The Holy Spirit and the Eighteenth Horse

There is a story of the ancient Celtic Christian leader, Comgan, that takes place as he arrived in a village soon after the death of the priest. A man of some substance, the priest had 17 horses, but he left no will. The people were arguing among themselves as to who should get the horses when Saint Comgan comes riding onto the scene.

Comgan told them he could both solve the horse dilemma and find the village a new priest. He said that the horses should be divided so that the sexton should have half the horses for digging the graves and caring for all the property; the beadle should get a third of the horses for his care of the church’s things, especially those items used in worship; and the choirmaster should receive a ninth of the horses for leading the church music. And the person who could resolve how to divide the horses should be the new priest.

The village was mystified, but agreed to the plan. The sexton, beadle and choirmaster set out to find someone who could solve the new mathematical problem of how to divide 17 into half, a third and a ninth without sawing up any horses or dividing days of the week. They ran into lots of people interested in the dilemma, but none who could solve it.

Then a young man offered his own horse to the priest’s herd. Now enlarged to 18, the herd was divided in half, with the sexton receiving his nine horses. The beadle got his third by taking home six horses, and the choirmaster got a ninth of the herd with two horses. The original 17 thus divided, the young man took his own horse back.

The villagers promptly asked the man to be there priest, citing Saint Comgan’s advice. The man agreed and he was sent to the bishop for first training and then ordination before returning to the village for three decades of faithful service to the congregation who miraculously found him.

One has to assume the role of The Holy Spirit in this story. The story doesn’t work without the Holy Spirit animating it by touching the hearts of those involved, speaking with that still small voice. The Holy Spirit is the one who inspires Comgan to set up the task and also inspires the young man to ride into the village and offer a solution. The same Holy Spirit then gets the Bishop to back the whole plan leads the young man to return to be a faithful priest after going away to study.

The Holy Spirit is that 18th horse. Just as the inheritance issue could not have been solved without first adding the 18th horse, so there are things in your life that you will not be able to get through or able to bear without the Holy Spirit. For God’s presence working in and through you can get you through problems you consider insurmountable. 

If you wonder if you ever felt the Holy Spirit at all, remember that from the perspective of the Bible it is the Holy Spirit which you breathe. Without the Holy Spirit you would not even have the breath of life and in death, it is still the Holy Spirit who is with you. 

If all that sounds like church talk or mumbo jumbo, look to how we humans act so cruelly when left to our own devices. Sure much wrong has been done in God’s name, but that was just us humans acting in our usual cruel ways and attaching God’s name to it. Imagine how we would act if we did not have God in our hearts calling us to listen to the better angels of our natures. Imagine what the world would be like if no one had ever felt God’s presence in his or her life. It would be a world without all those things people of faith have done in their best moments—a world without hospitals, without orphanages, without anyone to feed and cloth the neediest. 

That world without God’s presence would also be a world without compassion and love. I know that may sound like overstating the case, but what our faith teaches us “God is Love” and that we are created in God’s image. We have compassion and love because of the compassion and love of God, just as we have breath because of the breath of God, which is the Holy Spirit. This means that God is not distant. God is in us. And the God within you wants you to just open up more of your heart to make room for a little bit more of the Holy Spirit. Making room for the Holy Spirit is what makes new creation possible.

(The Rev. Frank Logue is pastor of King of Peace Episcopal Church in Kingsland.)

previous         Return to Religion Column page       next