When I was at school I know we had two periods of English Literature every week. Quite how we filled that time is something I cannot now quite recall. I do know the teacher shouted at us a lot. He was quite a frightening man when angry but when not shouting was always throwing out literary quotations at us. Most of the time these pertained to some misdemeanour on our pan but occasionally he said something which really hit home. One such quotation declared 'time is a circus, always packing up and moving on.' Whoever first said this has not been remembered by yours truly but the quotation itself has.

Last week it came back to me on learning that the coins of the realm will from 1st January 1998 have a new portrait of the Queen. The new portrait, unveiled last week by Buckingham Palace, depicts the Queen with a double chin, pronounced jowls and deep nose-to-mouth lines: It reminds us that despite all her titles, wealth and prestige at the end of the day Elizabeth R. is just another human being for whom time is increasingly packing up and moving on.

The image we reveal to the world often says a great deal about how we perceive ourselves. When the Queen acceded to the throne in 1952 the image stamped on our coins made her look like a Greek goddess. Around her head sat a crown of laurel leaves. In 1967 that look was replaced by one where she may have been wearing a crown but where her nose was definitely looking stumpy. In 1985 someone must have noticed because the image changed to depict a proud figurehead with smooth cheeks and no wrinkles -quite a feat for a woman then nearly sixty! In 1998 though that image will be replaced. Perhaps the Queen is acknowledging the truth of that quotation, that time is like a circus, always packing up and moving on.

In this Sunday's gospel we encounter a Jesus for whom time was always packing up and moving on. He was on a journey to Jerusalem; a journey from God, with God, to God. It remains one for which we have all, through baptism, been given an invitation. And whether we are Queen or subject Christ says to us all, 'don't look at the outward appearance. It's what's inside that counts.' DG