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The
Goose of Pentecost
May
30, 2004 Homily
Fr.
George Smiga
John
14:15-16, 23b-26
We
cannot see the Holy Spirit. So throughout the centuries writers
and artists have struggled to come up with an adequate image
to represent the Spirit. The evangelists had an idea. At Jesus'
baptism they represented the Spirit descending upon Him in
the form of a dove. The image of the dove has been widely
accepted. Most works of Christian art that represent the Spirit
as a white bird floating in the sky. Throughout the middle
ages there was a custom that on the feast of Pentecost hundreds
of white doves would be released from church steeples. This
custom continued until people realized that the cleanup for
the doves was as extensive as its symbolism. The dove is graceful,
gentle, seductive. These are qualities of God's Spirit, but
they certainly are not all of them. The dove is an incomplete
image, perhaps too sweet and sentimental.
The
Irish had another idea. In the old Celtic tradition the Holy
Spirit was not represented as a gentle dove. It was pictured—get
ready for this—as a wild goose. Now geese are very different
than doves. They are uncontrollable and their honk is wild
and obtrusive. They have a habit of biting those who try to
contain them. They always travel in flocks and their attitude
is such that farmers routinely use geese as a kind of watchdog.
This is perhaps why the Celts thought that the goose would
be a good symbol for God's Spirit. For the Spirit comes into
our lives not in quiet complacency, but demanding to be heard.
Its message is not attractive to many. It calls us to respect
one another and to travel as a group. And those upon whom
the Spirit descends become noisy, passionate, courageous people
who are guardians of the gospel.
Pentecost
is the wild goose of a St. Patrick, who risked his life to
evangelize the Emerald Isle. It is a Francis Xavier, who traveled
to China and died there in order to spread the gospel. It
is a Dorothy Day, who was taken to prison as she voiced justice
for the poor. The wild goose of Pentecost is the whistle blower,
the Meals on Wheels provider, the hospital visitor, mothers
organizing against drunk driving, college students giving
a year of their life in the Jesuit Volunteer Corp in Appalachia.
Those on whom this brash Spirit descends become noisy advocates
for justice: advocating health care reform, running drug rehabilitation
programs, helping people find jobs, trying to make a difference
in the world. When those who are possessed by this Spirit
see big corporations such as Nike profiting hundreds of millions
of dollars on running shoes and realize that those shoes are
being produced by poor women in Viet Nam who receive a handful
of change for an 18 hour day, they babble “That's not right.”
The Spirit of God does not come into our world to preserve
the status quo. God's spirit insists that wrongs must be righted;
that justice must be done.
So
what would happen to us if we opened our hearts and let this
wild goose of the Spirit in? We might find the courage to
face problems in our marriage, insisting that dialogue happen,
seeking counseling, demanding that things change. We might
find the strength to break off destructive relationships and
to stop habits that are degrading our worth and integrity.
We might push our way into situations where people are being
demeaned because of their race, creed, or sexual orientation
and insist that there be fair treatment for all. We might
stop fattening ourselves with wealth and power and instead
use the things that are ours for the betterment of others.
We
need to claim this wild and uncontrollable goose because it
is all to easy to domesticate God's Spirit. It is all too
easy to live day to day seduced by the quiet, lulling, cooing
of our own comfort. Every once in awhile we need to hear that
wild honk that calls us back to the original message of Jesus
which demands responsibility and justice, which insists that
we stand up for ourselves and for others. We must be startled
by that Spirit squawk that reminds us that whatever we do
for the least of our brothers or sisters we do for Christ.
All
in all, I think the Celts had it right. Pentecost is a Feast
of Geese, wild, dirty, loud geese, honking the gospel, biting
those who would oppress the weak, insisting that we travel
together in worship and in service; geese that challenge our
comfortable Christian coziness and remind us that we have
dignity and that we must fight for the widow and the orphan;
geese whose song expresses the truth so well voiced in the
Letter of James that “faith without works is dead.”
This
homily has been adapted from a Pentecost homily by Fr. William
Bausch in “A World of Stories.”
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