I sit here in deep pain. These past two weeks have been very difficult for Canadians, First Nations peoples, Moslem newcomers to Canada and the Catholic Church.
It has long been a shared memory among our First Nations peoples of the children who did not return from the residential schools. There always were stories that carried these painful memories. The findings of the 215 gravesites at the Kamloops Residential school sent shock waves across our country.
Last Sunday, in London, Ontario, a family of five Moslem immigrants from Pakistan were attacked by a half ton truck. (We almost never think of a motor vehicle as a weapon to kill people.) Almost all the country reeled back in disbelief that such a horrendous act of hatred could be committed on one of the streets of our cities.
We hurt! We cry! We shake our head in disbelief!
When you hurt you turn inward to survive. When you have been banged up in a car accident you focus on all the pain and the discomfort of the medications. But very seldom do you focus on the pain and sufferings of the other members of your family standing around your hospital bed. Concern for the difficulties of other family members may come later.
Whenever some trauma hits us or we lose a loved one through death, we need a period to grieve. It can never be programmed. It is messy, unpredictable. Grieving is embracing the pain and the suffering of this trauma/loss. It must become a part of us. It can never be done alone. This is why we need the support, the presence, the prayers of our family and friends when we grieve the death of someone we cherish.
This is a time for all of Canada to sit silently, to listen to the pain and suffering of our First Nations peoples. Now, the majority of all Canadians do not know by name any First Nations people personally. This painful time of listening must also become a time a learning and understanding our First Nations story and culture. There can only be healing In our country if we listen non-judgmentally, absorb the beep meaning of the lives of our First Nations peoples and make them part of our own personal history.
At the same time, we must listen to the prejudice that so many of the new immigrants to Canada are experiencing. The brutal murder of four members of one family in London, Ontario, last Sunday is but the horrendous extreme of racial prejudice.
It is not good enough to say, “in Canada we can do better!” This is a time when we must walk into the pain, the trauma, the fear and the sufferings of our First Nations peoples, our new immigrants and all other marginal groups. It is a time to sit in silence and listen. It is a time to allow ourselves to be changed when these people share their stories of suffering, exclusion and made to feel as second-class citizens.
Our Christian religion gives us the tools to do this. Explore in the Bible why there is such a strong emphasis on repentance and the need to once again turn back to God and the ways of life that are laid out for us. But repentance in the Bible never sidesteps the pain and confusion that goes with turning back to God. But only if there is death to all darkness will we ever be able to rise to the light.
This is a hard, hard time but we are not going to cut short any part of the painful and healing journey.
No comments:
Post a Comment