Love your enemies and turn the other cheek. This is perhaps one of the most difficult teachings of Christ presented to us in all of the Gospel. When I first read these words last week I thought that this is either the worst possible timing for this Gospel lesson to appear, when country, and neighbor, and even household is so bitterly divided, or it is the Gospel we need desperately to hear now more than ever. Love your enemies and turn the other cheek.

Friends, I can’t tell you how good it is to be back with you today, and if you are visiting or new, then welcome. In case you have forgotten, my name is Paddy Cavanaugh, the associate rector at St. George’s, and for the past three months I have been on paternity leave with my wife Winnie, who gave birth to our first daughter, Mary Winston, in October. Since then I have been wrapped in a blanket of wonder, love, and praise, at the miracle which new life promises.