麻豆约拍

Good morning.听

I am speaking from Edinburgh because I鈥檓 working here at the moment, but I鈥檓 a Glaswegian through and through, and I identify closely with the pain of those whose lives were so tragically lost or changed by the helicopter crash in the city.听

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On Sunday the Minister of Glasgow Cathedral, Laurence Whitley talked about standing beside those suffering, and going hand in hand into the light.听 That phrase could have been heard as just an easy religious cliche were it not for this: that even by the weekend, light had emerged from the bitter darkness that engulfed Glasgow鈥檚 Clydeside on Friday and it came as no surprise to me.

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That light shone in the immediately instinctive, extravagantly generous and typically emotional response of the people of Glasgow: there have been countless acts of individual caring; the taxi-drivers who took anxious relatives and friends to and from the site of the tragedy without charge; facilities and supplies provided free by hotels and shops听to families who needed to come together for support and solidarity.听 As the journalist Ruth Wishart put it yesterday, 鈥淕lasgow is a difficult city to carry off being a snob.听 In the early hours of Saturday morning all that mattered was how you could help鈥�.

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In the face of tragedy like this what religious faith has to offer is not a note of triumph which will sound hollow to those nursing their loss,听but the possibility of coping with that quiet desperation which comes to all people some of the time and some people all of the time.听 A journalist wrote that 鈥渢he whole city is hurting鈥�.听 To be human is to know hurt.听 But to be truly human is to feel the hurt of someone you鈥檝e never known save as another, fellow person on this planet.听

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So Lord, be with all today who suffer, and all who care and pray for them.听 Amen

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