If you've done three impossible things before breakfast...

There are some things that will never happen this side of eternity but are nevertheless worth working for.

Three of those are:

- stopping the practice of abortion
- peace between Israel and the Arabs
- full visible unity of all Christians

I have heard, at any one time, people say that because it is unrealistic to hope for any of these things, all we can work for is some half way compromise.

The most recent was a comment made to me by a fellow Catholic that the bishops in the US made a mistake in their one-issue approach to the recent election. "What they want - decriminilisation of abortion - is impossible." No, I corrected him, what they want is that abortions be stopped completely, and the legal proscription is only one plank in this over all agenda, which will include a new way of loving and valuing all expectant mothers and unborn children.

It is because we set our sights high, hoping in the One who promised fullness of life, peace and unity to all humanity, that we are able to maintain our committment to these causes at all.

Even if the promises themselves were eschatological in nature.