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March 19, 2019 | The Valley Catholic
SPIRITUALITY
Sunday Homily
By Father Brendan McGuire
Pastor of Holy Spirit Parish, San Jose, and Vicar General for
Special Projects, Diocese of San Jose. Email him at [email protected].
Water Purifier of Life
Sunday, March 24, 2019
Fr. Ron Rolheiser, a great author and theologian, gives two beautiful images
for life: a metal wire and a water purifier. A metal wire that transmits power is a
perfection transmission device. You put 240 volts in, and you get 240 volts out. You
put 110 volts in, and you get 110 out.
Rolheiser compares this to our secular society when it comes to the way we
handle bad things happening to us: If something happens to us, we generally pass
it on, without any interference. Like an electrical wire we pass it through.
But as Christians we are called to be something different. We are called to be
more like a water purifier. Regular water has impurities in it, all sorts of potential
contaminants, minerals, etc. But when put through a water filter it comes out as
purified water without the contaminants.
Rolheiser suggests that we as Christians are called to be more like the water filter
than the electrical wire. We are called to absorb and to decontaminate what comes
through our lives and not to pass on our the negative things that happen to us.
In today’s culture especially in our political world, if we are hit then we hit back
lower and more viciously. It gets worse and worse and we know where it always ends
up! In the first reading, Moses has been called through the burning bush. The Lord
calls Moses to go back to his people to save them because the Lord has decided that
mercy is what he will grant them. Mercy from all their failings and all the bad things
that have happened to them. He will forgive them and rescue them. In contrast we
have the Gospel where the fig tree is given another opportunity to produce some
fruit. Here the fig tree has not hurt anybody, it has just failed to produce the fruit
that it is called to produce. Still Jesus, the gardener, offers forgiveness and mercy,
“Give me one more year to help this fig tree.”
Every one of us has been hurt by somebody, somewhere at some time. It may
have been in the recent past; it may have been long time in the past. The purpose
of our Lenten journey is to renew ourselves in the Lord; it is to till the soil of our
planted fig tree. It is for us to forgive others outrageously. People who do not any-
where near deserve it.
The only way we can do this, is to really see ourselves as a water purifier, not as
an electrical wire. We are called not to transmit what has happened but to absorb,
purify and pass on a completely different reality. Today, we are renewed at the waters
of Baptism in this Eucharistic feast to celebrate what God has first done for us, He
has called us to forgive and offer mercy to those who hurt us. We absorb all the im-
purities and imperfections of our lives; and forgive others as Christ has forgiven us.
Waiting to Forgive
Sunday, March 31, 2019
Ron Rolheiser, the great Canadian theologian and priest, maintains that each
of the characters in this Gospel of the Prodigal Son is an archetype for all people.
We play each of the characters in this Gospel at different times in our lives.
He says when we are young, like the younger son, we want to do things our
way and insist on our will. We often distance ourselves from God’s will and take
whatever inheritance we have and do whatever we want. Sometimes, that is not
very far from God’s will but it is still our will. Sometimes, it is a long way from the
Father’s will and we squander so many of our years. We are content in our own
ignorance of doing what we want and we believe it makes us happy. Somehow we
make our way back to God and seek to discover God’s will for us.
Then we arrive at middle-age and we enter into the older son’s role, where
we reflect upon life. We become a little sad about so many lost opportunities.
We think longer about all the things that we will never get to do in life now that
we are past “our prime” and we become bitter. We get frustrated at the duties of
life, whether it is taking care of our elderly parents or other commitments of life.
We become like the older brother, who is resentful of the duties of life and even
though we do them, we do not have joy in our heart because we wish we could
run off and do our own will.
What we are called to is the final archetype, the Father. The Father, who stands
outside the door for both sons. He goes out and greets his younger son when he
sees him returning; looking for him; waiting for him; and when he comes, he
celebrates. But equally so with the older brother, who refuses to come inside the
house for the party; he comes out and he greets the older son and pleads with him
to come in to the table of celebration.
God the Father reaches out to us no matter where we are in the story. Whether
we are the younger child off in the distance, doing our distant thing away from
God. Or whether we are the dutiful child and we do not have the joy of celebration
of living our life. The challenge for us is to be the Father, who is welcoming the
opportunity to forgive. The Father is the first one to forgive. He is on the doorstep,
on the outside, welcoming in both the younger and the older son.
We should try our hardest to be the Father of forgiveness. To sink deep into our
own hearts and to realize it is God that first forgives us and therefore, we ought
to go to the doorstep of our house and we look out to all who have hurt us. Look
for the opportunity to welcome them home; to forgive; and to celebrate the gift
of forgiveness.
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