Dear Friends,
Father Joe Brennan (1929-2008), Hebrew scholar, educator,
priest and friend to many in the Jewish Community and the Diocese of Rochester,
had a way of recognizing the movement of the Holy Spirit in places and stories where
others would miss it. He was able to see the imprint of the Holy Spirit on our
unfinished parts.
Once, in a homily at St. Mary’s Church, Joe told the story
of a famous tunnel built in the time of King Hezekiah (721BC) to bring water
into Jerusalem from the pool of Siloam. The inscription found in the entrance
of the tunnel describes how the workmen started from opposite ends and dug
toward each other until at last they could hear one another’s voices through
the rock. Their way was arduous and as they dug, they almost missed each other
more than once. They had to keep talking to each other through the walls that
separated them in order to achieve their goal. In the end, they did break
through to each other. And the water began to flow.
Father Brennan went on: “Let us pray that however
impenetrable the barriers may seem that separate us, however many detours and
zigzags we may find ourselves making, that we will not abandon the effort to
reach out to each other. May we listen to each other through the separating
wall and call out to each other words of encouragement and hope.”
I can’t think of a finer Pentecost story. What the Holy
Spirit prompts us to do is to turn our contemporary clashes and conflicts into
healing, revelatory encounters through whatever walls separate us from one
another. We are called to put aside our own adamant convictions and
inclinations and embrace the mission that the Spirit bestowed on Pentecost to
all the disciples of Christ – to open themselves to God and one another in
love.
If the world has ever needed the Pentecost presence of the
Holy Spirit, it is now. As Mary Oliver put it, “It is a serious thing
just to be alive on this fresh morning in a broken world.”
Today, let us conspire (breathe together), inspire others, and
sometime perspire with sheer effort, that the works of the Spirit of Fire
transpire to humanize the world we live in.
Spirit of truth,
Whom the world can never grasp,
Touch our hearts with the shock of your coming, and your disturbing peace
Fire us up with longing to speak your uncontainable word.
We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
~Sister Joan Sobala
