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February 25, 2014
Spirituality/Family Life
Fr. Brendan McGuire is pastor of Holy Spirit Parish in San Jose and a Vicar
General of the Diocese of San Jose. As Vicar General, he is responsible
for special projects such as the recently launched Saint Katharine Drexel
Initiative to revitalize Catholic Schools in the Diocese. Before being ordained
in 2000, Fr. Brendan was an executive in a technology company and still
loves to use technology such as Facebook, podcasts and YouTube to bring
people to a deeper relationship with Christ. Email him at [email protected].
Sunday, March 9, 2014
Listening to the Right Sounds
There is an ancient Greek myth that speaks of how sirens used to play such
beautiful sweet music on the Greek Islands that any of the ships passing by would
be lured in by its beauty. The sailors would come closer to the island to see where
the music was coming from, drifting all the way into the harbor. At that time the
Greeks would attack them and take all the merchandise from their ship.
The music was so sweet that no sailor could pass anywhere close to the Greek
Islands without being lured into this trap. When sailors passed the Greek Islands
they would put wax into their ears and try to not hear the lure of the music. Even
then the beautiful sound could be heard through the wax and the sailors pursued
the music to see where it was coming from.
Orpheus was a wise man and the captain of several vessels. When he passed
the Greek Islands, he took out his lire and played a more magnificent melody and
even sweeter music than the Greeks could produce. His sailors only listened to his
music and were never lured into the islands.
In our own time, we get lured by the sound of the music of our world that lures
us away from what we know is often the right choice. The music from the world
is often so sweet that we find ourselves being drawn in and destroyed by the very
thing that we hear. For example, the lure of the voices of our world tell us that we
need to buy the latest of everything; whether it be a phone, car, shoes or house. It
sounds so good, but we know inside our hearts we don’t really need all these things.
It is not just outside music that tempts and lures; sometimes it is also the inner
music: the inner voice of self-doubt or maybe the inner voice of grudges or hatreds
that we hold onto. In the end we know that it is actually destroying us; we know
that somehow these voices are luring us away from what the Lord asks us to do.
The readings for the First Sunday of Lent remind us which voice we ought to
listen to. We hear the epic story of the fall of Adam and Eve: Eve listened to the
serpent, as an alternative voice from God, followed that voice into the harbors of
danger and found herself destroyed and Adam with her. Jesus spends 40 days in the
desert and is tempted to listen to a voice other than God’s but he resists and hears
only the beauty of God’s music.
Every one of us will be tempted to listen to different music, other voices other
than the Lord’s. We need to truly listen to God’s voice and come to love it so as not
to be distracted by others.
T
he Valley Catholic
Sunday, March 2, 2014
Bundle of Old Rags
Once upon a time, there was a noble king who celebrated the anniversary of
governance over his kingdom. He invited everyone to celebrate with him in his
palace banquet hall. There was only one condition: everyone was to wear formal
attire.
A young apprentice carpenter, Peter, knew he was not able to go because he
did not have any formal attire. On the afternoon of the actual party, Peter went
to the palace looking inside and wondering what the festivities would be like.
Just then, somebody asked him, “Why are you so sad young man?” Startled, he
turns around and sees that it is the king himself. “Oh, your majesty, I’m sorry,
I didn’t know it was you.” He stumbled over his words as he said, “I cannot go
to the reception because I do not have the fine clothing that you have required.”
“No, I’ll have none of that,” says the King and he calls his son and tells Peter
to go with his son. “He will give you the clothes that you need; you must come
to the reception.”
So the Prince gladly takes him into the palace and gives him a beautiful set of
clothes telling Peter that these are fine garments, made of fine linen, silk and wool
and they will last much longer than those clothes that Peter was wearing. He then
asks Peter, “Give me your clothes and we will throw them away.” But Peter says,
“No. No. No. I may need these clothes.”
But the Prince tells him, “No. If you need more, come to me and I will give you
another set of clothes.” But Peter insists all the more; “No, no, I don’t know when
I might need these.” So the young Prince let him be. Peter bent down, picked up
his bundle of old rags, put them under his arm and went into the recep [ۈ