There were many occasions during our childhood when my brother and I would squabble or fight over some game or toy and maybe cry: “It’s not fair” or “Mummy, make him give me that, it’s mine”. The response we got depended upon the parental mood at the time.
One possibility was: "If you can't play together without quarrelling and fighting, then I'll take it away from you".
We fought, but in the end we are family and we always made peace. It was expected that love would make the difference.
In the UK at the moment we spend too much time arguing over who should be entitled to things. Even trying to blame people for a future no-one can be sure of.
We need to be reconciled, but we mustn't think that reconciliation is about avoiding conflict, smoothing over differences or harking back to an imaginary past.
Genuine reconciliation is never easy, nor cost-free, not even when divided parties share the same values or world-view.
Recently we have seen the media verbally bash the Archbishop of Canterbury for suggesting that people of faith have a place in politics.
I certainly don't agree with everything the Archbishop said, but what I do know is that we can be agents of reconciliation in the days ahead.
Whatever the result of Brexit, we should all take up the calling to be peacemakers - faith or no faith.
We all have to live together on this fragile planet.
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