Do you remember James Taylor’s hit song in the nineties, “The Frozen Man”?  The song was inspired by an article that Taylor had read in National Geographic about the discovery of a frozen man, a New Englander who perished in the nineteenth century.

There is a part in the song where the frozen man asks an angel of mercy if he’s alive or dead.  The song ends with, “I know what it means to freeze to death, to lose a little life with every breath, to say goodbye to life on earth…Lord have mercy on the frozen man, Lord have mercy on the frozen man.”

Sometimes I feel like that frozen man, frozen in time, stuck in old habits, no movement, no warmth, just cold.  I was also wondering if there are times that you, too, feel like the frozen man, wondering if you are dead or alive, freezing to death with every breath, just enduring life, just killing or passing time, just letting the day happen to you.

In either case, this is not what God has planned for us!  Christ has come to give us life and to give it to us in abundance.  St. Ireneus says, “God’s glory is the human person becoming fully alive.”  Jesus says, “He who believes in me, ‘Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.’” Do you hear that?  Out of our hearts, God has allowed living water to flow from us who believe. 

The question is:  What ‘is’ flowing out of us?  Is this life-giving water flowing out of us, or is our water frozen and not moving into the world, frozen in time, like the frozen man?  As God’s children who are chosen to become alive in the Spirit, we often behave like God’s frozen people focused on the cares of the world!

So many times, we feel frozen in our prayer life, simply saying the words and not allowing the words to warm our souls, to change our hearts.  If this is the case, let us ask the Holy Spirit to help us strive to guide our heart to desire that for which we pray, and to feel the truth of what we are saying.  Consider the idea that it is better to say five words from the depth of your heart than ten thousand words with your tongue only. 

We sometimes become frozen in our relationships with one another, waiting for the other to apologize, waiting for the other to extend their generosity and hospitality.  How often do I hear words like these: “I just have to endure my relationship.”  “This is the path God has given me and I am stuck in these frozen waters.”  “That is the way I am, or she/he will never change, so why bother hoping for something different?”

We can’t get trapped in these icy waters of despair, held back by fear or held captive by anxiety.  We must ask the Holy Spirit to give us the power to respond to our relationships with openness and love.  We must ask God to give us the strength to respond to conflict with the living water of His virtues, peace, patience, kindness, and a true belief that there are new solutions to old problems.

Every Pentecost, we are reminded of the glorious gifts of the Holy Spirit bestowed upon the faithful.  We are reminded that God wants to be in relationship with us, and He wants the message of the “good news” spread to all nations.  Indeed, we are created in God’s image, and we are the temple of the Holy Spirit: ‘life should flow out of us’!  That is why our Church reminds us at Pentecost that the Holy Spirit wants to touch and ignite our hearts as He empowered the Holy Apostles.  

The simple fishermen became transfigured and were engulfed with the Holy fire of God’s love, and they changed the world.  The same Holy Spirit wants to stir up our life, to rekindle and to fan the flame in our hearts to burn with His love so we can allow living water to flow from our hearts and irrigate the world with His virtues.

We all must ask our Lord to have mercy on the frozen parts in our lives so we can thaw out and allow the natural, life-giving waters to freely flow out of us.  We all have gifts from the Holy Spirit, we all have this living water that quenches not only our thirst but the thirst around us.  May the Holy Spirit inspire every person at Holy Apostles to freely offer this life-giving water to all, and may God have mercy on the frozen man.

Blessings to you,

+fr. tom