A WIND THAT BLOWS WHERE IT WILL

A WIND THAT BLOWS WHERE IT WILL

The hut was stiflingly hot.  It had only a 3 foot high entrance and people kept crowding round it in curiosity. The year was 1880, ten years before the settlers raised their flag in what was to become Salisbury. The three Jesuits had reached Tshamatshama, King Umzila’s capital near Chipinge in SE Zimbabwe. Many favourable reports had reached them while they were still in Bulawayo describing this as a good place to start a mission. The first part of their journey went well but after they crossed the Sabi River there was no road and the people were hostile. They had to cut their way through the bush sometimes travelling at the speed of two miles a day.

Eventually they left their wagon and team of oxen and proceeded on foot. But malaria wore them down and by the time they reached Umzila’s Fr Augustus Law was very ill. Bro Joseph Hedley, also ill, stayed with him with two Matable helpers while the third, Br Frans de Sadeleer, went back to try to bring up the abandoned wagon. Br Frans later wrote, ‘two snakes, a three foot long cobra and a smaller one, lived in their cabin… they fulfilled the role played by our cats in Europe and kept at bay the mice and rats visible everywhere’. As they lay on the floor the two sick men encouraged one another with the memory of the Passion. On 15 October Fr Law said his last Mass held upright by twine tied by Br Hedley. He wrote a note for his companions in Bulawayo, ‘If I die please write a note to my Father; Hon W. T. Law. Hampton Court Palace, London’.  For the next month he lingered between life and death finally slipping away on 25 November. Hedley did not die but lived for another 53 years.

This is how the Zambezi Mission of the Jesuits began in the late nineteenth century: in misery and failure. The story at Umzila’s was repeated among the Tonga and Lozi and even in Bulawayo Lobengula would not allow them to teach, leave alone to preach. Yet ‘failure’ is an imprecise word. Ten men died of malaria or accidents and no permanent mission was founded, except for Empandeni towards the end of the decade. But the seed that dies had been sown and in the decades that followed the gospel found a welcoming ear in all parts of the country.

This Sunday the Church celebrates Pentecost in memory of the fulfilment of Jesus’ words, ‘I will be with you always till the end of time’. He is with us through his creative Spirit, ‘a wind sweeping over the waters of the deep’ (Genesis). We are invited at Pentecost to penetrate deeply to see how this Spirit works in creation. If we could see our ‘failures’ and ‘weakness’ in the light of God we might discover the ‘work’ that God is doing even though to us it may seem failure. The Athenians laughed when they heard of a crucified man rising from the dead (Acts 17:32). But in laughing it off they missed something.       

31 May 2020      Pentecost         Acts 2:1-11              1 Cor 12:3…13           John 20:19-23