Reconciliation

Reconciliation: the peaceful end to conflict.

Each year, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II gives a personal Christmas speech to the nation and the wider Commonwealth at 3pm GMT on Christmas Day.  It is really the only time when the Queen can address her people without her speech being scripted by government officials.  She often speaks of her faith in Jesus Christ, and she certainly did that today.  The eight minute clip can be found here and will be available for the next ten days. 

The Queen talks about reconciliation between the Allies and the Central Powers during the Great War as exemplified in the Christmas Truce, and she revealed how she was stunned into silence when confronted with the 888,246 ceramic poppies that filled the moat of the Tower of London marking one hundred years since the first full day of Britain's involvement in the First World War.  Reconciliation "takes different forms," such as in Scotland after the recent referendum, and will take time.  The Queen ends her speech with heartfelt words about Jesus Christ being the role model of reconciliation in her life.

Reconciliation is sorely needed in the United States where the two main political parties have increasingly become polarized and divided.  Reconciliation is sorely needed in the Church today where bickering and arguing over doctrinal and social matters is seen more often than common prayer and mutual support in carrying out Christ's message of reconciliation to the world.  Reconciliation is sorely needed in our human relationships each and every day, and within each of us as human beings.

Reconciliation: the peaceful end to conflict. 

Merry Christmas.