Spirituality
June 10, 2014
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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].
Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi) • June 22, 2014
Invite to the Banquet Feast
Imagine for a moment a very large banquet room with a large buffet table, full of all kinds
of food. One can smell the food from the furthest corner of the room. It is open seating so
anyone can sit anywhere.
There are two types of people in the room itself. The first type of person helps themselves,
going to the buffet as often as they want. The other remain seated at the table, but they are
not eating at all. They do not go to the buffet table whatsoever, because they are waiting to
be served.
The doors are wide open, and outside of the room, there are yet two more types of people.
First, there are those who see the food, they smell it, but they don’t want to enter. Then, there
are those who are starving, they do not recognize that it is an open invitation; they don’t
really know what is happening in there but they know they are hungry and the smell makes
then even more hungry.
This room is called the Catholic Church. At the center of the room is our banquet feast
we call Eucharist. It is the center of everything we do as Catholics. Those who are inside the
room, who go and feed themselves at the table are those who choose to be part of the Church
and come to Eucharist regularly. But the largest portion of those who are in the room, do not
eat of the feast. Over 70% of Catholics do not go to Church on a regular basis.
Outside the room are the people who have never been invited to enter; they do not know
what is happening inside. Some are nourished at other churches and do not feel the need to
enter but most have never even heard the message of Christ, never even invited to the table.
We do not know why people, who are part of the Catholic Church, are not going to Church
anymore. Maybe it is because they have lost the taste and they just don’t think there is a need
for it; maybe they don’t think they are actually hungry; maybe it is because they don’t like
the way we have changed the way the table is presented.
We can invite them back to the table. But we also need to open up our hearts so that we
can bring some of the nourishment we receive from the table to them so they can feel and
taste the nourishment for themselves. We have to find a way to reach out and to invite them
into our Church.
Today, more than any time ever in the history of humanity, we need to spread the message
of Jesus Christ. We must become the message. We must be willing to talk about Christ in our
own lives. We must be willing to be Christ so that when we talk about reconciliation or about
loving, we are credible agents of change. We need to become the living Body of Christ. That is
what we celebrate in the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ. Not something to look at. Not
something to come and celebrate as some static moment. But something to live in our lives.
T
he Valley Catholic
Trinity Sunday • June 15, 2014
Fabric of the Soul
There is a story told of a jeweler who was wrongly convicted and imprisoned for life. He
was sent to the local city jail that was considered a fortress. One day his wife pleaded with
the guards that her husband was a devout religious man and he needed his prayer rug. She
gave them his prayer rug and asked that it be given to him. The guards examined it and
eventually agreed he could have it. Five times every day, the jeweler would roll out his prayer
rug and pray putting his face down to the rug as it was his custom.
Some time later he asked the prison guards, “I’m a jeweler; I’m used to using my hands
all the time; let me do something for you. Give me some old scraps of metal and some precious stones and I’ll make jewelry. Then you can sell it at the local bizarre and make money
for yourselves.”
The guards immediately agreed to this lucrative arrangement. Each day they brought
him scrap pieces of metal and pieces of old jewelry. At the end of the day, he would produce
beautiful pieces of jewelry; and return all the metal, jewelry and tools he had been given.
This went on for many years and the guards made lots of money. They were very happy
with this arrangement.
Then one morning the guards went to his cell and he was gone. His door was locked
but the old jeweler was nowhere to be seen. Eventually the person who had committed the
original crime was caught and convicted. One day the guards were in a nearby town and
they saw the old jeweler selling his wares. They immediately went to him, assuring him of
his innocence, but asked how he escaped.
He told them, “My wife knew the architect of the prison and begged for the blueprint. So
over many months she wove the blueprint into the design of the prayer rug. Every day I put
my face in that prayer rug and I studied every square inch of the plans. It also contained the
combination for every lock in the entire garrison. Every day when you brought me metal,
I made you jewelry and I made myself keys. And when I had made keys for every door, I
walked out.”
In the same way God weaves into the fabric of who we are the hidden key to everything
in our lives. He weaves into the fabric of who we are the story of what we need in our life;
everything we have is within us. He puts his very Spirit inside of our hearts.
Like the jeweler, we have to put our face to our prayer rug and study the design God has
put within us so that we can understand it and set ourselves free to live in this world. We need
to find some time to pray; to listen and reflect upon God’s creation and upon our own lives.
As we celebrate the Feast of Most Holy Trinity, we are encouraged to reflect how God has
weaved the fabric of our own souls in the plan to love God by loving othe