Pentecost Sunday, June 4, 2017

Acts 2 : 1 - 11
1 Corinthians 12 : 3b - 7, 12 - 13
John 20 : 19 - 23

No Respecter of Locks

i.

The doors of the room were locked.
“Fear of the Jews,” they said.
The doors of the heart?
Ditto.
“Fear of everything else,” they said.

But he was no respecter of locks.
Not then,
When he came
And said, “Peace.”

“Peace, you friends-frightened-silly.
Peace, you guys who wanted places
At my right and at my left,
And then left them to two thieves.
Peace, you fishermen stranded on dry land,
Flopping around like a mess of
Tilapia 
On the sand.
Peace, you people
Who ate and who drank,
Who walked and who talked
With the Truth,
Every day,

But whose eyes of the heart were – locked.”

He broke through then,
In that fear-filled room,
With just that one Word 
And that Breath.

He sent.
They went.

ii.

No respecter of locks.
Not then.
Not now, either.

My heart? My eyes?
Locked down, tied up tight,
Snug against
Too much
Love
Too much
Freedom
Not to mention
Too much
Suffering.
(That one never gets forgotten
When they hand out fears.)

And yet,
No respecter of locks,
He still says, “Peace.”
He still breathes Spirit.
He still says, “Go.”

May it be so.

-  Sr. Nuala Cotter, RA