tvc.dsj.org | March 5, 2019
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].
“Filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus
returned from Jordan and was led by the
Spirit for forty days into the desert to be
tempted by the devil.”
The phrase “to be tempted by the
devil” is hard to hear. However, in
St. Luke’s Gospel the Spirit is always
leading Jesus. It is the Spirit who leads
him into the desert and the Spirit who
leads him out of the desert. The Spirit
is always present in Christ’s life. We
take this journey of forty days to mirror
Jesus’ forty days in the desert and the
forty years of the Israelites in the desert.
Every year, it is an opportunity for us
to go through a metanoia, a conversion
of our own hearts; to listen to Christ in
a deep and profound way inside our
hearts. We emphasize three ways in
Lent: fasting, almsgiving and prayer.
Prayer is the foundation of all we do in
Lent; we commit ourselves to a deeper
prayer; a prayer of really listening to
Christ in our heart because we are led
by the Spirit to go to the desert of our
own heart.
Why it is that we find it so hard to
pray? So many of us still have not com-
mitted to daily prayer. Part of it is that
we have false notions of prayer that
make it difficult to pray. Our lives are
so full of good distractions. We are so
busy with so many things that it gives
13
Sunday Homily
Showing Up
Sunday, March 10, 2019
us a false sense of security that every-
thing is good. Fr. Ronald Rolheiser
calls it a “narcotic of secular society.”
A narcotic can be a good or bad thing;
narcotics can help us, sooth us from
our struggles or problems but when
taken every day, it can also numb us
to the reality of life. Our busyness is a
strong narcotic.
We also have endless entertain-
ment available. We have a sport of
every kind, we have smart phones, we
can have literally tens of thousands
of songs. On iPad or other device, we
can have a library of books. We have
music. We have sports. And when we
get home, we even have television,
hundreds of channels to choose from.
Everything to absorb our time and
yet, at the very center of it, we yearn
for some time alone with God. At the
center of it, we know that something is
still missing.
My plea is to really carve out that
time for prayer; to make that a commit-
ment for these days of Lent. There are
many different types of prayer: commit
to any form of prayer but just show up
each day.
The second thing that is a chal-
lenge for us in our prayer life is that
we tend to have this false notion that
prayer ought to always feel good; that
SPIRITUALITY
we always ought to come out of prayer
feeling “Wow! That was a good time in
prayer! I used my time productively! I
feel better!” That is just not the reality
of prayer. It is not the reality of life. Not
everything just always feels great. The
challenge is to expect ordinariness in
prayer and in the ordinariness some-
thing develops; something beautiful
develops.
Let me give you an example by
metaphor. Imagine that you have an
elderly mother for whom you are car-
ing, who is in a care home. You are the
dutiful son or the dutiful daughter and
every day after work, you drop in and
spend an hour with your mother every
night. When you get there some nights
she has not eaten so you help feed her.
There are other nights you go and she
has already eaten and you kind of have
to help her clean up. She hasn’t maybe
done so well in eating. Other evenings
you just chat. There is nothing particu-
larly stunning or remarkable about the
conversations. She asks you about the
weather, how warm it is outside; you
tell her about your kids and how ev-
eryone is doing in school and stuff; she
tells you about all the different people
in the care home; you converse about
the mundane, day-to-day issues. Noth-
ing in any one of those conversations
is particularly remarkable; they are just
ordinary conversations.
Yet, if you show up day after day,
holding that hour sacred, you will come
to get to know your mother more than
anyone else in the entire world; and
your mother will come to know you
more than anyone else in the world.
All because you shared the ordinary
moments of every day with somebody
you love. There is incredible intimacy
shared in all those moments but none
are remarkable in of themselves.
This is also the way it is with prayer.
It is showing up for the ordinariness
of everyday life. We share whatever it
is that is going on in our day with the
Lord. We listen for his reflections on
our every ordinary, little thing. I prom-
ise that if you do show up day after day,
week after week, you will not be the
same because you will come to know
Christ more and Christ will come to
know you; you will experience Christ
like never, ever understood in your life
before. That is the power of prayer.
May this Lent be a time that is dif-
ferent for us. May we really cut out the
time for prayer. Don’t expect anything
magical to happen – just show up and
listen to what Christ has to share about
your day. I promise you, you will never
be the same.
Join us on a Pilgrimage with the Diocese of San Jose!
A Spiritual Journey
to Italy A Passion Play Journey to
Hungary, Austria & Germany
11 Days: Oct 14–24, 2019 11 Days: Sep 3–13, 2020
Under the
Spiritual
Direction of
Fr. Christopher
Bennett
Under the Spiritual
Direction of Bishop
Patrick J. McGrath
and Fr. Christopher
Bennett
Download brochures and registration forms at: GoCatholicTravel.com/19055 (Italy 2019) or GoCatholicTravel.com/20010 (Passion Play 2020)
Contact Catholic Travel Centre at (800) 553-5233 or [email protected]
CST#: 2018667–40