The tall Sixth Year stood at the exit door during the Ascension Mass in a school. Throughout, she examined her fingernails, folded the hymnsheet over to an intricate design and after the Gospel took to a serious perusal of her diary. An adult delicately suggested afterwards that Ascension Day didn't mean much to her. "Why should we celebrate his going away;" she said; "He hasn't come here yet."
It was one of those comments that brought everyone "back to earth." When you think of it; in saying farewell to a loved one in death, the sadness is usually tinged with thankfulness for having known them at all. Their physical presence made a difference, their memory inspires us still. Is the same true of the way we honour Jesus. Is he just a historical figure, or a living power. Has he "come here yet?" Do our lives betray that we even know him, or is he a prisoner within the church, limited to the time we decide to give in worship and prayer?
Our forebears and we in turn built and supported necessary schools, hospitals, churches, presbyteries. In most we pay someone else to do the job. The danger is that we leave out the essential thing. No one can be a substitute for the job that God has called you to do. You are irreplaceable.
So, be a sign of contradiction in today's "grab and get" world, not a contradiction of the sign.
(Comments to Tom at stmarysrcathlone@oceanfree.net )