Let’s say that this piece of glass is you (or me). Notice that it is not perfect. There are some scratches here and there. A mark in this corner. Well, sometimes in our lives, it feels as if everything is crashing down upon us. And our lives get so broken.
[I place the glass into a plastic tub, put on safety goggles, leather gloves . . . and with a large rock, I smash the glass into pieces. Then I hold up a piece.] This is how many of us feel from time to time.
It’s like the story of a woman whose husband died. She was distraught for a long time. She couldn’t get over her grief. So she went to the village priest to talk about her sadness. She said, “I just want to find some peace in my life.” “Oh,” the priest said, “there’s a place right here in the village where you will find peace.” “Where is it?” she asked.
“Well, I want you to find it. You can see it best see it when you when you look through a glass that is perfect with no blemishes.” “ OK.” And she set off at once to find this place that would give her peace.
She came to a nearby house. An elderly man answered the door and let her in. She said, “I would like to see your windows.” “Well OK, but they are pretty dirty.” The woman looked at each window but all the windows had some kind of blemish on them . . . a scratch, a flaw, a mark, even a crack. “Sorry,” said the man, “Why did you want to look at my windows?”
The woman explained her reason and how the priest told her that there is a place in the village where she could find peace, for she was so sad at the death of her husband. With that, a large tear formed in the man’s eyes. “Are you OK” asked the woman.
The man said, “It’s just that I’ve had a death in my family also. My grown daughter passed away recently leaving two small children and husband.” “ Oh I am so sorry.” said the woman.
And the two of them sat down, shared a pot of coffee and talked of their loss . . . amidst tears, some laughter, long stories and eventually a hug . . . as the woman needed to leave in search of the perfect pane of glass.
But every home she visited, she not only found imperfect windows, but also sorrow in each home as the people in the homes shared their own loss . . . a death, a loss of a job, a divorce, onset of cancer . . . and on and on.
Finally after weeks of searching and visiting, the woman returned to the village priest. She told him, “I haven’t found the place of peace because all the windows in this village aren’t perfect . . . but I have been visiting with many folks. And you know, I don’t feel so bad about my loss, because there are lot of people out there with so much sorrow and sadness.”
“Ah,” said the priest, “let me show you where that place of peace is.” And he led her to a house and had her look inside. But the woman was confused. “I thought you told me that I could only see it through a glass without blemishes? This glass isn’t perfect.” “ No, I said that you can BEST see it with a glass without blemishes. You can still see it through an imperfect glass.
And then a big smile came across her mouth, for she understood. The glass that he brought her to look through was a window in her own home. Inside was the place of peace.
You see, Jesus’ first words to the disciples after the resurrection (which we just heard in the gospel) was, “Peace. Peace be with you.” Or when the disciples received the Holy Spirit in the book of Acts (in the first reading), it’s not that their lives somehow became perfect, or that they didn’t have any wounds or pain anymore. For example, let’s say one of the disciples had a sore elbow when Jesus appeared. Well after Jesus says, “Peace be with you,” that disciple probably still had his sore elbow. Or say another disciple had a sore throat when the Holy Spirit came to them. Yep, he probably still had the sore throat. But everything has changed.
When we celebrate the Holy Spirit coming to the disciples . . . and to us. It’s as if the Spirit takes all of our brokenness [hold up a piece of the broken glass] and puts them together. Not a perfect piece of glass but as a stained glass image. [Point to the stained glass of the Church].
The things about our lives that we think are broken . . . God sees a masterpiece.
We pour out our miseries, God just hears a melody
Beautiful, the mess we are, the honest cries of a breaking heart.
This stained glass in our Church is here because glass was broken and then put together. After Mass, I invite you to come up and look closer at the stained glass. Did you realize that all seven sacraments are etched into pictures here? See if you can identify which is which.
And see the glass way on top. Notice the little circles placed throughout the glass. Those circles represents us . . . we are part of God’s masterpiece. And even when you feel broken, or scattered or a mess . . . this feast of Pentecost is allowing the Holy Spirit to put all our pieces together so that we, broken as we are, can find that place of peace. It’s inside you.
When we feel broken God sees a masterpiece.
We pour out our miseries, God just hears a melody
Beautiful, the mess we are, the honest cries of a breaking heart