The Imprint of the Holy Spirit

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.

With confidence on this Pentecost Sunday, we pray:
        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