Reconciliation and the Society of St Vincent de Paul

 

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.

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."

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.

…

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

National Volunteer Training Week

 

Thanks to all of our Vincentians who have completed the virtual training for Bingo World! By volunteering your time in this way we are able to secure more funds to continue our mission helping families, seniors and individuals in our community, who have fallen on hard times.

Learning from Jonah's mistakes

 

Image credit: https://www.mosaicsite.org/

Adapted from homily by Deacon Steve.

Most of us are familiar with the story of Jonah. God wants Jonah to warn the Ninevites that they have forty days to straighten out or God is going to overthrow them. After resisting God's call because he doesn't want the people of Nineveh to be shown any mercy, Jonah finally heads to Nineveh and gives them God’s message. Deep down inside Jonah can hardly wait to see what God does to the Ninevites. But, sure enough, “the people of Nineveh believed God,” and turned from their ways and put on sackcloth and fasted. They in fact change their ways and so, God relents and does not bring destruction down on them. Jonah goes away sulking and angry over God’s kindness to his enemies.

This story points out that God is not the fearful One, that we sometimes call the “Old Testament God”. The God of Jonah is in fact the God of Jesus, the God who is loving and merciful to all people. God’s mercy is not limited to one or two groups of people, but extends to all people beyond any limits we may conceive.

Jesus proclaims in our Gospel reading, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent and believe in the good news.”

In the minds of most Christians, the primary meaning of "repent" is to look back on past behavior with "sorrow, self-reproach, or contrition" for what one has done or omitted to do - sometimes with an amendment of life. However, the English word “repent” is used to translate the Greek word “Metanoia”. Scholars believe the translation of metanoia as repentance is "an extraordinary mistranslation". In fact, translators only use it because there is no English word that can adequately convey the meaning of the Greek word.

The real meaning of metanoia is not about a superficial change of mind. Rather it involves a complete transformation of consciousness, a change in the trend and action of our whole inner nature, including intellectual, affectional and moral. It is an overwhelming change of mind, heart and life. And this, we know, is only brought about by allowing the grace of God and the Spirit of God to open our hearts and minds.

In a writing from one of the Church Fathers called “On Spiritual Perfection” the author writes, “Anyone who loves God in the depths of their heart has already been loved by God. In fact, the measure of a person’s love for God depends on how deeply aware they are of God’s love for them... When this awareness is keen it makes whoever possesses it long to be enlightened by the divine light, and this longing is so intense that it seems to penetrate their very bones. The person loses all consciousness of themselves and they are entirely transformed by the love of God.”

Thus our 'metanoia' occurs only through the grace of God, by our constantly and gradually becoming aware of God’s love for us. Our gospel writer is trying to tell us, in the stories of the apostles as they were called by Jesus, that in encountering the Lord, the apostles were entirely transformed by the love of God, by Christ. And so they lose “consciousness of themselves” and “immediately” follow Christ. The immediacy of the conversion of the apostles in our story, is meant to dramatize the effect of God’s love in our lives, when we are truly open to it.

Our world today, as we no doubt are aware, is in need of this transformation. The world needs to see followers of Christ who are truly transformed by the love of God. For us to be that transformative presence to our brothers and sisters it is important for us to grow and experience the love of God in our hearts. A love that is always offered to us by God’s grace. Not only in our private and liturgical prayer. More importantly, we can experience that love of God as we learn to contemplate each person we encounter, especially those people who suffer in poverty, addiction, imprisonment, illness, loneliness and dying.

Let us remember that our Eucharist celebrates the love of God for every person in the world. It is a reminder to us to not only contemplate the divine, the mystery in this sacrament, but to also go out and contemplate the divine and the mystery of God in every person we encounter, but especially those who suffer.