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A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Fr John Burniston

Good morning.

It had been a very passionate argument but finally they had both run out of steam and one said, ‘look, can’t we just agree to disagree’? We all held our breath. But with a shrug of the shoulders the two of them shook hands and walked away.

We had seen merit on both sides. We could also see how much each believed their own case – and how wide the margin between them. They were very different kinds of people; their priorities and their values were simply not the same.

Today the Church celebrates two red letter saints together, St Peter and St Paul. Peter the illiterate, impetuous country fisherman, the closest friend of Jesus whose leadership skills were undisputed but who denied Jesus the night before he died. Paul the intellectual, urban genius whose organisational skills enabled the Early Church to spread throughout the Empire but who lived perpetually with the fact that he never met Jesus in the flesh.

They didn’t have a single thing in common.

And yet without both of their skills the Church would never have been able to have sufficient cohesion or energy to survive. What was needed were the skills to harness the talents of both Peter and Paul and to develop what we now think of as ‘the ministry of reconciliation’ - enabling people in all walks of life to discover how the love of God really can enable people to ‘agree to disagree’, without tearing each other apart.

Lord, when we are certain we are right, help us to see you in the person with whom we disagree so that we never fail to respect and love them too.

Amen.

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