24th July 2020

Having a daughter working for CircoMedia, the circus school in St. Paul’s, my wife and I have been to many performances by her students and we have learned to appreciate their skills as they train to become trapeze artists, acrobats, jugglers and clowns. I particularly like clowns with their painted faces, false noses and baggy pants. I’m sure we need something like that to expose the funny side of our serious and sad attitudes. So perhaps there is a sense in which we all need to become clowns. Mother Teresa once said “In every clown there is a saint, and in every saint there is a clown. Never forget to smile to show you are happy doing your work for God. A smiling face is an integral part of Christian love.” In 1993, Elizabeth and I led a group to India to mark the two hundredth anniversary of the BMS, and we went to Calcutta. While visiting Mother Teresa’s Children’s Home there, we were asked if we would like to meet her. Would we! What a wonderful lady, such energy for good, and she made you feel you could make the world a better place. She was someone you would never forget and we need to take on board what she said. Every saint, every one of God’s people, learning to release the clown inside, and so share joy and laughter in a new confidence in Christ. Christian happiness is being caught up in other people’s joy. So, at this difficult time, let’s learn to laugh together, rejoice together, and enter other people’s happiness.

Peter Webb