Reading for this week : John 1 : 1 - 14
God our Father,
in love you sent your Son
that the world may have life:
lead us to seek him among the outcast
and to find him in those in need,
for Jesus Christ’s sake. Amen
Remembering Archbishop Desmond Tutu
The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby described Archbishop Tutu as “a great warrior for justice who never stopped fighting – whether it was for those in his own country, for inclusivity in the South African Constitution, or for those suffering injustice around the world.”
He said: “The world is different because of this man. Archbishop Tutu was a prophet and priest, a man of words and action, one who embodied the hope and joy that were the foundations of his life.
He was a man of extraordinary personal courage and bravery: when the police burst into Cape Town Cathedral, he defied them by dancing down the aisle.
He was a man of enormous vision: seeing the possibilities for building the Rainbow Nation long before anyone else, except perhaps President Mandela.
His vision and bravery were allied with a canny political sense and wisdom, enabling him to be a healer and apostle of peace while so many still saw wounds and war.”
Some quotes from Desmond Tutu
“In the end what matters is not how good we are, but how good God is. Not how much we love Him, but how much he loves us. And God loves us whoever we are, whatever we’ve done or failed to do, whatever we believe or can’t”.
“Forgiving is not forgetting; it’s actually remembering–remembering and not using your right to hit back. It’s a second chance for a new beginning. And the remembering part is particularly important. Especially if you don’t want to repeat what happened.”
“We are made for loving. If we don’t love, we will be like plants without water.”
“There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they’re falling in.”
“A person is a person through other persons; you can’t be human in isolation; you are human only in relationships.”