FORGIVENESS AND RECONCILIATION - #9

I vividly remember a large door with a round hole cut into its center. It stands freely toward the rear of Saint Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin, Ireland. Here's the story. When the Butler and Fitzgerald clans wanted to end their feuding, the hole was carved into the door so that one of the parties could insert his arm through the hole. This was risky. The other party could have injured or cut off the arm. So one did insert his arm. Nothing violent happened. Instead the two clans reconciled. The feud ended. This birthed a wonderful expression. Reconciling is chancing your arm.

Chancing your arm. Societies spilling into the 21st century are starting to chance their arm. Truth and Reconciliation commissions collect stories. These are testimonies of profound pain and immense suffering. In time the reconciliation process and the narratives of truth can reverse trends that enable 20th century societies to be built on the capacity to forget. Nations, governments, and societies have cultivated social amnesia because carnage, war, torture, and genocide have been so massive and pervasive. If a particular society were able to appreciate fully the horror that has transpired since 1914, it could face despair and court irrevocable madness!

Until recently social amnesia was sustained by counterfeit and violent stories. These narratives of the lie are now being uncoiled from personal and collective psyches. Entire societies are resisting the lie. They are facing history and themselves. Alternative narratives of the truth are emerging. People are spinning alternative yarns, narratives of the truth. They are stitching new stories. They are looming redeeming narratives. These stories teach a new way of suffering. Societies regain their humanity through the recitals of anguished suffering.

Chancing your arm originated in Ireland, a land now processing truth and reconciliation. Ireland is slowly regaining its humanity. Fr. Robert J. Schreiter identifies eight active participants in the reconciliation process (The Ministry of Reconciliation, p.108-110).

The first are the victims. Victims become survivors when narratives of truth are recited and when reconciliation is experienced. The past no longer controls their lives. The reconciliation process provides them with justice. Terror, torture, disappearance, and violence can stop. The second are the wrongdoers who perpetrated the crimes. They need to face their sin. These want the reconciliation process to go quickly. The third are the bystanders. They hope for a speedy process. They turned the other way as abuses and crimes were carried out.

The fourth are both victims and wrongdoers. These people often played both roles in intrastate and civil wars. The fifth are the dead. Sometimes their bodies have disappeared. Their bodies need to be recovered, buried, and fittingly honored.

The sixth are the future generations. Past violence will continue to influence their lives. The seventh are the neighbors who sided with the victims or the wrongdoers. They need to be involved in the process if they were involved in the violence. The final actor in the reconciliation process is God. How do the groups and the process stand before God? How does the process look from God's perspective?