King Alfred’s moment of deathless glory was when he was reconciled with Guthrum, the Danish leader, even after broken faith in the past, and entered into a treaty with him, which left Wessex free. But he did this after he had defeated Guthrum in battle, and not before! It led to a lasting peace, To be reconciled with your country's enemies before you have defeated them in battle, is a more perilous adventure; it may well lead to broken faith, and no peace.
Reconciliation between individuals presents the same problem. It can be summarised in the question: do you want the feeling of reconciliation or the real thing, do you want appearance or substance? In ordinary social life, you have to be content with appearances; they are all that is on offer. If you want something more substantial, you have to cut across the grain of social life, and not many people are willing to do that, or accompany you on such an adventure. But this, I regret to say is what religion is all about. Jesus had no time for the routine of convention, and I regret to say very little time for good manners. If you asked him to dinner, he was likely to insult you, according to the myth which he has left behind him. And for a nice congregation of law-abiding, conventional, good mannered people to call themselves a Christian Church, is like a man who has learned to sail a mirror-dinghy on a dis-used gravel pit claiming to be a sailor. Surely you must at least have some experience of the open sea?
When two people fall in love, who are from different nations, the problem is much more difficult. Not only will you have different outlooks, the basic facts or beliefs in your subconscious will be different. And of that, you will be almost entirely unaware – because they are in your subconscious! So the scope for misunderstanding each other is enormous. Much better to stick to appearances, you might say, when you seem to understand each other? But that is no good, when difficulties crop up, as they are bound to do. It will just be obvious that you misunderstand each other, whatever you pretended a moment before. So is the solution to strive to have the same beliefs and basic assumptions, the same “attitude”, as Jung would have said? But that means disowning your loyalties to your respective countries, and being a couple wrapped up in themselves. Most people would say that was to end up “insignificant”, or a “very small parcel”. There is a story from Bunker’s Hill, the first real battle of what we call the American War of Independence. A Yankee and a British sergeant-major saw and recognised each other as a friend. They both broke ranks, and ran to meet each other, the Yankee from his entrenchment the sergeant-major from the line of his marching regiment. They flung their arms round each other, and embraced. Of course they were shot down a moment later by the murderous fire from both sides; but for one brief moment they had expressed a love that defied death. That is what you want to solve the Romeo and Juliet dilemma.
And this too is the courage the clergy need in their Imitation of Christ, if they are ever to have achievements that equal or are greater than those of Jesus in his earthly life. So how is it that they, who were given the inestimable privilege of being the guardians of the highest aspirations of the spirit of Man, have succeeded in creating a Church that is ignored or despised by the bulk of the population? What has gone wrong? In the Day of Judgement, if there ever is a day of judgement, what will their answer be? If one of them answers, “I was a timid man, and I did not have the courage to act on my own initiative”; how will that be received? The parable of the talents does not suggest that those who are afraid to use their limited talents are commended. Even in the parable of the unjust steward, Jesus commends the man who, in a tight corner, had the audacity to put his own interests before those of his master. Nowhere in the Gospels is it recorded that Jesus commended those who were afraid.