked him 10 times 
around the block. His daddy’s hands were his training wheels.

His remembered his daddy’s hands feeding him 
and leading him and showing him how to throw
a football and how to hold a fishing rod.

Their hands were joined spontaneously in a circle 
around their daddy.  Their dad was unconscious, 
but they were very conscious of this being close
to being a last moment with daddy. They said 
a  loud "Amen" together. Suddenly their dad said 
an added “Amen” - as his eyes sparkled. They 
closed their eyes and held their hands tighter. 
Two minutes later he was dead - surrounded 
by love with all hands were on deck: family.

For some reason they separated hands and started
clapping, clapping, and clapping - tears, tears,
tears.

© Andy Costello, Reflections, 2015