Some people are extremely shy. They find it very difficult in social occasions and almost die at the prospect of having to read in public or speak in public. They would be like new people if only they could break out of their shell. Some succeed in doing that, but others never do. They go through life like prisoners behind bars. Fear is probably the worst psychological, internal enemy that we can have. Fears can totally paralyse a person. It is interesting to see in our readings today that it was fear that initially united the apostles and Mary in the upper room as they awaited the arrival of the Holy Spirit. They were gripped by a crippling nervousness and fear. They hid behind locked doors because they were afraid that those who killed Jesus would come for them too. Maybe there is already the potential for strength in the fact that they were at least together. They knew they were not alone, isolated in their feelings. This resonates with what we are experiencing at this moment. To say that we are fearful of what the future holds is an understatement. Will schools be able to reopen in Spetemeber? Will I have my job when this is all over? Will I ever be able to go on a holiday again? We are sharing these fears with others and this is what has kept us going. The amount of zoom meetings and whattsApp groups has grown exponentailly over these last few weeks. One of the aspects that has kept us going is that we are together even though we have to stay apart. When you express a feeling that you are finding these restrictions very difficult and you realise that everyone is in the same boat. Back to our story today; the Holy Spirit descends upon these fearful apostles as Jesus promised would happen. And something extraordinary occurs. The disciples break out of their shell, their fears melt away, they are no longer afraid. They become new people. They unlock the doors behind which they had barricaded themselves and burst out into the streets and begin to preach the gospel. They preach with tremendous confidence, telling all about the good news of Jesus. Nothing can stop them now. It happened in Galveston, Texas. A woman was cleaning the bottom of the cage of her parrot Chippie with the vacuum cleaner. She was not using an attachment on the tube. When the telephone rang, she turned her head to pick it up, continuing to vacuum the cage as she said, “Hello,” into the phone. Then she heard the horrible noise of Chippie being sucked into the vacuum. Immediately she put down the phone, ripped open the vacuum bag, and found Chippie in there, stunned but still alive. Since the bird was covered with dust and dirt, she grabbed it, ran it into the bathroom, turned on the tap, and held the bird under the water to clean it off. When she finished that, she saw the hair dryer on the bathroom sink. She turned it on and held the bird in front of the blast of hot air to dry him off. A few weeks later, a reporter from the newspaper that originally published the story went out to the house to ask the woman, “How’s Chippie doing now?” She said, “He just sort of sits and stares.” Today’s Gospel tells us that it was what happened to the apostles. They all were traumatized by the arrest and crucifixion of their master and bewildered by his post-Resurrection appearances and his command to prepare for the coming of his Holy Spirit. Many of us can identify with Chippie and the apostles. The coronavirus has sucked us up, thrown cold water on us, and blown us away. Some-where in the trauma, we have lost our song. Hence, we, too, need the daily anointing of the Holy Spirit to keep us singing songs of Christian witnessing through love. Reaching out where we can to help others in the strange times we live in, to make that phone call, to write that letter to send that tweet or text or post to let others know that no matter what, we are there for them. We all know that there are great challenges facing all of us as we emerge from this pandemic. We could also say that we are fearful and apprehensive about the future. We know deep down that this will end and we will return to some semblance of normality. We will soon be able to hug our grandchildren; we will soon be able to sit down and have our capuccino or beer with our friends and family, we will soon see people back in our churches not like the empty churches we are seeing today.Together we must ask ourselves, what can we do together to make that light shine more brightly and sing our song in each corner of our community and it’s wonderful to see so many people who collaborate herein these challenging times. With the help of the Holy Spirit we can be assured that the Light of Christ will shine more brightly in our lives and we will return much stronger with renewed enthusiasm.