Monday, March 9, 2015

March 9, 2015

THE MOST POWERFUL KING – 
WELL, WITH ONE EXCEPTION


He was the most powerful king in all the world. 
He controlled everything – everything but one thing. 
He controlled the money, the meetings, the agenda.
He controlled everything – everything - except being able 
to get his own baby or any baby to look him in the eye - 
when he wanted them to. This drove him crazy. 
His baby daughter – even when he was wearing his best crown, best robe, best beard had a mind of her own. She would be following the man on the lawn mower going back and forth on their front lawn just outside their big window – or the cat or the dog sitting there on the other side of the big room. He slowly learned: even the biggest, 
the brightest and the best can’t control everything –
and one time there he got the thought: “Is that why Christ came as a baby? Is that why Christ died on the cross."

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2015


Sunday, March 8, 2015




THE  SACRED TEMPLE


INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 3rd Sunday in Lent - Year B - is, “The Sacred Temple.”

Most religions have sacred places and sacred centers.

They are the places that hold us together.

They are the places of prayer and silence and wow.


MAKE LISTS



For Catholics, it could be Rome, Lourdes, Fatima, our local church, a favorite church we went to as a kid or where they  have an a adoration chapel.

For Mormons, it could be Salt Lake City.

For Moslems,  it could be a hajj or pilgrimaGe to a sacred place like Mecca, Madinah, Jerusalem. 

For Jews it could be Jerusalem.

For Japanese Buddhists it could be Kyoto.

If you were asked to tell of your most sacred place,  what would be your answer? On the way home or at a meal today, announce to each other your most sacred place – or places - built by people or formed by nature.

I wanted to go to 7 places: Israel (preferably the Lake of Galilee), Chartres Cathedral near Paris, St. Peter’s in Rome, Scala, Italy (just above the Amalfi Coast) – where the Redemptorists began in 1732, the birthplaces of my mom and dad in Galway Ireland, and  the Grand Canyon. Got to all of them in like a 5 year window.

SACRED AND SECULAR

It could be places where we went to school, places where we went to church.

It could be places where we met and fell in love, got engaged, got married, went on a honeymoon. It could be a cemetery – or Ocean City – or where have you.


It could be a Hall of Fame or a Hall of Shame.


It could be places of horror or holocaust - places like Auswitz, Hiroshima, Pearl Harbor, the New World Trade Center built after 9-11.

They are places of pause and awe.

Those places are inside our minds  - as well as our heart – as well as on this planet.

In general, they are actual physical places, but they also have to be in our mind and heart, in our skull, in our being, in our memory, in our inner temple. Otherwise, we would be more like an animal.

TODAY’S GOSPEL

In today’s gospel from John, we have the scene of the cleansing of the temple. It’s one of the few scenes that are in all 4 gospels.

As I was reading about this scene from the gospels – I couldn’t help but think about the Isis group that is destroying sacred places in Iraq etc. I’ve been reading articles that they want to destroy a lot more Jewish and Christian places – as well as ancient holy places of worship.

I want to read some articles about the destruction recently of statues and very ancient cultural and religious images and statues by Isis. I winced and felt anger – just as what I felt when the Taliban destroyed those ancient Buddhas in Afghanistan. One was 165 feet high and the other 114 feet high – both wonders of the ancient world and sacred – both pilgrimage places – for people from China and Japan and elsewhere.

I need to compare Jesus' angry dissent the day he cleansed the temple - to the anger these folks who destroy shrines and holy images - and much worse - kill people.

Is that what folks felt that day in the temple when Jesus overturned the money changers tables and with a whip drove out the animals in the temple.

Is one a purging; is the other a destructive outburst?

I remember a mother telling me that at least 3 times she went into an uproar with her kids for the mess they were making of their home and ruining the family. She would open up a dining room cabinet with her best plates and start tossing them and breaking them all.  Each time she got their attention – for a while.

I want to read some articles about what goes on peoples’ minds and hearts when these things happen in their lives.  

What about when people violate the sacredness of their marriage and their marriage bed?

What about the horror of child abuse – by priests, teachers, family members.

Haven’t we all heard the comment: Is anything sacred anymore?

THE INNER TEMPLE

In today’s gospel from John, we hear Jesus talk about the sacred temple that is invisible - the one inside our person, inside our being.

In the gospel of Matthew, we hear Jesus talk about the inner room – the sacred inner room inside each of us.

What does that look like? Is it vacant? Is it dirty? Is it a disaster?

Some people don’t get that.  Some people had no clue what Jesus was talking about when he talked about the temple in Jerusalem taking 46 years to build – and the temple that he was – would be destroyed - but will be rebuilt n 3 days.  

Christianity talks about the inner temple in a human being – that it is a sacred place – and asks the question: “Do we enter that sacred place every day.”

CONCLUSION

Lent is a good time to spend time in our inner being.

The first step is the cleansing – the so called Purgative Way.

Lent is a good time to go into churches, adoration chapels, but above all – to go into our very desert, inner room, and get in touch with our very being.

Today’s gospel ends with mention that Jesus knew the human heart.

Lent is a good time to go daily into our inner temple – check it out – cleanse it out and be in communion with Christ within.

I like quiet back benches in dark afternoon churches – with nobody there but Christ and myself.

I like a comfortable chair in my room – in a corner – a chair I call my prayer chair.

I think time spend in inner rooms – helps my time in outer rooms – outer chairs and benches – like Sunday Mass in a temple like this.

Amen.



March 8, 2015


AFTERWARDS

Afterwards,
aftertaste,
afterthought,
after all
is said and done,
why should
I accept
your comment
that there isn’t
a heaven
and a hell?
Who the hell
do you think
you are, God?

© Andy Costello, Reflections
March 7, 2015

SILENCE

Sometimes silence is louder than words

Sometimes words solve the silence.

Sometimes silence heals the situation

Sometimes words build the bridge.

Sometimes silence is just what we need.

Sometimes words are the only solution.

Sometimes silence says a thousand words.

Sometimes a thousand words say nothing.

Sometimes silence breaks the tension.

Sometimes a word breaks the silence of a year.

Sometimes silence is too loud.

Sometimes silence is the right move.

Sometimes silence is wrong.

Sometimes silence is empty loneliness

Sometimes silence makes it worse.

Sometimes silence is passive aggression.

Sometimes words reactivate aggression

Sometimes silence is the best response.

Sometimes silence is the way to go.

Sometimes silence is lonely.

Sometimes silence is only silence.

© Andy Costello, Reflections

Friday, March 6, 2015

March 6, 2015

THERE  ARE  NO  ATHEISTS 

Everyone has a religion,
something or someone
they want to wrap their life,
their nights and days around.

Everyone has a God
that they worship and adore:
the dollar, the bottle,
the one they gladly give their Sundays
and often the rest of the week to.

Everyone has their meanings,
their reasons for living,
their songs and their movies,
their texts, their scriptures,
chapter and verse.

Everyone has their pope,
their authority, their rock,
their traditions - they might 
not know it, but they have them.

Everyone has a love,
themselves, herself, himself,
someone or something.

Everyone has gifts, wealth,
no matter who they are,
or where they are.

Everyone has a spin around.
What's your name for your God?
Enjoy your Merry-Go-Round -
even if it's broken or your fix it.




© Andy Costello, Reflections
March 5, 2014

BLANK  CANVAS


The painter starts with still life:
apples, bananas, peaches,
pears, plums. Then they move
onto flowers, mountains, oceans,
lakes, and then finally, you and me.
We’re into Genesis – beginnings.
Take your time – soon there will be
trouble in paradise and soon you’ll
hear for sure – what paradise is.
Amen


© Andy Costello, Reflections.
March 4, 2015


OPEN UP, O LORD

Break through
the boundaries
of draught,
locked skies,
missing cloud sky,
inactive space.

Pour down upon us, O Lord,
rain, rain,
water, water,
so we can live,
so we can grow,
so we can know you,
Lord, above and below
And deep in
the living waters.


© Andy Costello, Reflections, 2015