December 10, 2018

A  STORY

I was doing something else 

when a story came to me. 

I liked it.  It will work. 

Stupid me didn’t stop to  

write it down or type it out. 

Now I can’t remember it. 

Is it gone forever?  

I’ll never know because  

I can’t remember what it 

was in the first place. Does 

this ever happen to you? 

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2018

December 10, 2018

Thought for today: 

“Stories are medicine.”  

Clarissa Pinkota Esters

SIN  AS  PARALYSIS

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 2^nd Monday in Advent is, “Sin As Paralysis.”

Sin can paralyze us. Sin can cripple us.  Sin can cause spiritual strokes and misses.  Sin can weigh us down. 

Say the wrong thing. Do the wrong thing. Don’t do the right thing…. Well then when these things happen we can feel the nag of sin and dumb for days, weeks, and for years….

TODAY’S GOSPEL

This is a message from today’s gospel - Luke 5: 17-26.

This man in today’s gospel is paralyzed.  His buddies hear about Jesus as a healer and they bring him to Jesus for healing. They get to the house where Jesus is - and the crowd is blocking them from getting to Jesus - so they climb up on the roof - remove some tiles. Then they lower him in his stretcher right through the hole in the roof into the presence of Jesus.

It’s quite a scene.

Luke makes the story even better and more dramatic by connecting it with sin - as well as the Scribes and the Pharisees - who have no use for Jesus.

PENANCE SERVICES

This gospel story from Luke 5 is often chosen for Penance Services.

We just had the kids making their first confession last Saturday - and the text every year is the story of Zacchaeus being invited into Jesus house by Jesus himself.

And the crowd whispers: “This man dines with sinners and eats with them.”

I prefer today’s story that describes sin as paralysis.

SIN AS STONES

I like to talk about sins as stones which we can hold onto by putting them into a pack on our back.

We can even ball point pen what our sins are.

They weigh us down. They slow us down. They are heavy.

At times we can throw them at others.

We can throw them at the Lamb - who takes away the sins of our world.

Jesus said, “Let him or her without sin cast the first stone.”

Our sins can hurt others - as well as ourselves.

Yet Jesus can take them away.

CONCLUSION

Today’s gospel tells us this basic message.

Ooops …. Better give some good news as well.

Today’s first reading from Isaiah 35: 1-10 gives us the opposite.

Instead of gathering sins, we can gather flowers. We can  become a beautiful orchard. We can bloom.  We can then run better. We can then be better as a human being. Amen.

December 9, 2018

MOSAIC

The colored stones

touched and touched,

glued together -

forming a picture,

but like everything in life,

I was too close to see

what I was missing.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2018

On top - Roman mosaic of Ulysses, 
from Carthage, 2nd century AD, 
now in the Bardo Museum, Tunisia

RE-DO

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this Second Sunday in Advent - Year C -  is, “Re-Do”.

It’s spelled, “re-hyphen-do” or simply “redo”.

I think it’s a good word and a good theme that can sum up today’s first and third readings.

Re-Do.

FIRST READING

The first reading is from the scroll called Baruch. It’s a Jewish document, but not in the Jewish Bible, but it was in the Septuagint - the Greek Old Testament from the Jewish community in Alexandria and our Bible comes from that. So it's in that Bible - which the Catholic Church uses. [Cf. Baruch 5: 1-9.]

Commentators place it the Babylonian Captivity or Exile [586-538 B.C.] - where Jewish leaders - were talking about and hoping from a return to Jerusalem.

They wanted a re-do - a return - a restoration - a re-beginning -  of Jerusalem and their country.

The mountains will be leveled and the gorges will be filled up.

I’m sure parts of California - that were burnt big time - want a similar re-do.

GOSPEL

The Gospel for this Sunday - from Luke  - Chapter 3: 1-6 -  talks about John’s Baptism - which John proclaimed was to be  a moment for repentance - a starting all over again.

John brought all those interested in renewal to the river. He brought them to the other side of the Jordan - to the spot - to the  moment - to the reenactment - the crossing - the re-crossing of the Jordan River. Their ancestors coming from Egypt had just spent 40 years  in the dessert. They crossed over to the other side of the Jordan river - into the Promised Land - to begin a new life.  They were to be a new people - ready for a re-do - a new start - a new beginning.

Notice Isaiah's images in this gospel reading: every valley shall be filled - every mountain will be made low - the rough ways will be made smooth. 

It’s the same hope as we heard in the first reading from Baruch. In other words - traveling will be much smoother. Life will that much easier from now on.

RE-DO’S

Think about re-do’s in life.

Sometimes marriages don’t work.

Sometimes relationships don’t work - jobs don’t work - investments don’t work. 

Sometimes kids pick the wrong college for them. So too homes or a neighborhood. They take a loss and move on.

Sometimes people try again from where they are; sometimes people make a fresh start elsewhere.

I’m willing to bet if you walk down to waters here in Annapolis, you’ll find a boat or two, with the name, “Second Chance” on it.

I love stories about people who get a second chance - and they re-do their lives.

I hope prisons offer  courses and training for people who want to start all over again. Others just  do their time and finally get out - no different than the day they went  into prison.

Advent - Lent - are seasons preparing us for re-do’s.

I spent 14 years of my life in two different retreat houses: 7 years in Tobyhanna, Pennsylvania, in the Poconos and 7 years  in Long Branch,  New Jersey, on the ocean - where people came for a weekend or longer to ponder a re-do - a retreating - a renewal of their lives.

I spent 8 ½ years of my life in my last assignment in Lima, Ohio - giving parish missions - out of there, mostly in rural Ohio. A Parish Mission is a Redemptorist hallmark - with the idea of challenging people to look and re-look at their life - and see what has to be re-done.

EVERY DAY REDO’S

Or take everyday re-do’s in life.

Haven’t we all had the experience of walking into a room or a situation and all goes wrong. We say something - or someone says something - and it’s a disaster.

How many times in such a moment - have we been tempted to say, “Wait a minute. Let’s redo this moment? Let’s try this again?”

So we step out of the room - take a deep breath - and then come back into the room - as if the last coming into the room didn’t happen.

We could even say, “It’s a redo.”

It’s a do-over.

And we say out loud, “Let’s try this again.”

In football, I’m sure Navy can’t wait till next December for another re-do.  Besides that it sells t-shirts.

In baseball, it’s a rare game, it’s a rare day, when someone goes 4 for 4 or hits 4 home runs.

Hitting .333 ain’t bad - that’s one for three.

Why can’t we say,  "That’s not bad - that’s life."  

Can’t we realize that re-do’s are part of life.

I like it when I have at least 2 Masses on a weekend. I can straighten out my homily and get it right - or better - the next time.

It’s not as easy in conversations - especially when we say the wrong thing the first time.

CONCLUSION

The message and the  hope of this sermon is: forgiveness, conversion and trying again.

The message of this homily is saying and hearing, “I’m sorry.”

The message of this homily is  second chances, 7 times 7 chances, coming home with the hope someone there saying, “Welcome” - even though often there might be someone who is older who won’t forgive.  Whenever that happens, please re-read the Prodigal Son story and notice that the forgiving father went out and tried to get the unforgiving brother a second chance to forgive his younger brother. 

In golf - miniature or on grass - the others might not give us a re-do - but hopefully in life - God and others give re-do’s - do-overs - lots of mulligans.

This will be a successful sermon or homily if someone here says to their spouse or family member - in the coming week - in the coming year.

“Let’s do a re-do!”

ooooooooooooooooooooo

P.S.  If Father Tizio was giving this homily he would make the following comment.  As you know you’re allowed 16 marriages - 16 re-do’s: 4 better, 4 worse, 4 richer, 4 poorer.

December 9, 2018 

Thought for today: 

“I remembered in a speeding BMW in Boston one spring evening, that whatever spirituality is, it is not something to be discovered. It is something to be recovered - something you misplace and   recover a thousand times in a lifetime.”  

Renta J. Weems

DON’T  BE  AFRAID!

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this feast of the Immaculate Conception  is, “Don’t Be Afraid.”

At this Mass we’re celebrating Mary - the Mother of Jesus - the New Eve.

TODAY’S FIRST READING

In today’s first reading from Genesis 3: 9-15, 20, Adam says “I was afraid.”

God is looking for Adam  in the garden, where he is hiding from God. God says, “Where are you?” And Adam says, “I heard you in the garden, but I was afraid, because I was naked.”

And God says, “Who told you that you were naked? You have eaten the forbidden fruit.”

Then he blames Eve and they blame the snake.

We have here a profound story. It gets at the heart of who we are.

We want to walk with God. We want to be with God.  We want the world to be a beautiful garden. But we mess up. We eat the forbidden fruit.  That’s the naked truth.

And so we are afraid.

The word “afraid” appears 103 times in the English translation of our Bible. The word “fear” appears 454 times.

“Waira” is the root Hebrew word for “fear” or “afraid”.  Phobos” is the word for “fear”  in Greek. “Fear” and “afraid” are the key words in English.

And we hear 454 million times in our lives: “Don’t be afraid.”  We say that to ourselves and to others.

The naked truth is we are afraid.

We are afraid of God, ourselves, and others.

We’re afraid of failure, being seen, making mistakes, sinning, striking out, being rejected, failing.

TODAYS GOSPEL

In today’s gospel - an angel comes to Mary - it’s another basic human story - and says, “Hail full of grace! The Lord is with you.”

And she is greatly troubled. She ponders with an “Uh Oh!’ - the two sounds we say all our lives when we see a request coming, “Uh oh!”

And the angel asks her to bring Christ to our world.

The angel begins by saying, “Don’t be afraid.”

And she says that she can’t do it.  She’s not married. She has had no relations with a man.

And the angel says, “The Holy Spirit will come to you, and the power of the most high will overshadow you, and you will bring the Holy One to this world.

CONCLUSION:   US

These two stories are our story.

We want to be with God - we want to walk with God - but like Adam and Eve and unlike Mary - we sneak like snakes and take the forbidden fruit.

Yet God still calls us to be his mother and bring the most high to our world.

And we’re afraid.

Yet God still calls us each day.   God still sends angels to us each day and says, “the Lord is with you” - And “Don’t be afraid.”

Hopefully we all say what Mary said, “Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me according to your word.”