tvc.dsj.org | November 6, 2018
Pastor of Holy Spirit Parish, San Jose, and Vicar General for
Special Projects, Diocese of San Jose. Email him at [email protected].
Joe Campo is the director of the movie titled “The Human Experience.” He has
made several movies about the different aspects of human life. A few years ago
he just gave the keynote presentation at the Faith Formation Conference in Santa
Clara. He spoke about how he immersed himself into the lives of the poor about
whom he was making the movie. For example, as a part of the story on New York
slums, he lived in the New York slums with the people there. He talked about
how this transformed his whole view on life.
He gave an illustration that when he was going into a restaurant in New York,
he saw a homeless man, looking pretty destitute, outside asking for food. While
in the restaurant with his friend, he ordered an extra meal for the man outside. As
Joe recalled the story, he was pretty proud of himself for making the right deci-
sion and doing the right thing. As he gives the man the meal he said, “Now don’t
forget, don’t forget to pray.” The man looked up at him totally serious and says,
“And how do you think I got this meal?” It was a witty response but how power-
ful. This homeless man had probably prayed far more than Joe Campo had ever
done. The sense is that the poor sometimes have a treasure we do not understand.
Not that we would want to be homeless to have that privilege of prayer, but it was
clear that this man was completely dependent on God.
One of the struggles we have with the poor is that we really do not know their
lives. We do not know their story. And often we project our ideas onto them. In
their brokenness, they find themselves putting their trust in God. And that is what
the Lord holds up to us time and time again through scripture.
In Jesus time, a woman was completely dependent on the man to provide.
Once that man was gone, they were completely vulnerable. Theere was no wel-
fare system; nobody took them in. The widow and the children would have been
completely dependent on charity for all their needs. The widow and the children
would have been completely vulnerable to any form of abuse and neglect.
In the Gospel, Jesus holds up a widow as example, she who gives two small
coins. What is it about the widow that Jesus holds up as an example? The Lord
says, “Look here, this is a model of discipleship.” This model trusts that the Lord
will provide. The widow shares out of her poverty. Because of that generosity and
trust she is rewarded not only as a disciple but rewarded with goodness.
The Lord reminds us that we too are called to that same sense of trust, that
same sense of abandoning our will to the Lord’s will. This requires us to listen to
the Lord’s will. Who is the widow in our life? Who is the one who is vulnerable?
November 18, 2018
Are You Ready?
Do you remember the “Y2K” problem in the year 2000? There were all sorts
of predictions it was the end of the world. It has happened before. It is not some-
thing new; it has been happening since Christ’s death. Even the disciples were
expecting the end of the world. Passages like we read today were misinterpreted
to predict the end of the world. What is amazing is that they overlook the last line
in the scripture passage today “No one will know the hour or the day, not even
the angels nor the Son will know. Only the Father.”
We get kind of cynical when we hear about the end of the world predictions;
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Sure.” In the end, all of us know that it will come. There
are two things that are certain in this life: taxes and death. Right? We know we are
going to die. That is not a surprise to us. But that it is going to happen at the exact
same moment for all of us is maybe a little dramatic and we tend to be cynical.
Today’s scripture passage is not meant to draw us to depression. The intention
of this genre of writing, called apocalyptic, is meant to inspire us with heroic sto-
ries, painting cataclysmic events that will get our attention. Inspire us to become
livers of the Gospel, not just hearers of the Gospel; that we really live the Gospel
in our own lives.
Life comes at us and if bad things happen to us after us living a moral life, we
can get cynical about the way God works. It is hard not to sometimes because we
get jaded to live the good life. We get tired of being “the good person”.
Sometimes life can really get rough for us. Somethings, we have illness; some-
times people do things or say things that are really hurtful and you wonder how
you can get through this. As my mother used to say that “This too shall pass.”
Equally as important are the good things, they too will pass as well. If we are
not attentive to the good moments in our life and not present to them, they will
pass maybe a little bit too fast before we can absorb them and recognize the hand
of Christ in the middle of that.
Today’s Gospel is about living in the present. We never know what is going to
happen so live fully now. What Christ means by living fully is not doing whatever
we want in a self-indulgent way but it means living the Gospel; it means being
kind; being gentle; being loving and forgiving.
As St. John of the Cross’ once said, “In the evening of our life, it is not how
well we have lived by which we will be judged; we will be judged on how well
we have loved.
The cost of living keeps going up.
The cost of your funeral doesn’t have to.
Like many things, costs will continue to
increase, so locking in now is a wise decision. Yes, perhaps it’s a long way away,
but all the more reason to get your plan together now. Contact your local
Dignity Memorial ® provider for the best prices.
WHY PRE-PLAN YOUR MEMORIAL?
LIMA FAMILY
Erickson Memorial
Chapel LIMA FAMILY
SANTA CLARA
MORTUARY 408-295-5160 408-296-2977 408-263-2868 408-295-6446
FD 128 FD 93 FD 1262 / COA 466 FD 813
SAN JOSE
9
Sunday Homilies
By Father Brendan McGuire
November 11, 2018
Trust in the Lord: Who is the Widow?
SPIRITUALITY
SANTA CLARA
LIMA FAMILY
WILLOW GLEN
MILPITAS-FREMONT MORTUARY
FUNERAL
& CEDAR LAWN CEMETERY
HOME
FREMONT
SAN JOSE