Cormac Murphy-O'Connor: No turning back on the road to ecumenism

I want to speak to you today about a few insights of the Mother of Jesus which encompass something very fundamental in Christian life. It does not matter whether you are Anglican, Roman Catholic, Orthodox or Free Church, there are two attitudes of Mary that unite all Christians.

The first is when she accepted the will of God to become the mother of His Son when she said to the angel, "I am the handmaid of the Lord; be it done unto me according to Your word" (Luke 1:38). The second is reflected in the words found in today's Gospel when she said to the wine waiter, "Do whatever He tells you" (John 2:5).

Although Mary lived in an age totally different from our own, it seems to me that she too was confronted in her own way with what we are confronted today, namely, how we are each to live a virtuous life in a world that challenges all our Christian values. Today's world has been called a "post-modern world" – a world where there are no objective moral values, and no moral laws. People make up their own truths and their own values and there is no clarity as to the way that people should live.

Yes, Mary lived in different times. But the memory of what she had said to the angel, and its relationship to our faith in Jesus, seems to me to be absolutely fundamental: "Be it done to me according to Your word."

I have spoken a lot about the will of God which for us Christians means doing whatever Jesus tells us. I feel today in preaching in this church and under these circumstances that this is not just an isolated event. The Holy Spirit of God in all of the Christian churches over recent years has been impelling us to a greater unity, a greater communion together.

Ecumenism is a long road, but a very, very fruitful one. The fact that as Christians we are united in this endeavour is of the greatest significance today. "Do whatever He tells you". And Jesus tells us to be united. "May they all be one," He prayed "as You are in Me, Father, and I in You so that the world may believe" (John 17:21). It is the work of the Holy Spirit that has prompted the conditions within which it is my privilege to be preaching here today. Ecumenism is like a road with no exit. There is no going back. We are on a journey that we know will be fulfilled by the promptings and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in that unity which is Christ's will. Of that I am quite sure.

The two phrases on which my sermon hinges today – "Be it done to me according to Your will" and "Do whatever He tells us" – are true not only for us individually. They are always true for the community of Christ's people which we call the Church. If we listen and try to do the will of God in our own lives, and if we do what Jesus teaches us, then we have good reasons to hope that Christian unity will eventually come about. We should not be disheartened even if sometimes we think that progress is slow.

I remember as a young boy when things were at a very low ebb in the Second World War. From the sitting room in my home in Reading I listened to a speech given by Winston Churchill. During it, he quoted from a poem and I think it is the first bit of poetry I ever remembered. It was taken from a poem by Arthur Clough (1819-1861) called "Say not the Struggle Nought Availeth". I always remembered the third verse:

For while the tired waves vainly breaking

Seem here no painful inch to gain,

Far back, through creeks and inlets making,

Comes silent, flooding in, the main.

The creeks and inlets in our own time are Christians coming together but the silent flood is the gifts of the Holy Spirit. This is God's work and this is His will, not merely our own efforts.

I hope you will forgive me if, before I conclude, I add a personal note. This is the beginning of the Golden Jubilee Year of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth. The Queen has reigned for these 50 years with enormous dignity, dedication and faithfulness. My prayer today and through the year is that the gifts of the Holy Spirit will be given to her ever more abundantly.