VIOLENCE  BEGETS VIOLENCE,

PEACE  BEGETS  PEACE!

 INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 9^th Monday in Ordinary Time is, “Violence Begets Violence, Peace Begets Peace.”

Today’s readings trigger this reality.

The history of the world can be summed up by the title of Tolstoy’s epic novel, War and Peace.

 It’s everyone’s story. It’s everyone’s novel - but war and peace is not novel. Adam and Eve enjoyed paradise - and walked with God in the cool of the evening - but a while later after the fall, Cain killed his own brother, Abel.

“Violence Begets Violence, Peace Begets Peace.”

I don’t know about you, but I wince when someone picks Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 for one of the readings for a wedding or a funeral.  I like some of the lines, but I don’t like hearing, “There’s a time for war and a time of peace.”

TODAY’S READINGS

Today’s first reading from Tobit has this wonderful story of Tobit not wanting to eat alone - so he sends his son Tobiah to go out and invite some poor kinsman - an exile - to come and share a big meal with him.

The son goes out and accidentally finds one of their people murdered in the marketplace - strangled.

He runs home and tells his dad. Tobit sprang to his feet - went and found the murdered man - brought the body back to his house and put him in one of his rooms  - so he could bury the man after sunset. Then he washed up - and ate his food in sorrow. After sunset he dug a grave and buried the murdered man.

Today’s first reading ends by Tobit saying, “The neighbors mocked me, saying to one another: ‘He is still not afraid! Once before he was hunted down for execution because of this very thing; yet now that he has scarcely escaped, here he is burying the dead!’”

“Violence Begets Violence, Peace Begets Peace.”

Today’s psalm talks about a good person, “His generosity shall endure forever, Light shines through the darkness for the upright; he is gracious and merciful and just.” Notice the contrast in that comment: darkness vs. generosity.

“Violence Begets Violence, Peace Begets Peace.”

Today’s gospel talks about tenants beating the servants of the vineyard they are renting two times and then killing the owner’s son the third time - then we hear about violence begetting more violence and killing.

And today’s gospel ends with the message that they wanted to kill Jesus because of his messages.

And basically he’s saying, “Violence Begets Violence, Peace Begets Peace.”

Jesus went against the basic human instinct to get back, to push for an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.

Violence makes us blind - and we react back at those whom we think wrongs us.

WE KNOW THIS

We know this.  If while driving someone rides up our backside - or beeps at us - or gives us the finger on the road from another car - our blood can start to boil. And then an “uh oh! can follow.

So too with comments and selfishness and disrespect. We do something for another and expect “quid pro quo” but others sometimes don’t do what we cant from them. They don’t do our will on how we want things to go - and sometimes anger knocks on our door or is like a crashing wave hitting our shore.

Down deep we know Jesus’ comments and commands about all this for our own good. Jesus tells us to turn the other cheek - go the extra mile - because that turns the tide against retaliation. When he died on the cross, he said, “Father forgive them, because they don’t know what they are doing.”  That works. It can stop the cycle of violence.

It might take time, a long time, for Jesus’ example to work - but it works according to Jesus.

ST JUSTIN

Speaking of violence, today is the feast of St. Justin the Martyr. He was beheaded, because he followed Christ.

Eventually Christianity conquers. Eventually peace arrives - if we go the way of the Peacemaker, Our Christ.

Notice that the church is beatifying Oscar Romero - who was a martyr - like St. Justin in our time. He called the leaders and the powerful - the military and the land owners - in El Salvador to stop the killing and the violence and and controlling and crushing the poor.

CONCLUSION

The title of my homily was, “Violence Begets Violence, Peace Begets Peace.”

If you get a chance read Archbishop Romero’s life - or see the movie about him - that is on TV from time to time. Romero had a conversion of heart - moving towards the poor and those pushed to the margins.

That brought about his death - being shot while saying Mass.

El Salvador is in a better place now - I’m sure with some help - from the example of Oscar Romero and Oscar Romero’s death.

We Catholics of this area - celebrate this change in our church - especially with the number of Salvadoran’s in our area - many of whom moved north because of violence begotten in their midst - and the forces that held them in poverty.

May peace take over!  May war disappear.

June 1st, 2015

DISCOVERY  CHANNEL  

I discovered God in bread and wine, 

ice cream bought for me and bacon 

and eggs brought to me for breakfast. 

Light and darkness - especially if there 

are stars stuck in the middle of that dark. 

I discovered God in mistakes and failures,

especially sin - better when I heard God

say I understand - but “Don’t be dumb!”,

“Don’t hurt others!”, “Don’t hurt yourself!”

And please, try, try --  try again and again.

I discovered God in mornings - after a

good sleep - seeing parents with kids while

going by swings at the park or teaching

their kids how to ride a bike or hit a

ball or catch a football or shoot a basket.

I’ve discovered God at weddings, boring

Church services, funerals filled with hurt

and tears, seeing silent - but powerful

sunsets - and the sky is filled with red,

orange and spray painted clouds in the West.

I’ve discovered God when I wasn’t looking

for God - at work,  in songs, on back roads,

traffic jams, in conversations with strangers,

sitting next to them on planes - and at times when I pray, but not always. Then there's the 
experience of love in relationships, family, friendships and God in the mix of it all.

And sometimes God says, “Turn the channel”

and I’ll meet you there - maybe, sometimes.”

© Andy Costello, Reflections, 2015

GOD

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this Holy Trinity Sunday is, “God for Dummies.”

THERE IS A GOD!

We have a family statement. It's “There is a God!”

We said it when my mom made Lemon Meringue Pie - and when my father brought home from work a big white box - 2 layers inside - of cookies. He worked for Nabisco - and every once and a while there was this big white box with Oreos, Raisin Cookies, Lorna Doone, and chocolate chip cookies - inside - in long rows.

“There is a God!”

But we  made  that statement the most when we played Rummy - and then when Shanghai Rummy became the game of choice. We’re sitting there getting closer and closer to victory - when someone discards our card and someone else picks it up - because we were not next. Inwardly came the scream, “Hey that’s my card!” That was our last chance to win. We’re dead meat. Then someone picked a joker - and out came our creed and our great act of faith, “There is a God.”

I always loved a story about Carl Jung - the Swiss psychotherapist and psychiatrist. Someone once asked him if he believed in God. His answer: “No.” Then he paused and said, “I don’t believe in God. I know there is a God.”

When I heard that, I said, “That sums up my basic understanding of God.”

I know there is a God.

It has always been obvious to me with every object in the universe.

It there is wood and stone and sky and stars - there is a star and planet maker.

If there is a chair, there is a chair maker.

If I’m sitting or standing here in this church this morning, there is a chair maker and a mom and dad who brought me into this world.

So I never argue with anyone who says, “I don’t believe in God.”

I smile.

So my first statement in this homily on, “God for Dummies” is simply, “There is a God!”

God is the Creator, the Maker, the Putter Togetherer, the Beginner.

Just listen to people. They announce to the world at least 3 times a day: “There is a God.”

Just listen.

I was on one of 3 buses with our high school kids - Juniors - going to and coming back from a retreat house in Malvern, Pennsylvania last week. They were making a 3 day retreat.

I didn’t count the number of, but I heard at least 10 times, the cry, “Oh my God!”

I’ve heard many times in confession, people confessing that they took the name of God in vain. If they are referring to an angry scream at another that God damn them. Okay, that’s in vain - because I don’t think our screams at another can damn another. I don’t think that’s what God is about.

But if they are confessing saying, “Oh my God!” they are not sinning. They are giving God a shout out: for a beautiful sunset - or for a whole flock of birds making better than Blue Angel twists and turns. Or they are mesmerized by a whole crowd of autumn trees in full autumn colors - or they see a near car accident. I sense those are all God moments - screams of joy and cries for God’s protection.

There is a God.

Every dummy should get that.

Just stand there and look into the night sky and look as far as your eyes can see.  Or if there is a TV program that shows the results of a sky probe  from a supersized electronic telescope, watch it. It  tells us how far out that sky goes as of now - and who knows how far out this universe or universes go.

There is a God.

When I saw my mom’s lemon meringue pie and my dad’s cookies, I knew there was a pie maker and a cookie bringer.

So too God the universe maker and creative force.

WHAT IS THAT MAKER LIKE - PERSONALITY LIKE?

The next reality in these comments about God for us Dummies is this: If we have chairs in our house and there are benches in this church, we know that chairs exist, but we don’t know what the chair or bench maker is like.

Here is where reason and revelation come in.

Reason tells us there is such a thing as gravity and fat people. We better build sturdy chairs.

Revelation -  when it comes to Religious Thought and Talk often is announced in manuscripts - books - that tell us what God is like.

This is where we move from reason to faith.

This is where we have traditions that are passed down from people with God experiences.

In our time and space - and in our hotel rooms we have not only the Bible - but also the Koran.

In the Jewish and Christian Scriptures we have statements - descriptions - about the meaning of life and of what God is like.

A rabbi at a wedding asked me if I had read the Koran yet. I said, “Nope!”

He said, “You better.”

So I bought a Koran - in English - and I began noticing the words “fire” and “burn”.

Is this God?

I got an orange magic marker and highlighted every time I saw burnings and firings on the pages of  my Koran. It now has lots of orange highlighting in it.

After doing this I began to notice similar destructive comments about the Jewish-Christian God in our Bible.

Uh oh!

Is that us - our projections on God - that we want God to wipe out those we don’t like?

I asked, “What is our God like?”

Which description is God.

THE TRINITY

Today is Holy Trinity Sunday.

Last night in doing some homework on the Trinity  for a sermon for today,  I kept reading that Christians are not that hot in explaining what their belief in the Holy Trinity consists in. I read that if someone who isn’t a Christian - asks Christian or a Catholic what they believe in - when it comes to the Trinity - they mangle their thoughts.

Hence the title of my homily was going to be “The Holy Trinity for Dummies.”  I decided to start with: “God for Dummies.”

The first statement about the Trinity would be to state that we Christians believe that God is three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - three persons yet one God.

Or when questioned we can simply make the Sign of the Cross: “In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

So we Christians know that first truth: “

We believe that this God is One - but is 3 Persons.  

I noticed that those who are monotheists - one God people - that we give praise and glory to this God of ours each day.

In Islam we can find out that they are asked to pray 5 times a day: dawn, midday, afternoon, sunset and then sunset.”

For example, here’s a typical morning prayer: “Allah is the Greatest!”

Allah is their name for God. It’s close to the Jewish word, “El” or “Elohim” for God.

Then chant in Arabic, “Praise and glory be to You, O Allah. Blessed be Your Name, exalted be Your Majesty and Glory. There is no God but You.”

A Jewish person might  as a morning prayer recite the Shema. “Hear, O Israel the Lord- is our God.” Then in an overtone the individual or the congregation will pray, “Hear, O Israel, the L-rd is our G-d, the L-rd is One.”

Then the community will  recite the following verse in an undertone:

“Blessed be the name of the glory of His kingdom forever and ever.”

Notice that we Christians can say and pray every morning: “Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be world without end. Amen.” And we could say it every night before going to sleep and every morning after waking up.

When we’re looking at all this and speaking about all this, know that we’re in the area of revelation and faith.

In mentioning this to others, we can say, we all are monotheists, but notice that we Christians see the One God as a Trinity of Persons.

We can add that when we state our beliefs we often use our creeds. We can use words from our creeds. “I believe in God the Father…. I believe in Jesus Christ his Son…. I believe in the Holy Spirit.”

We can add that we know what God is like - especially from Christ - what he tells us about his Father and his Spirit.

In Christ becoming flesh, we  Christians are blessed to discover stuff about the Carpenter and the Baker - the chair maker and the bread baker.

It’s Christ.

It’s Jesus of Nazareth.

We hear about him every Sunday at Mass in the gospels and from Paul.

CONCLUSION

Hopefully two things happen when we meet/ discover Jesus Christ.

We say, “Oh my God.”

And we say, “There is a God.”

For starters, that’s enough for us dummies.

 

May 31, 2015

TRINITY

Was it when God said,

“Let us make man in our own

image and likeness…”

that we got our first hint

that God is a Trinity?

Or was it when God said,

“It’s not good to be alone?” that

we got our first hint of the Trinity?

And so we make friendships,

get married and have babies.

When we read the scriptures

it seems that God certainly

is not alone or a loner.

Who wants to be alone?

Who wants to eat alone?

God certainly doesn’t and

we don’t either. We go

twogether into the ark, to

travel  and go here and there,

into our homes, into our world -

into its places and spaces.

So are all these meals that Jesus 

went to - all part of God’s compulsion 

to never be alone - to always be more

than 1 - more than 2 - to be 3 at least 
for starters? Amen. Amen. Amen.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2015

May 30, 2015

RANDOM

Weather, words, whatever….

The inside of an apple or a banana….

What’s going to happen today?

Hey, you never know? It’s random.

Yet, we have some powers in us, on

how we react, we respond, to random.
Go for it.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2015

May 29, 2015

IT DOESN’T MATTER

“Oh, it doesn’t matter!”

There I said it, but I really didn’t mean it.

It mattered and it hurt.

It hurt so much - that I wanted to run -

that I wanted to run away.

So I lied.

So I said, “It doesn’t matter.”

So I wonder - afterwards -

always afterwards - does it matter

if I lie, if I hide, if I bury hurts?

But if I admit it hurts, if I say

“It really hurts!” will what always

happens happen again:  more hurt...."

And I’ll walk away muttering,

“Oh, it doesn’t matter.”

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2015

May 28, 2015

       

  

INKY BLACK WATERS

The wake of the cruise ship was

words written, line after line,

words on the waters - in a

language I could not understand.

I stood there and tried and tried

to read what was said there on

the black waters of the Black Sea.

They were disappearing as we

sailed on and on and on. How

I wished these words became flesh

and there was Jesus walking and

talking on the waters once again.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2015