Later today I'll be doing something few of us in the UK imagined we'd be doing even just a month or so ago - voting in the European Parliament elections. Hastily-arranged and bitterly contested elections, in which voting decisions are less about party loyalties and manifestos, and more about the increasing polarisation between Remain and Leave. I will be one of many ardent Remainers casting our votes for a party which supports that stance.
Leave v Remain, Remain v Leave... The UK is currently an unstable maelstrom of anger, racism and division, too often expressed in violent, abusive ways. And with all this very much on my mind, and Remain in my heart, I couldn't help noticing that word - remain - repeated throughout today's Gospel...
As the Father has loved me,
so I have loved you.
Remain in my love.
If you keep my commandments
you will remain in my love,
just as I have kept my Father's commandments
and remain in his love.
I have told you this
so that my own joy may be in you
and your joy be complete.
(John 15. 9-11)
Remain in my love... A well-timed reminder that, whether we remain in the European Union or not, our fundamental call is to remain within this primordial union which transcends all others, and to which there are no border controls, tariffs or frontiers. To remain within this union of love, in which our joy can become complete, as we love as widely and abundantly as we have been loved.
Leave v Remain, Remain v Leave... The UK is currently an unstable maelstrom of anger, racism and division, too often expressed in violent, abusive ways. And with all this very much on my mind, and Remain in my heart, I couldn't help noticing that word - remain - repeated throughout today's Gospel...
As the Father has loved me,
so I have loved you.Remain in my love.
If you keep my commandments
you will remain in my love,
just as I have kept my Father's commandments
and remain in his love.
I have told you this
so that my own joy may be in you
and your joy be complete.
(John 15. 9-11)
Remain in my love... A well-timed reminder that, whether we remain in the European Union or not, our fundamental call is to remain within this primordial union which transcends all others, and to which there are no border controls, tariffs or frontiers. To remain within this union of love, in which our joy can become complete, as we love as widely and abundantly as we have been loved.
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