I was in my living room Saturday evening when a bird pecked on the window. I thought it was charming, but paid it no mind—until it kept happening. It was a wren. She perched on the window sill, peered into the room, and pecked with her beak on the window two or three times. Then she would fly away—only to return a few minutes later.
Finally, I remembered that I had seen a bird fly out of my garage in the morning when I opened the garage door. I wondered…could it be? I opened the garage door and the bird pecked no more.
Today’s Gospel
This little wren gave me an interesting meditation around the phrase “scattered to his own home” in today’s Gospel. As Jesus finishes his beautiful Farewell Discourse to his disciples, he says, “Behold, the hour is coming and has arrived when each of you will be scattered to his own home and you will leave me alone. But I am not alone, because the Father is with me. I have told you this so that you might have peace in me. In the world you will have trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the world.”
In that moment, Jesus is telling his disciples, “I know when they come to arrest me in a few hours, you will be frightened. You will run off in fear and leave me. You will scatter, each in his own direction, to return to your own homes where you will feel safer. I know this, and I know that you will regret your fear later, once you see the end of this drama—once I have risen from the dead and the Holy Spirit has come. So, that you may be at peace after you realize this, I am assuring you now: I will not be alone. You may not be with me, but the Father will be with me. I want you, as you scatter to your own homes to remember: the world will give you trouble AND I have conquered the world.
Scatter
I filled in at A Catholic Moment last Saturday, and a reader commented that there seemed to be a growth mindset in that reflection. I pondered that while I worked in my garden. I remembered being in the Kentucky mountains just as spring and the covid crisis began in March. The news exploded with alarm, but God sent his spring as if there was no bad news. The trees were budding, woodland wildflowers bloomed, and the trees were alive with emerging life. The contrast reassured me then. Am I incorporating a sense of growth and life now?
Time in my garden these past two months has been both “ora et labora,” prayer and work. It has been time with God and time of healing. Many, many years ago, as a child in the middle of a family hard time, I read the book, The Secret Garden. A major part of that classic story is how a family, scattered by life to a depressive English manor house, came to life again because two children found and reclaimed a hidden garden. The story led me to take an interest in gardening that I have kept through the years. When my house burned in 2018, I moved into a house with a well-developed backyard garden. The former owner was 100 years old when he died, so this garden has needed some reclaiming. The pandemic has scattered me to my home to do the work of pulling up, trimming back, transplanting, and generally tending.
Scatter. Scatter means “to throw in various random directions.” It comes from Middle English and is probably a variation of the word “shatter,” which means to break apart violently. Interesting. When I think of “scatter,” I think of scattering seeds…of spreading things out, letting them fall where they may.
I think of the parable of the Sower and the Seed. Some seed encountered the hard ground of a path, some the cluttered ground of briars or the unsustainable ground of rocks and shallow soil. Some seed found good soil and bore much fruit.
The Wren’s Teaching
I have never had a bird’s nest in my garage before. Until this house, I never had a garage! I don’t know how I would have responded to the discovery of the nest if the bird had not pecked on my window. I know that since she did peck, her nest is safe. I am too impressed with her dedication and God’s goodness to enable me to understand her to do anything but cooperate.
I found three scriptures with lessons God speaks to me through the wren:
“Therefore, I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink or about your body, what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth more than they?” Matthew 6: 25-26.
“Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, at your altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God. Blessed are those who dwell in your house, ever singing your praise.” Psalm 84: 3-4
“But ask the beasts, and they will teach you; the birds of the air, and they will tell you; or the plants of the earth, and they will teach you; and the fish of the sea will declare to you. Who among all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind.” Job 12: 7-10
The Same Message Today
Jesus told his disciples: you will scatter to your homes. You will be afraid. But, when you understand, you and I will be at peace. I have conquered the world.
It didn’t seem like Christ was conquering the world as disciples kept on being scattered to homes for safety. With the death of Stephen, persecution of the followers of the Way began that scattered them throughout Judea and into Syria. God called Paul and taught Peter, so that the scattering might continue throughout the Roman empire—and beyond. Scattering enabled them to accomplish the Great Commission he gave at Ascension, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you and behold, I am with you always, to the close of the age.” (Matthew 28: 19)
Today, the covid crisis scatters us home. Home, where I feel safe and where I can tend my garden. Home, where birds remind me that God watches over me, “In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind.” Home, where a bird also took initiative and reached out to communicate with me. She problem solved and pecked on my window. She persisted. And God blessed her efforts by enabling me to understand. Home, where God calls us to continue to “Go and make disciples.”
Prayer:
Thank You, Lord, for sending a wren to teach me. Thank You, for scattering me home to my garden and my house. Thank You, for Your Scripture and ways to study it. Help me, Lord, to be satisfied to be scattered where You put me…and to be good seed on fertile ground. Help me to be determined and creative like the wren. Most of all, help me to always trust that You have conquered the world. You hold my breath in Your hand.
