Sunday Reflection with Canon Pat Browne - There is no THEM and US

Since we met at Mass last weekend we have had the most horrendous massacre of young people in the gay club in Orlando last Sunday and then the murder of the young MP Jo Cox on Thursday. The cutting short of young life in a most cruel and violent way by other human beings - deranged? Misguided? Certainly full of hatred.

The reaction of a Jesuit priest in the United States called James Martin was to say: "We must stand with the people of Orlando in their grief. But we must also stand with the LGBT community too in theirs. He went on to say: "Homosexuals, Lesbians, Transexuals are for the most part invisible as far as the church is concerned and are treated as Other." THEM and US.

Indeed one American bishop has since gone on since then to say that the Church must accept that it is partly responsible for much of the hatred directed against the LGBT community, and must repent for that. THEM and US. Our society in Britain is trying to do the same with migrants. They are not part of us. Therefore we can keep them out. Would you lock out your own mother, brother, sister if they were at your door asking for your help?

THEM and US - that is the cause of much of the hatred in this world and has been at the root of all wars wars Europe experienced within itself till not many years before the European Community was formed. We've had none since. The fact is we don't usually murder those who are part of US. It is when we start seeing other people as THEM that seems to give us permission to treat others badly.

For Christ there is no THEM and US. There is only one human family. In which every person has a place and a part to play and is valued and accepted.

As followers of Christ it is the mission of all Catholics and Christians to ensure that everyone, regardless of their colour, their creed, their sexual orientation is VISIBLE and VALUABLE. If you want to argue with that and say No, there is an exception...he didn't mean....then you have got it wrong. Which group have you got a problem with? Gays? Migrants? Beggars on the street? There is no-one Christ omits from the warm embrace of his love. If YOU want to, then best be honest. Leave the Church. YOU ARE NOT OF CHRIST.

On Wednesday this week I heard the Archbishop of Canterbury talking about the relationship between Anglicans and Catholics. He was complaining that we have become too comfortable with disunity, even more so, now that we have the apparatus of dialogue, commissions, committees, etc. Dialogue he said can be an opiate, dulling the pain of separation that we should be feeling if we are going to be true to Christ. I pray, he said, for disruption to stir us into action for unity. We have got too used to talking about THEM and US in the churches.

It is in this context and thinking about these things that I find myself approaching the referendum this coming Thursday. Remain in Europe or Leave? That is the question.

I am not going to tell anyone else how to vote but I want to tell you... That I am going to vote to REMAIN.

The Gospel is about building bridges, not putting up walls. It is about the Kingdom of God which unites, not divides the human family. It is about reaching out to those who are poor, whether they are knocking on my door in Cumberland Street or knocking on my door in Calais.

Only this week I was talking to an eminent cancer specialist from the Royal Marsden who looked very worried when we talked about the referendum. Will you vote Remain or Leave, I asked her. She was horrified that I could even suggest she might Leave. If we left, she said what would happen all my cancer research? It is mostly funded from Brussels. The palliative research centre in Scotland would have to close - it is totally funded from Brussels.

My friend told me this week that he has decided to go back to university and continue his education - in Sweden. Why not in the UK I asked? Because he said, I cannot afford it here. It is free in Sweden as part of the European Union agreement.

I am very worried that should we leave, the border separating northern and southern Ireland will have to be restored, a border it has taken years to get rid of. Put it back? It is madness to suggest anything of the sort. But you will have to, if you want to keep all those "migrants" out.

And who are these migrants? Look around you here at Mass this morning? Get rid of the migrants in this congregation and you virtually get rid of our parish community.

Lastly it hurts me when someone says, well they are not all fleeing war or violence. Most of them are economic migrants. Yes!

Well what about all you Irish who came here in the 50s and 60s? Those from the Caribbean? All you Filipinos and those from Spain and Portugal? Most of you were economic migrants. The UK welcomed you. Are you going to deprive others of the same chance in life?

Enough! The Gospel is about the family of mankind. The family of God. A family which has only one Father, God. That makes us brothers and sisters. I am my brother's keeper. We are to look out for each other. There is no THEM and US.

Cardinal Vincent Nichols' words that: "There's a long tradition in Christianity and in Catholicism in particular of believing in holding things together. There's a strong tradition in the Catholic vision of life that to start down the path of division almost inevitably leads to further division."

Jo Cox fought with all her heart to build up this human family through her work in various aid agencies, and then as an MP and gave her life so that it might happen.

I see the only way to be true to Christ and indeed to honour her and what she stood for is to vote ....Remain.

Canon Pat Browne is Parish Priest at Holy Apostles, Pimlico, central London, and Roman Catholic Duty Priest at the Houses of Parliament.

Listen here: www.holyapostlespimlico.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Audio-Homily-Fr-Pat-19th-June-2016.mp3