Yesterday was a day of unprecedented and momentous constitutional crisis; it was also yet another day in the instability, aggression and yawning divisions unleashed by Brexit which continue to keep this country in a vice-like grip. The world, of course, continues to turn - albeit with its own concerns about climate and the burning Amazon - and this morning the sun rose, unperturbed, on a new day. But not just any old new day - this one is the 250th anniversary of the birth of Philippine Duchesne, our second saint and first, pioneering missionary!
And I wondered what Philippine would say to us today? She, after all, had lived through some thoroughly turbulent and unstable times, including a bloody revolution when she was in her early twenties; a revolution which toppled and swept aside virtually all the certainties with which she had grown up...
Virtually all, I heard her remind me... virtually - but not all. The certainty that is God, and his faithful, enduring love, incarnated in Christ, could never be changed, let alone swept away. And I was reminded that the mountains may depart and the hills be removed... certainties may fall, and hopes and plans turn to dust... truth be removed and confusion and lies reign... parliament be prorogued and instability prevail... but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed, says the Lord, who has compassion on you... (Isaiah 54: 10)
And in the midst of all this too there is another unchanging certainty: that my mission - our mission - to find and to reveal that steadfast love and hope-filled covenant of peace, endures - because it must, and is needed. To adapt some words from Kim, an American RSCJ: Let our senses, let our heart, let our instinct, be for You, for Love...
And I wondered what Philippine would say to us today? She, after all, had lived through some thoroughly turbulent and unstable times, including a bloody revolution when she was in her early twenties; a revolution which toppled and swept aside virtually all the certainties with which she had grown up...
Virtually all, I heard her remind me... virtually - but not all. The certainty that is God, and his faithful, enduring love, incarnated in Christ, could never be changed, let alone swept away. And I was reminded that the mountains may depart and the hills be removed... certainties may fall, and hopes and plans turn to dust... truth be removed and confusion and lies reign... parliament be prorogued and instability prevail... but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed, says the Lord, who has compassion on you... (Isaiah 54: 10)And in the midst of all this too there is another unchanging certainty: that my mission - our mission - to find and to reveal that steadfast love and hope-filled covenant of peace, endures - because it must, and is needed. To adapt some words from Kim, an American RSCJ: Let our senses, let our heart, let our instinct, be for You, for Love...
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