Challenging Generosity

The first appointment made public by the new Archbishop of Canterbury is a Conflict Resolution advisor. The Vatican might do well to follow that lead.

We were told the following in a homily at a church on Holy Island last week:A non-believer went on a church crawl. A sermon on Jesus’ call to ‘challenging generosity’ spoke to her. She is now a Christian.

In a democracy like the UK it is thought that politics requires us to say the worst about the opposing parties, the law requires us to say the worst about the accused, and a ‘successful’ media requires it to vilify public and sometimes private figures. The church, in contrast, requires us to offer challenging generosity, ways in which those who do wrong can engage in a private purification process, and to build up trust.

God of boundless generosity,

brought home to us by Christ the Endless Giver

We open our hearts to Christ in the stranger,

We open our hearts to Christ in the wounded,

To Christ in the violent, to Christ in the poor.