Time to roll up our sleeves in the service of others

Below is the 'Thinking Anew' column in today's Irish Times. Page 20.

Michael Commane
Cycling to work on Wednesday I spotted a young mother wheeling her twins on the footpath.

A bus pulled up alongside her and I was puzzled as to what was going on. It turned out that one of the twins had dropped her teddy from the buggy.

The driver had spotted it and stopped his bus to tell the woman. What a lovely way to start the day. How kind of the driver.

The child’s mother subsequently told me that the child was besotted with that teddy.

​It’s the little things that mean so much. Was God’s goodness not written all over that act of kindness?

​Tomorrow is the feast of the Presentation of Jesus in the temple. His parents bring him along to fulfil their legal obligations. It seems as if it’s a low-key event.

They are ordinary people and bring along two doves as an offering. Nothing special about them at all.

​But we read in the account that at that time there was also a wise and holy man, who had in some way or other been “urged” to go to the temple and see for himself the child who was being presented.

​The Gospel account tells us that he held Jesus in his arms.

The words he says have been on the lips of Christians for generations - the Nunc Dimittis: “Now, Master you can let your servant go in peace, just as you promised;/ because my eyes have seen the salvation/which you have prepared for all the nations to see,/a light to enlighten the pagans/and the glory of your people Israel”. (Luke2: 29 - 32)

​It is a central tenet of Christianity to make real the presence of God in our lives.

Christmas is about a birth, the Epiphany is about announcing Jesus to the world and tomorrow's feast is again about making present, this time, in keeping with the legal tradition, the person we call Christ, who is God.

​Saying anything about God requires great care. There are those who use an unreal vocabulary to talk about anything that is ‘holy’.

Maybe there is need to have an open and charitable conversation about the vocabulary we use when we talk about God and the holy. It appears far too many people are alienated by what they hear about the ‘holy’. And it can’t be that they all are not people of good will.

​Being human means we form relationships with other people. As Christians we believe that the presence of God is stamped on all our relationships, and that includes those relationships with people we find difficult and with whom we disagree.

Do we ever think about that when we are in dispute with someone or speaking badly of them?

​Surely if God is to be real in our lives we have to use a language that makes sense. No bluffing, no spoof.

A meaningful belief in God involves us being in a non-stop relationship where God is part of who we are and that God is part of our everyday lives, including the humdrum that is always part of our living experience. Is it possible to mock, laugh and deride people and at the same time use God’s name? We do it, don’t we?

Maybe we use ‘holy words’ far too often. Instead it might make far more sense to live out the message of the Gospel right at the centre of where we live our lives.

​The wise man Simeon took the child Jesus into his arms.

​Every time we take someone ‘into our arms’ in justice and charity we have every reason to believe that our eyes have seen the salvation that has been prepared for all nations.
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​No one can put words on God. All we ever have are the most delicate of hints. But when we roll up our sleeves at the service of others we surely are living in the presence of God. Something like how Simeon felt when he experienced the child Jesus at the presentation.
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​And it’s made manifest in the most ordinary of acts. Like a good person driving the 14 bus.