A young girl was finalizing her wedding arrangements but there was one important yet unfinished thing, just one single thing her wedding dress. The reason she didn’t have a wedding dress was none of the dressmakers in the city were able to understand what precisely she was asking them. She said to each dressmaker “I want a dress that makes a rustling noise every time I move,” yet nobody was able to help her.
When she came to the last dressmaker in her city, she went in & said, “I need a wedding dress, but it must be a dress that rustles every time I move.” The dressmaker responded, “Well, I can do that for you if that’s what you want. It will be heavy, uncomfortable and not particularly pretty, but it will rustle.” “That’s what I want,” she said. “I don’t need it to be beautiful, I don’t need it to be comfortable, but I do need it to rustle every time I make a movement.”
He agreed to make her dress, as she’s leaving the shop, he asked her, “But, if you don’t mind, tell me why?
Why would you, on an important day of your life, want a dress that’s going to be uncomfortable and heavy to wear and not particularly pretty to look at? Why this dress that rustles?” And the girl said, “Because my fiancé is blind and I need him to hear me even though he cannot see me. I need him to know at every single moment of that ceremony that I am there standing by his side.” [Adopted from a Homily for Pentecost Sunday, by Rev. Christopher Clohessy, Preach by America.org]
On Pentecost, we celebrate The Wind, The Holy Spirit, The Advocate, The Paraclete rustling in our hearts and our souls forming our wills. We should reflect on what rustles inside of us reminding us of God, the God we have never seen Who stands right beside us at every moment, every second. Jesus called the Spirit, Paraclete. Paraclete means someone who is called in alongside us, literally somebody who is called to stand by our side. Sometimes the Paraclete leads someone to help or aid us, and sometimes the Paraclete nudges us to help someone, that is the rustling of God in our lives.
Our reading from the Acts of the Apostles relates how “… the devout Jews …. Were astounded, & amazed….” We sang, “Lord, send out your Spirit, & renew the face of the earth.” And we heard that “the Spirit of truth will guide us ….” Gifts given to us to share with the world, the message of God’s discipleship, where our joy is found.
Does being Catholic make a difference? It does because “To be Catholic is to be a person of hope & of vision, a person who sees meaning in life in this world & promise beyond.” [Fr. Michael Hayes] I began with a story, let me conclude with one, during the building of St. Paul’s Cathedral [London, completed in 1710] the architect Sir Christopher Wren was walking through the Cathedral & he stopped to ask two stone cutters what they were doing; one said, “I’m cutting stone!” the other said, “I’m building a Cathedral!”
You and I are on earth not to cut stone but to build a Cathedral, the Cathedral of God’s Kingdom here on earth by using the gifts of the Holy Spirit. In our opening hymn we sang, “We are a pilgrim people, we are the Church of God. A family of believers, disciples of the Lord. Come Holy Ghost, Creator blest ….”
Amado Nervo, a Mexican poet & mystic, wrote: ‘Alone we are a spark, but in the Spirit we are a fire.
Alone we are only a string, but in the Spirit we are a lyre.
Alone we are only an anthill, but in the Spirit we are a mountain.
Alone we are only a drop, but in the Spirit we are a fountain.
Alone we are only a feather, but in the Spirit we are a wing.
Alone we are only a beggar, but in the Spirit we are a King.’
A family of believers, a fire, a lyre, a mountain, a fountain, a wing , a king, and a rustling of the Spirit in a needy world.
For a few minutes, in silence, think about the Spirit’s rustling in your life, how will you respond?
May God Be Praised.
Wonderful homily today Deacon!
ReplyDeleteThank you.
Delete