REFLECTING ON THE POPE’S VISIT

         What is happening in Canada?

 

It has been a year ago since the news broke that there were possible graves of children on the grounds of the former residential school in Kamloops, BC. People were shocked at the news.

 

What is now happening is that all the hurts and pain of the past two hundred and fifty years experienced by First Nations peoples could now be recognized. Now, the Canadian public is paying attention.  In the anger, frustration and confusion that is being expressed are all the exclusions that Canadian society, the governments, churches, educational and medical institutions have inflicted on aboriginal peoples. 

 

As part of this package are all the hurts of the suicides, drug addiction, unemployment and the fact that ‘our children are not doing as well as your children!’ Even though it is not put into words all this pain and rejection is flowing through the pain expressed toward the residential school system.  Anger against the residential schools is the safety value for First Nations peoples to make know their hurts and their angers.

 

A few years ago when news broke about  murdered and missing women along highway # 16 in northwestern British Columbia, did the larger Canadian public even care? 

 

Pope Francis is setting the tone by honest listening to the pain and issues of aboriginal peoples. In this ‘tone’ the stories and the pain of aboriginal people is being accepted and owned. The negative side is not being brushed aside, but rather it is being embraced in the listening.

 

This is more honest recognition of our history. The people of the Church were honest in their work to help the aboriginal population survive. They were totally unaware of how much they acted hand in hand with the colonial governmental and economic forces that forced the aboriginal population to be second class citizens. Separating children from their parents proved disastrous The Church people never acted alone; they always worked in very close cooperation with the Government of Canada.

 

After the Pope’s apology  (July 25, 2022) for the Church’s participation in the residential schools the observation is always added: but it will only be worthwhile if there are follow up efforts towards reconciliation. Our hope is that this apology will open the door to further bridge building and efforts toward reconciliation. 

 

This is an incredibly painful time. Admitting our mistakes is never enough. This apology must lead to action, to building new relationships between the First Nations of our country and all other parts of our country. 

 

In all of this we must be patient with people. Some will be much slower to embrace the full effects of the apology and the dark history of colonization in Canada. It Is just like the very last rainfall: some of the water takes much longer to soak into certain pieces of ground. So too, some of this will take much longer to be owned by some or many Canadians. 

 

The journey toward reconciliation is long and hard. May we have courage to walk this  hard path.

 

WAR QUESTIONS CHRISTIANS.

                   

 

 

Almost six months ago the Putin government invaded the Ukraine. In a world that had become sleepy on the question of war, now it blares in our faces.

 

War challenges all human beings. In a special way, war challenges all who bear the name of Christ. We are a religion of peace for all humans. Peace-building is not an option for Christian people. Jesus came to bring peace between God and humanity, between all human beings. Peace-building is part of the very life blood of a Christian person.

 

War is never nice. We kill and destroy in order to gain control of the other’s territory and their factories. War is all about making the winner richer as it exploits and robs the losing side. There is nothing virtuous or glamorous about war.

 

War is always the failure of humanity. Not only is there death and destruction within this generation, but the hatred and animosity between peoples can continue for hundreds of years.

 

We are also living through the past three generations of humanity where we have become so powerful with our nuclear weapons that a nuclear war could almost destroy civilization as we know it. Nuclear power sets humanity on the edge of destruction.

 

All of this is very unsettling and fearful for the conscientious human being.

 

What to do?

 

We must not be silent. There are many false accusations and  falsehoods used to justify making war. The first victim in any conflict will be the truth.

 

We must not cover up the long history our European ancestors, our African ancestors and our forefathers in India have used excuses to justify going to war. We must not be silent at the waste of human resources that are used in the making of guns, resources that could have been used to educate children and give health care to our populations. Making war steals from the well-being of our peoples.

 

In our Christianity, we must actively pray for the making of peace and harmony among peoples, and peace and harmony within our families and within Canada. Prayer is never a last-ditch effort to bring some sense into humanity. Prayer is beseeching our God to give us the courage and strength to build peace. Prayers for peace are also meant to be an expression of our very deep feelings for respect and understanding between human beings.

 

Peace building demands that we work for justice and fairness within our society and within our world. The resources of the world were never meant to be a ‘winner takes all’ scenario. Almost all wars are a result of the powerful exploiting the weaker states. How many wars (and invasions) are simply the powerful walking in a taking the wealth of the weaker country? In how many wars are the weaker nation fighting back: ‘We will not be exploited and  be hurt any more!”

 

This invasion of the Ukraine (February 24) opens a new area for our prayer, our reflection and our dialogue.  This terrible situation demands of us new and stronger initiatives to build peace in our world?  How can we help to make this terrible situation in the world, better?

 

REVERENCE FOR OLD AGE

 

Are you afraid of old age? Are you adult children afraid of your years of diminishment?

 

Pope Francis has given us some rich reflections in his message for “Second world day for grandparents and the elderly (July 24, 2022).” He calls us to recognize how we are to be blest by  old age. This is a message which is so necessary in a “throw away culture.”

 

“The Scriptures teach differently. A long-life – so the Bible teaches – is a blessing and the elderly are not outcasts to be shunned but living signs of the goodness of God who bestows life in abundance. Blessed is the house where an older person lives! Blessed is the family that honour the elderly.” 

 

Every person will have difficulty to find meaning, purpose and joy in their diminishment. We must not be destroyed by the feelings of uselessness. God is present at every stage of life. “along with old age and white hairs, God continues to give us the gift of life and keep us from being overcome by evil.”

 

When people might be tempted to marginalize themselves into uselessness, they are challenged. “Old age is no time to give up and lower the sails, but a season of enduring fruitfulness: a new mission awaits us and bids us look toward the future.”

 

At the moment when a new war has emerged in Europe Pope Francis calls to our awareness: “All this points to the need for a profound change, a conversion, that disarms hearts and leads us to see others as our brothers and sisters. We grandparents and elderly people have a great responsibility: to teach the women and men of our time to regard others with the same understanding and loving gaze with which we regard our own grandchildren. We ourselves have grown in our humanity by caring for others, and now we can be teachers of a way of life that is peaceful and attentive to those in greatest need.”

 

Rather than fading to the sidelines he keeps the challenge up: “One fruit that we are called to bring forth is protecting the world.”

 

We are challenged to make better use of the most valuable instrument at our disposal: prayer. 

“Our trustful prayer can do a great deal: it can accompany the cry of pain of those who suffer, and it can help change hearts.”

 

We need this time to reflect the reality of old age, which everyone will reach as the years move on. Here we need to hear the challenges and possibilities that our old age can offer: meaning, hope , purpose and joy. 

 

Engage the message!

 

 

 

 

 

IF WE ONLY KNEW OURSELVES?

  

I paid a compliment to a mother of four children: “Your children are so well behaved!”

 

She fired back, immediately: “In public!”

 

There was a side of her children that was no so desirable!

 

Every human person is a composition of light and darkness. We all have strong lights of empathy for others, a sense of justice and respect for others and a certain joy in just living. But then there is the darkness. We can be very selfish towards our own family members. We can be stubbornly resistant to the suggestions of others. We live too much the “my way or the highway!”

 

For many people it is very frightening to see themselves exactly as other people see them. The quality of being determined and always working to get things done, may be experienced as domineering and being consistently inconsiderate of the truth of other people. Some of our qualities may be downright onerous on other people.

 

This is where the experience of school is so crucial to the development of personality. The most important things do not happen in the classroom. It is in learning to get along with others, the weight the give and take of all human relations, to deal with the school bully and to deal with the child who have special needs is key to growing up. We are learning at a very early age, our light side and our dark side.

 

As we go through life and make many mistakes, hopefully it is a good time to take ownership of our dark, our black side. We may get very angry that we got a speeding ticket through a school zone, only to discover through reflection that it was our own carelessness. No one else can be blamed! This is only a small way that we are discovering our true self.

 

Every relationship is an encounter with our light and dark side. Many people will only deal with us on our light side. They will speak very highly of the person they know of us. But our spouse and our adult children may have a different story!

 

When we deal with the person of Jesus we bring our light and our dark side. There will be moments when we are surprised by our selfishness and our hardness of heart. Jesus can push our bottoms and make us very angry! But this is a healthy part of living. There may be persons we deliberately avoid because they are so wounded, but Jesus may turn us around to reach out to them in all their pain. We may not be very happy with Jesus at those moments. 

 

As we journey through our life of faith, as we struggle with our many mistakes, may it lead to accepting our light and dark side and limiting the negative effects of our personality on others. 

May your journey of self-discovery lead you to see yourself as others honestly see you. 

 

If we actually know ourselves, we would all be sincerely humble!