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Good morning. Ascension Day is traditionally, along with Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost, one of the four great Christian festivals. It recalls how the risen Jesus, having completed his work on earth, left final instructions with his disciples and departed from them. But where did that leave the disciples? The days after Ascension Day are poignant because, for almost the entire year, Christians celebrate God’s being with them – but for these next ten days they’re acutely aware of what it feels like for God not to be with them. When you’ve felt such a profound sense of presence, the ache of loss can create a bewildering vacuum. And into that vacuum may cluster doubt, regret, anxiety and fear. But this is the remarkable fact. The greatest historical argument for Christianity is the otherwise inexplicable transformation of the eleven terrified and dispirited disciples into hopeful, dynamic and invigorated apostles. Somehow the echo chamber of fear became for them not the dismantling of all certainty but the clarification of all faith. Out of our place of deepest fear comes our encounter with truth. In the last 48 hours so many of us must have wondered, should we go to that concert, should we get on that underground train, should we go into that crowded square. We’ve heard words of defiance, saying don’t let our spirit die, that would be allowing the terrorists to win. We know the laws of probability mean our chance of getting caught up in such a ghastly incident are actually very small. But there’s something deeper than that. The great medieval theologian Thomas Aquinas tells us the object of fear is a future evil that is imminent, of great magnitude, and threatening the loss of something we rightly love. Think about the last part of that definition for a moment. Fear puts us in touch with what we rightly love. Terrorism is about terror. We work so hard to create lives of comfort, free from anxiety, and we resent and abhor terrorism because it embodies cruelty and manufactures anxiety. But we don’t have to be passive victims of fear. We can turn fear to good use if it puts us in touch with what we truly, deeply and rightly love. That’s what’s happened in Manchester in the last two days. Think about the generosity, humanity and compassion that have sprung up as the blood of the innocent has cried from the ground. What happened to the disciples after Ascension Day is that they reflected on and identified what in Jesus they truly deeply and rightly loved; and soon after they were overwhelmed with the power and energy to embody it. May the people of Manchester feel a deep sense of truth and love this Ascension Day.