Pentecost Sunday
June 2011
A sailing ship with unfurled sails can be quite a sight, but it is going nowhere without the wind.
The function or action of the Holy Spirit in our lives has been likened to the action of wind on the sailing ship.
This, of course, is only a human image and like all human images of God or the action of God is totally subjective, symbolic and inadequate.
To continue with this image of the sailing ship, even if there is wind but its sails are furled it will only drift aimlessly. Should it also be anchored it will only drift in circles.
The function of religion and the churches is to help me to weigh anchor and unfurl the sails so that when the Holy Spirit breathes on me I am ready to move.
Like the crew of the sailing ship I have to be willing to move from where I am and take all necessary action so as to catch the wind of the Spirit when it comes.
At no point in my life will my spiritual life and practise of religion be adequate. It will always be a work in progress. It must always be changing. There must always be movement from where I am to some other position.
Like the crew of the sailing ship I must wait patiently with anchor raised and sails unfurled. This is another way of saying what I described, in last weeks homily, as ‘unconditional availability’ to my God and to my fellow human beings.
This is what is meant in Lk. 12: “Gird your loins and light your lamps and be like servants who await their master's return from a wedding, ready to open immediately when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds vigilant on his arrival. Amen, I say to you, he will gird himself, have them recline at table, and proceed to wait on them.”
And Rev. 3: “Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me.”
How open and alert am I to the breath of the Spirit? Have I weighed anchor and unfurled the sails ready to move, or am I still at anchor or, worse still, am I tied up at the wharf waiting for the perfect weather forecast, which of course never comes?