"Why stand for the Gospel ?"

The very non P.C. Andy Capp, created by the legendary cartoonist Reg Smythe fifty years ago this year, could always ask the awkward question with the simple truculent or mischievous word, “why”!  For example, Andy, sitting in the back of the tour bus  (his long-suffering, yet “able to give as good as she got” wife, Flo, was sitting in the front),  thought he overheard the guide say: “We are now passing the oldest pub in the south of England.” Andy had only one response: “Why?”!!

The “why” word has been with us through life. Before Google or the Encyclopaedia it was our access route to learning about our immediate surroundings, how things worked, why birds flew and bees buzzed – that is until we were told “that’s enough now.”! 

Perhaps the “why” word leaves our vocabulary too soon in life. Here I hear echoes of the question: “Why did no one stop to ask why?”  “Why do all young offenders seem to have the same sociological address?” “Why is infant mortality still three to one for certain sectors in a Celtic Tiger economy?” “Why will certain groups of people (despite even the postal vote being available to all, including prisoners) not vote in the next election?”  “Why do millions vote-in someone who wages war,  based on false information?” “Why me or why not me?”  “Why do I always seem to find the mote in someone else’s eye and fail to find the log in my own?”

Why do we stand for the gospel today? Because Jesus chose to stand or because we wish to stand up and be counted?  Another question: “Why did Jesus sit down after he read it when only teachers with authority could sit down and teach?”  Why did Jesus unroll the scroll until he found these words of Isaiah? Why did Luke make these the first words of Jesus to us?  Why should these words be any concern of mine…why, why………?  Why don’t I  read this gospel once again,  just for myself?

Fr. Michael McCullagh, C.M.
21st January, 2007