By Terry McCann
Someone asked me: How do we help our members understand why reconciliation is something the SSVP needs to address?
Do we have a better way to address the meme in the above picture?
Jesus says in Matthew 5:23-24 "If you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift."
The way I see it, we do not serve Christ in the poor because we are Vincentians, but we become Vincentians the easier to serve Christ in the poor because we are disciples of Jesus the Christ. We Vincentians hunger and thirst for justice not because we are Vincentians but because we are Christians, followers of Jesus. As Vincentians we strive to be peacemakers because we are Christ's disciples.
The Latin word for peace is pax; the Greek word is eirene. For the Romans and the Greeks all you needed for peace was not to be at war.
The Hebrew and Middle Eastern words for peace are shalom, salaam. This word implies being in good relationship, reconciled.
Unfortunately the English word for peace has none of the connotations of shalom-peace, which is why we have to add the word reconciliation when we talk about justice and peace, and we have to add the word truth when we talk about reconciliation. There is a progression from truth to justice, reconciliation, peace; no shortcuts.
St Vincent de Paul said there is no charity without justice.
https://famvin.org/en/2020/11/12/there-is-no-charity-without-justice-st-vincent-de-paul/
I think that we need to get over ourselves as Vincentians. We are not super-Christians, a cut above the rest. We are ordinary Christians doing what Christ calls all his followers to do in the beatitudes and in Matthew 25. The structures of the Society simply make it easier for us individuals not to have to invent ways and means to practice the works of mercy.
Let me reproduce a story about a stolen bicycle by Father Mxolisi Mpambani as told by Antjie Krog in Chapter 10 of her book, Country of my Skull, which deals with the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, post apartheid.
I have taken the liberty of devising an alternative ending to the above story which, I think, makes it more applicable to Canada today in the light of the Vatican's March 2023 repudiation of the Doctrine of Discovery.Once there were two boys, Tom and Bernard. Tom lived right opposite Bernard. One day Tom stole Bernard's bicycle and every day Bernard saw Tom cycling to school on it. After a year, Tom went up to Bernard, stretched out his hand and said, "Let us reconcile and put the past behind us."
Bernard looked at Tom's hand. "And what about the bicycle?"
"No," said Tom, "I'm not talking about the bicycle - I'm talking about reconciliation."
…
Bernard looked at Tom's hand. "And what about the bicycle?"
"No," said Tom, "I have already given it to Peter."
Bernard went to Peter and said, "I would like my bicycle back, please."
Peter replied, "It's not yours. It's mine. I bought it from Tom with my own money that took me three months to save up for. I can't just give it back to you."
We don't want to drive people with guilt. That is not effective, nor the way of Jesus. But the facts of history are that powerful, colonizing European nations used hegemony and the Doctrine of Discovery to claim sovereignty and impose their culture in the name of Christianity over lands and possessions stolen from weaker, non-Christian sovereign nations in the Americas and elsewhere across the world.
For all the above reasons, not least the message in the above meme, the Society of St Vincent de Paul in Canada needs to be among the ranks of all those Christians seeking truth, reconciliation and shalom-peace with Indigenous people on Turtle Island.
- Terry McCann