WEDNESDAY REFLECTION
Mid-week Reflection
19th May 2021
I find myself particularly sad when speaking to sixth-year pupils, some of whom I have known since they were babies, that I can only see part of their faces. It all feels so strange and alien. So much of the personality of a person comes through visual contact. Soon, of course, they will disappear from our view entirely as they leave school and move to the tertiary stage of their young lives. Leave-taking for them will have that mixture of sadness at leaving behind the security of the school community, and excitement about new experiences and the adventure of life ahead.
We who have been responsible for their education and formation will miss them. But we can take comfort from the fact that we have shared with them, knowledge and devotion. Sometimes other people leave our lives through moving to other towns or even other countries. Some leaving is freely chosen. Others, by circumstances we know not, may be forced upon us. And, of course, some will be by the leaving of this earth. Our Blessed Lord, Jesus took leave of His followers by departing from this earth. The leaving left them sorrowful for what had happened and frightened about the future. Until, that is, they came to realise that He had ascended to Heaven. The dustiness and strife of this world had passed. His Ascension to Heaven which Jesus wishes us to share with him demonstrates that we are bound together by love. Separation from each other does not break the bonds of friendship.
In the case of Jesus, we learn that God is never truly gone from our midst: not on Good Friday, not on Ascension Thursday and not when we leave St Ninian’s for the last time.
Monsignor Monaghan
