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Unprecedented events call for unprecedented love

Philip Young calls for an outpouring of love as a response to the challenges faced by humanity.

Have you noticed the recent frequent use of the word ‘unprecedented’? In the last 18 months there has been an unprecedented use of the word ‘unprecedented’.
 
The whole COVID-19 pandemic has taken us into uncharted territory. Who could have predicted the extent of the disease and the nature of the lockdown measures needed to try and lessen its destructive and deadly impact?
 
It has been a shock for our present generation who were born too recently to remember the Spanish flu epidemic after the First World War. The medieval plagues are even more long forgotten, and so this modern plague has taken us all by surprise and shaken our societies to their very foundations.
 
This year we continue to be shaken as the full impact of climate change is becoming more apparent. Extreme weather events in the form of excessive heat waves and unprecedented amounts of rainfall have brought fire and flood to many communities on a worldwide scale. To those directly affected it is devastating and life changing. But there is not one of us on planet earth who can hide away from these challenges. How do we face an uncertain future together with courage and with hope?
 
I believe the unprecedented events of COVID-19 and the challenges of climate change need to be met by humanity with an unprecedented response. These events have highlighted to us that we are all in this together.
 
None of us is safe from COVID-19 unless all of us take measures to protect ourselves by enabling as many people in the world to be vaccinated as possible and by continuing to take care about our personal hygiene and contacts.
 
None of us is safe from climate change, as we are all at the mercy of the weather. In an unprecedented way we are discovering that we are all connected to one another. Therefore, we must act together now, as never before, as one family living in one world.
 
The unprecedented response necessary is that we love one another and our planet like we have never done before. I believe only the response of a great love will be large enough for us to face such an uncertain future together. The world will continue to face unprecedented events and so only an unprecedented love will be sufficient to carry us through.
 
God is love. His love is unprecedented. All our hope is founded on God’s love because we know that He loves us with an unquenchable love. His love is eternal and when all of heaven and earth shall pass away, we have faith that His love is the one thing that will sustain us forever.
 
As Saint Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 13, “And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love”.
 
We need that love now in an unprecedented way. Let that love motivate our urgent joint actions. Let us bring healing to each other and to the Earth.
 
 
Image by S. Hermann & F. Richter from Pixabay



Philip Young June 2014Philip is an Anglican, Quaker, and a member of the Third Order of Franciscans, and now lives in Felixstowe. Until July 2014 he was the Diocesan Environmental Officer for the Norwich Diocese. In June 2017 he stood as an Independent Candidate for the General Election in the Suffolk Coastal Constituency.  He is now Associate Priest at St. John and St. Edmund in Felixstowe and a freelance writer on spiritual and political matters. He is available to run Quiet Days, give talks, presentations or to preach and can be contacted at philipyoung@btinternet.com. Philip is developing a new website www.revolutionoflovenow.com.

 

 

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