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Good morning. It seems to have been a week for apologies and regrets. Lord Freud offered an unreserved apology for earlier commenting that people with mental disabilities could be paid as little as £2 an hour. “I was foolish to accept the premise of the question…all disabled people should be paid a least the minimum wage without exception”. Bono, when publicly accused of being rude because of his marketing stunt with Apple of downloading his new album onto millions I tune, accounts whether they wanted it or not responded “Oops, I’m sorry about that”. Most powerful of all Bob Geldof blamed himself for the death of his daughter Peaches who died of a heroin overdose. “You’re a father who is responsible and clearly failed” he said. We all know that sorry is the most difficult of all words to say, and in recent years there has been a great reluctance in public life, especially in the financial sector, for people to take personal responsibility for mistakes and misjudgements. So the public expressions of contrition this week are refreshingly different. But they do raise some very difficult questions. I was once rather clumsy getting a case out of the rack on a bus and it fell on the lady in the seat below. I apologised profusely of course, but the husband was understandably furious, talked about possible injuries, a ruined holiday etc. I felt very bad about it. So I was much relieved a few days later when I enquired and found that all was well, and they were thinking no more about it. But what if there had been some serious injury? Would an apology have been enough? So it is in the Pistorius case in South Africa, now awaiting sentencing, despite the fact that he was found not guilty of murder and has expressed sorrow for what he did, there is an understandable feeling amongst some people that he was responsible for something terrible and he should he pay for it by going to prison. The Christian faith gets to the very heart of these serious issues and holds out the astounding hope of an ultimate forgiveness, reconciliation and redemption between human beings- one that is grounded in God’s acceptance of us through that suffering figure on the cross. But for someone like Bob Geldof who says, you go over and over it again in your mind, I recognise there is no easy consolation, just pain to be lived with. Nevertheless, sometimes there are things we can do to ease the pain of others. We can accept one another. We can be alongside someone even if they are finding it almost impossible to live with themselves. We can try to accept them, even if we feel they have done us some personal harm. This is not overlooking, or forgetting but it is trying to maintain some kind of positive relationship. Not easy.