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A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Michael Kelly

Good morning!

Sir Thomas More, the Lord Chancellor of England who resigned in 1532, gave to the English language the word ‘utopia’ to describe any imagined place or state of things in which everything is perfect.

Of course, history and literature has also given up plenty of dystopian visions – some of them played out on our television and radio news bulletins with depressing frequency.

More, who was canonised a saint in 1935 by Pope Pius XI, described in his book Utopia the fictional island community where everything was perfect, everyone acted correctly and everyone lived happily ever after.

Of course, we all know – and events demonstrate – that such a perfect world is impossible to create.

Any society or organisation or political party or trade union or Church or faith tradition will inevitably be hamstrung by the faults of the members of that entity.

A cynic then might say: why bother? If everything is destined to be flawed, imperfect and all of our efforts fallible, why try?

But that would be to make the perfect the enemy of the good.

King Solomon is credited with giving to the Hebrew Scriptures the Book of Proverbs. He was on to something when he wrote that it is better to light a candle than curse the dark.

We can all of us make the world a better place with one small act of kindness or other-centredness at a time. A gentle smile to someone who really needs it, a few words of encouragement and concern…we won’t all be agents of epic change…but small changes lead to bigger changes.

So, today I pray for the wisdom to be that light in the world rather than submitting and feeling overwhelmed by the darkness.

Amen.

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