"A Rain Drop" June 23, 2023

A Rain Drop
 
Many years ago, I read the following excerpt from the autobiography of an individual’s spiritual journey. The image touched me deeply, and I would like to share it with you:
 
“I was on a train on a rainy day. The train was slowing down to pull into a station. For some reason I became intent on watching the raindrops on the window. Two separate drops, pushed by the wind, merged into one for a moment and then divided again—each carrying with it a part of the other. Simply by that momentary touching, neither was what it had been before. And as each one went on to touch other raindrops, it shared not only itself, but what it had gleaned from the other…I realized then that we never touch people so lightly that we do not leave a trace.”

Four years ago, the raindrop that is me splashed into the mass of raindrops that collectively form Divine Mercy Parish. Over the past four years, the winds of parish life, sometimes turbulent, sometimes soft and gentle, the winds of the Holy Spirit, have blown that mass of raindrops around, with each of the drops, yours and mine, touching and colliding and mixing. And now, the time has come when the wind of the Holy Spirit once again separates the raindrop that is me from Divine Mercy Parish. But the raindrop that fell into your midst four years ago is not the same as when it first fell. Because of it being touched by and mingling with the many other raindrops in this place, it blows off in a new direction, forever changed, carrying with it, a part of you, and leaving behind, a part of itself.

You have prepared me well. As I engage in priestly ministry in the future, the way that I enter into it, the way that I engage it, will be informed by my time here as your priest and pastor. A part of you will accompany me. A part of you has become a permanent part of who I am, as a priest. In this way, I will be able to share a part of you with those with whom I minister to in the future. And I can only hope that as you continue on your own path, as a parish family, and as individual members of the Body of Christ, a small part of me, of my presence among you these past four years, will be with you, supporting you, encouraging you, loving you. For in this way, while we may be physically separated, we will continue to be a part of each other’s lives.
 
Fr. Robert T. Cooper, Pastor
Divine Mercy Parish and St. Elizabeth Ann Seton School