ng during these
weeks which was centered on the work of the future in which they were to
carry on the mission He had initiated; all these elements prepared them
for the definite withdrawal of the ascension. Nevertheless we can
understand the wrench that must have been involved in His actual
withdrawal. We face the dying of some one we love. We know that it is a
matter of weeks; the weeks shorten to days, and we are "prepared" for
the death; but what we mean is that the death will not take us by
surprise. However prepared we may be, the pain of parting will be a
quite definite pain; there is no way of avoiding that.

We know that there was no way for the disciples to avoid the pain of the
going of Jesus. It was not the same sort of pain that they felt now, as
they gazed up from the hill top to the cloud drifting into the
distance, as the pain that had been theirs as they hurried trembling and
affrighted through the streets of Jerusalem on the afternoon of the
Crucifixion. This pain had no sting of remorse for a duty undone, or of
fear for a danger to be met. It was the calm pain of love in the
realisation that the parting is final.

We know that among the group that watched the receding cloud the eyes
that would linger longest and would find it hardest to turn away would
be those of the Blessed Mother. Her mission about our Lord during all
these past years had been a very characteristically womanly mission, a
mission of silence and help and sympathy. She was with the women who
ministered to Him, never obtrusive, never self-assertive; but always
ready when need was. It was the silent service of a great love. That is
the perfection of service. There are types of service which claim reward
or recognition. We are not unfamiliar in the work of the Kingdom with
people who have to be cajoled and petted and made much of because of
what they do. Verily, they have their reward. But the type we are
considering, of which the Blessed Mother is the highest expression, is
without thought of self, being wholly lost in the wonder of being
permitted to serve God at all. To be permitted to give one's time and
personal ministry to our Lord in His Kingdom and in His members is so
splendid a grace of God that all thought of self is lost in the joy of
it. We know that S. Mary could have had no other thought than the
offering of her love in whatever way it was permitted to express
itself; and we know that the quality of that love was such that