"Selling Signs" a Poem and a Pilgrim's thoughts

"Selling Signs" 

Selling Signs, Selling Signs,

I knew a man who sold signs,

creating much confusion.

"Shirts TWO 4 ONE!" it said and yet,

the sign itself alone for sale, 

Alas for him who needed substance.

I looked and saw a vendor's cart

Postcards and pictures of Jubilant Jesus

Fair skinned, healthy thin, blue eyes and long hair.

Waiting heard a whisper within,

"don't sell signs when neighbor's naked"

"what is needed, always needed"

"isn't sold, only given,"

"sign and presence, sign and substance.

here we are, beneath the stars,

out in the cold, out in the cold.

don't be selling signs, selling signs,

it leaves your neighbor naked. 

According to the Catechism, a Sacrament is an outward sign instituted by Christ to give grace.  This goes along with the Christian idea of "incarnation", that the divine become manifest in the world, the Transcendent became imminent, and the Word became Flesh.  This is the Epiphany to the world.  But the idea of Incarnation, Sacrament, is both sign and substance, not an empty sign, sound and fury, signifying nothing.  

Today, Christianity is often sold, seldom practice.  And when it's sold, and not given, not a gift, we lose the very meaning and definition of grace.  This is the very point of Soren Kierkegaard when he said, "What the Philosophers say about Reality is often as disappointing as a sign in a shop window, which reads: "Pressing Done Here".  If you brought your clothes to be pressed, you would be fooled; for the sign is only for sale".  

This was Kierkegaard's indictment of modern Philosophy (seeking knowledge without seeking Wisdom) and modern Christianity (religious belief without a personal transformation or commitment).  Sign without substance is anti-sacrament par excellence, or more accurately said, anti-incarnation, anti-Christ.