“Speak kind words and you will hear kind echoes.”
Someone,
hopefully
everyone.
Friday, March 27, 2020
Thursday, March 26, 2020
UPPITY
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily for this 4th Thursday
in Lent is, “Uppity.”
U P P I T Y – uppity.
It’s not a word that appears in today’s two readings:
Exodus 32: 7-14 and John 5: 31-47.
It’s not a word or a theme or an issue that appears in
our scriptures, but in another way, “It’s appears all over the place.”
I think a weekday homily – especially when talking to
each other – and who we are – is a chance to just throw some meat – not to get
some growls – but to trigger some thoughts – from something to chew on – cook
up – maybe get some nourishment from.
Hope that doesn’t sound “uppity”.
EXODUS
It’s a long road from Egypt to the promised land.
It’s a long Lent – those 40 years in the desert – for the
sand blasting conversion of the Israelites.
In today’s scene from Exodus the people have turned away
again from God and started to worship the Golden Calf.
And God describes them as stiff-necked.
In looking up the word “stiff-necked,” I spotted the word
“uppity”.
I also found the words inflated, snobby, ignoring,
arrogant, pompous, condescending, smug, egocentric, patronizing.
I liked “uppity” the most – with snooty in second place.
We can slip into those attitudes – about and with others.
TODAY’S GOSPEL
In today’s gospel Jesus is sort of in the same situation
as Moses is in – in the first reading.
Verbal arguing – nit picking conversations –
conflict is going on. Who and how God is
– is pulled into both conversations and verbal wrestling.
In today’s Gospel it’s Jesus and the Jews. In today’s First reading it’s Moses and the People in the desert with the
golden calf gleaming.
UPPITY
Uppity behavior takes place especially neck upwards –
starting with stiff necks.
Noses go up in the air.
Eyes are closed.
Heads shake.
Jaws tighten.
Minds get closed.
Ears don’t work.
When we have a good case of uppityness – we have stopped listening. We
look down on others as wrong, stupid, stuck in positions, atrophied, unread, low IQ, etc. etc.
Thinking about this I have never in my life wanted to be
someone else. I have heard that some people wish they were someone else. Nope,
not me, but I would like to have a
better musical ear – not for the sake of contributing to the choir – but just
to not hear digs for having a poor ear
for music.
Thinking about this I realized, “Okay I don’t want to be
anyone else – but there are people whom
I know I don’t want to be.
Now that might be the best learning in these first draft thoughts about the theme of “uppity”.
That’s where sins
of pride can poison me and I then use my tongue to put down others.
I assume I would do that to make myself look taller – not
to others out there – but to myself in
my inner conversations.
But I’m not sure about this yet. I only started thinking about uppity last
night.
I have thought about sins of pride – modern Pharisaic
thinking.
I have never had any desire to wash other’s feet or have
my feet washed by them.
So, there are people I have practiced social distance
from – for years now.
CONCLUSION
I don’t like myself when I put others down in my mind.
I suppose the goal should be some learnings from the John
the Baptist and Jesus Christ interplays in the gospels.
I need to decrease and Christ must increase.
The Father needs to increase.
John can be difficult, but I notice Jesus is often
referring to the Father - this One – this other Presence whom Jesus is
always pondering about.
Go back and read today’s gospel from John and notice the
Other.
Then there are the others – all these other people I know
– some of whom I write off. I need to change and accept others who have lights – who have tassels I need to touch
- I need to get some of their light to bop
off on me – like the light that jumped off John the Baptist – in today’s gospel
which others delighted in for a while.
March 26, 2020
IN THE AIR
Still there is a chill in the air …
But this year there is more:
the bug – C19 – causing great
frustration and inconvenience.
But still there is more:
Hopes. Spring. Rain. Buds.
Green. Birds. Flowers, Warmth….
And April is
coming. Slowly ….
Then there is the mystery
of how to deal with God
with closed churches and
this long dark tunnel.
© Andy Costello, Reflections 2020
Thought for Today
"Phyllis McGinley in her
poem, The Day after Sunday, comments of the perception of God she's
given by sermons coming from the pulpits of the land every Sunday. She
says, 'Always on Monday morning the press reports, "God is revealed to his
vicarage in his various guises, benevolent, stormy, patient, or out of
sorts. God knows which God is the God God recognizes."'"
Eric
Butterworth
Phylllis
McGinley,
1905-1978,
in The
Day
after Sunday
Wednesday, March 25, 2020
March 25, 2020
ANNUNCIATION
What’s new?
How about you?
What’s new?
What’s new?
This dang bug.
That’s new?
And watching the
different ways people
deal with inconvenience.
And patience -
and how folks don’t like
loss of control.
Yeah. Mark me
down for that one
especially.
And Mary …. Her way?
Questions and then,
“Okay God. Let’s do
this.”
© Andy Costello, Reflections 2020
Painting: The Annunciation
by Henry Ossawa Tanner, 1898
Painting: The Annunciation
by Henry Ossawa Tanner, 1898
March 25, 2020
Thought for Today
“At the bottom of his shaft the Mexican Miner
has a shrine of the Blessed Virgin, dressed usually in overall with a miner’s
hat cocked over her head. Here, when he goes to work, he prays for a day free
from accident; and before leaving, many a peon prays again, this time that the
high-grade ore he has stolen and hidden about himself will not be discovered.”
John van Steen
Tolman in “Travel”
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