WHAT FORGIVENESS AND HISTORY CAN TEACH US TODAY

The origins of the 1994 Rwandan genocide are complex and the ethnic divisions in Rwanda between the Hutus and Tutsis are long-standing. Tribal polarization exploded after the assassination of President Juvénal Habyarimana, who was a Hum, and in a period of one hundred days, more than 800,000 people were systematically and violently murdered.

In the midst of this killing, Father Ubald, a Catholic priest whose Tutsi father had been murdered in the 1962 overthrow of the Rwandan government and who had been himself threatened by fellow seminarians in the 1980's, was forced to flee first to his bishop's residence and then to the Congo in return for a promise by the Hutus not to harm the people of his parish. As soon as he left, the Hutu members of his large parish betrayed this promise and brutally hacked to death approximately 45,000 Tutsi members of his parish. More than 80 members of his immediate and extended family, including his mother, were exterminated within the first two weeks of the massacre.

Before fleeing, Father Ubald promised his bishop that he would return to bring healing to his people. The massacre finally ended when the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) regained power, but grief-stricken survivors were left bewildered by the intensity of the evil that had been unleashed in their country. Survivors of all ethnic groups experienced profound guilt: guilt for killing, guilt for surviving, guilt for not doing enough to prevent or mitigate the conflicts. Many sought revenge, but as has been said, "There is no revenge so complete as forgiveness."

Father Ubald spent many months in prayer and his tears filled a river before he made his way to Lourdes, France. It was there, as he meditated on the Stations of the Cross, that he heard God tell him to release his sorrows and "pick up his cross." God filled his heart with a forgiveness that can only come from God. Subsequently, he met with and forgave the mayor of his town, who was the man who ordered the murder of Father Ubald's own mother. Father Ubald took responsibility for that man's children, treating them as his own and even paying for their schooling.

Father Ubald is a man who radiates the purity of God's grace and preaches on forgiveness and reconciliation. He also holds healing masses, using his gifts to heal and renew others. He performs healing masses in Rwanda, Europe, and the United States. He is building a centre in Rwanda, called The Secret of Peace, which will minister to the people of Rwanda and the surrounding areas of the Congo and Burundi, countries that have seen so much war, poverty,and trauma. He works tirelessly toward the goal of forgiveness, reconciliation, and peace for the people of Rwanda and throughout the world."

From:  Mary C. Neal, MD, ‘To Heaven and Back (2011).

Aid for Pakistan

The following article first appeared in the La Presse de Montreal, By Patrice Lagace on Sept. 20/2010. Since that time is has appeared on various websites and has been widely circulated by e-mail. Ms. Lagace tells quite a convincing tale – or does she? The readers are invited to judge for themselves but with an open mind. My own response is included at the conclusion of the article. Please bear in mind that the tragic situation in Pakistan is far from over.


“Before talking about the disaster in Pakistan, I would like to tell you about this marvelous killing machine called an F-16. You know what a F-16 is, don't you? Well, it's one of the most popular fighter planes in the world.

They cost approximately $40 million each. And of course, during its lifetime, it will have cost one and half the purchase price for maintenance, repairs (and windshield washer, you wouldn't believe the insane price of each can of windshield washer that these toys use).

So, coming back to the disaster in Pakistan .

Terrible! If we weren't talking about a Muslim country, we could refer to the flooding as being of Biblical proportions: 20,000,000 disaster victims. Just appalling.

Over the last two or three days we've been hearing voices accusing the West ( Canada and United States ) of a lack of generosity towards a very seriously afflicted Pakistan . People are being told off in Canada , France and Great-Britain. In yesterday's La Presse, my colleague Marie-Claude Malboeuf mentioned that a humanitarian coalition had barely collected $200,000.00 for Pakistan whereas, during the same period of time, a phenomenal sum of $3,600,000.00 was collected for Haitians after the earthquake that devastated their country. The NGO (non-governmental organizations) are stamping their feet. They are getting impatient. They are clamoring of catastrophe and cholera. The most tragic thing is that they are probably right.

Internationally, the UNO has collected only 40% of the 460 million dollars needed for urgent aid. Nick Clegg, Deputy Prime Minister of England has berated the international community for its stinginess: 'The reaction of the international community is deplorable.'

But I'm extrapolating. I was talking about the F-16. Quite recently, a country acquired a brand new fleet of twenty, or so, of these fantastic killers in the air.

Which country was this now?

Yep, PAKISTAN .

Before going any further, I'm warning you: the writer of this article is a naive journalist. A naive journalist who admits it candidly and who wants to know: If Pakistan had $1.4 billion to acquire fighter planes from Lockheed very recently, why doesn't Pakistan have $460 million to help its own 'drenched' citizens?

I apologize to the Red Cross, to CARE, to Oxfam and other non-governmental organizations, but I, for one, will not give one red penny towards the humanitarian relief in Pakistan .

I will NOT give a penny to help Pakistan because Pakistan never had any problem buying military equipment or getting financial help to buy some.

I don't mind helping Haiti , a small country that has nothing (except corrupted rulers). I don't mind giving for help to Africa ; it's the least I can do.

I will not give to Pakistan as I will not give to the New Orleans fishermen who have lost their source of income since the oil disaster caused by BP in the Gulf of Mexico .

Zachary Richard (a Cajun singer from New Orleans ) is going to produce, with the help of many Quebecois singers, a CD which profits will be given to the New Orleans fishermen. Then, they're planning a charity concert. Concerts are very nice. Musical charity is very nice too. And I do sympathize with the New Orleans fishermen.

But here again, it's your naive journalist who is talking. I wonder why I should give one penny to the inhabitants of the richest country in the history of humanity, whose source of income was annihilated by a giga-multinational company with a market valuation of $120 billion US, and belonging to one of the most lucrative industries 'energy' on this planet.

It seems to me that the United States of America , that BP, that the energy industry have enough money to compensate the New Orleans fishermen and their families and the offspring of their families until 2060, at least.

But let's come back to PAKISTAN . On July 19th, the New York Times published a condemning article on the tax system of Pakistan . A banana republic tax system, where the rich concocted a way to avoid paying taxes.

I'm not talking about not paying a little income tax, I'm talking about total tax evasion. I'm talking about a country where 10 million people should be paying taxes, but only 2.5 million do. And all of this is legal. The rich managed to come up with a plan which dispenses them from paying taxes. The New York Times mentioned that average 'average' worth (?) of Pakistani parliamentarians is $900,000. Nawaz Sharif, the Opposition leader, and a millionaire hasn't, for his part, paid any income taxes in 2005, 2006 and 2007. This system favors elitists, (a system by elitists for elitists) says Riyaz Hussein Naqvi, Pakistani a retired public servant who worked as a tax collector for 38 years. It is a distorted system in which the poor pays for the rich.

What The Times did not mention but which you probably already know, I know that you read the international news in dailies with great interest, is that Pakistan already has nuclear arms. In fact, it owns countless nuclear missiles.

So, if I recap all this:

Pakistan is an oligarchy (a government in which a small group exercises control especially for corrupt and selfish purposes) which exempts the rich from paying income tax. Pakistan has money to buy F-16's. Pakistan has money to keep an atomic arsenal capable of destroying half the planet!

I am not that naive after all. Pakistan has the means to help its own people.

Note from Pierre (the fellow who began sending this article around): If I remember well, on September 11th 2001, when the Twin Towers in New York were destroyed by terrorists, yes I do remember very well having seen live television coverage showing adults and children from Iran, Pakistan and other Muslim countries, dancing in the streets and having a whale of a time because the United States had been touched right in the heart. They were elated because thousands of Americans were killed.

Well now that they're in deep sh.., they ask for our help!!! And what will they do to us in five years, in ten years?

NO THANK YOU VERY MUCH”


MY RESPONSE
Accepting this argument, which on the surface seems completely logical, should teach us about the insanity of war. But somehow it doesn’t. Let’s consider an infant, who for no other reason than fate, is born to a poor family in Pakistan. This family is now suffering from a devastating flooding of biblical proportions. Is it the child’s fault that her government spent money (also of biblical proportions) on acquiring arms. Should we focus on giving aid to this child and her family, or should we just ignore them so that we can comfortably continue to live on the profits of manufacturing arms?
Perhaps we should ask why te news media provided inciteful pictures of celebrating but ignorant Pakistanis, Iraqis, and Iranians on the eve of 9/11? What was the purpose behind these pictures, and how does it make us respond to war? How does it make us respond to that unnamed infant in Pakistan? Am I defending Pakistan’s decision to purchase weapons – no absolutely not. This logic actually prevents us from seeking an end to all wars. We need to find ways to help our neighbour instead of building walls.

Searching for Peace

Charles Kimball, author of 'When Religion Becomes Evil', identifies five warning signs of corruption in religion.

1. Absolute Truth Claims
2. Blind Obedience
3. Establishing the "Ideal" Time
4. The End Justifies Any Means
5. Declaring Holy War

According to professor Kimball, "one or more of these five signs always precedes any instance of religiously sanctioned evil. Knowledge of such corruption is invaluable in today's world, yet it is not sufficient in itself. Whether one is a true believer or a die-hard secularist, it remains necessary to take the next step from the knowledge of these factors that predict when religion becomes evil to a clear understanding of how religion can remain true to its authentic sources and force for positive change."

Absolute Truth Claims

The Roman Catholic Church, for example, continues to make absolute truth claims particularly under recent documents such as 'Dominus Jesus' (2000) issued by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger which declares the Roman Catholic Church to be the only "instrument for the salvation of all humanity." While the Catechism of the Catholic Church (#847) still makes the exclusive claim that "Outside the Church there is no salvation". Most significantly the Catholic Catechism holds that Jesus not only founded the Church but appointed bishops as successors of the apostles. Based on Jesus' Jewish background there are few theologians today that are prepared to agree with this unnecessary power seeking claim.

Absolute truth claims in the context moral absolutism is the ethical view that certain actions are absolutely right or wrong, regardless of other contexts such as their consequences or the intentions behind them. Thus lying, for instance, might be considered to be always immoral, even if done to promote some other good (e.g., saving a life), and even if it does in the end promote such a good. Readers can judge for themselves the consequences of maintaining an attitude of moral absolutism. Surely a morality founded on faith, hope and love is preferred over any form of control.

There are few issues today that evoke greater controversy within the Catholic Church and other religious communities then matters dealing with abortion, gays, same-sex marriage, birth control or sexual abuse. The fact that all of the aforementioned topics involve some aspect of human sexuality should cause us to question why? The Bible and Jesus actually has very little to say about sexual norms. Nature and science may yet provide us with the best answer. Those opposed to any discussion on these matters are usually individuals who are prepared to stake absolute truth claims on behalf of their religious communities. In recent months several high ranking members of the Catholic clergy have stated that abortion, for example, must not be allowed under any circumstances. However, there are fortunately others like Professor Daniel McGuire, who will quickly point to several conditions under which abortion may be considered (see my previous blog 'Sex and the Church').

Blind Obedience

The Roman Catholic Church today comes down pretty heavily on those that do not follow its teachings. However, they can be quite selective when it suits them. Its teaching office known as the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith until 1965 was still known as the Roman Congregation of the Inquisition. The prefect, or head, of that congregation was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (1981-2002). He was the putative author of Canon 1436.1 of the Code of Canon Law, which states, "One who denies a truth which must be believed with divine and Catholic faith, or who calls it into doubt, or who totally repudiates the Christian faith, and does not retract it after having been warned, is to be punished as a heretic or an apostate with major excommunication." Under these terms opposition and any further discussion was often quickly squelched.

Some teachings have however managed to circumvent certain church rulings. Statistics have shown that 80% of Catholic women have in one time of their lives practiced birth control. These facts have gone almost unnoticed, yet today we hear again and again demands by some bishops that politicians who do not follow church teachings should be denied communion. Again Charles Kimball warns his readers that blind obedience within any religious movement that seeks to limit intellectual freedom and individual integrity of its adherents is showing a sure sign of corrupt religion. Dr. Kimball an ordained Baptist minister who received his Th. D. From Harvard University, explains that other forms of 'blind obedience' are also found among Religious Sects and Cults, Charismatic Authority Figures, Enslavement to Doctrines and Withdrawal from Society.

Blind obedience, to paraphrase noted theologian Hans Kung, is the great stumbling block that prevents world peace because we have been, so far, been unable to promote unity or peace among the world's religions. "Working together for the common good must become a major focus of interfaith dialogue in the years ahead" concludes Dr. Kimball. Unity, not conformity can only be found through a appreciation of diversity. Today we still find many people who seem to prefer a rigid believe system at the expense of world peace or at the least understanding among the various Christian faiths.

Establishing the "Ideal" Time

For centuries, there have been well-meaning students of Bible prophesy that have sought to see signs from current events that indicate we are near the second coming of Christ - despite warnings from Jesus to the contrary. Regardless and according to some popular media preachers we are living in a time when turbulent global events – wars, natural disasters, and famine – help fuel the notion that the world is fast approaching a seven year period of great tribulation during which Satan's forces will rule under the leadership of the Antichrist. Please refer to my blog' dated June 1, 2010 under the title 'End Times and Armageddon' for your complete doomsday scenario.

The End Justifies Any Means

Many notable authors of religious history have detailed the amazing speed at which the early persecuted church became the persecutor. Church history is full of famous heretics who, if not anathematized, were summarily dispatched to the next world. (see also my blog on 'Heaven and Hell', February 19, 2009). There is little more to be said about the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, or the famous witch hunts beginning in the sixteenth century. Opposition to Church teachings were often dealt with in harsh and inhuman ways. Today, the Vatican prefers silencing and excommunicating those who fall out of favour or dare to question official church teachings. Thus we have learned that in these cases the end appears to justify any means.

Declaring Holy War

When speaking of a declaration of a Holy War most of us will think about the current conflict in the Middle East and the religious Jihad promoted by Muslim extremist. But how is this declaration different from the Crusades endorsed by Pope Urban II launched against Jews and Muslims? Baptist minister Charles Kimball reminds us that "overwhelming evidence suggests that the followers of Jesus were pacifist for the first three centuries. However, with the rise of power of Constantine in the fourth century religion became linked with state power and the tables were turned." Augustine (354-430) with the help of a monk named Gratian developed the theory of a' just war'. Christendom supported by the theology of a Just War now became a powerful weapon to be used against any group perceived as evil. The criteria for a Just War can still be found in the Roman Catholic Catechism, paragraph 2309. Finally, is it perhaps time that Christians, as well as all other faiths, return to their God given role (remember your divine indwelling?) as peacemakers?

On Heaven and Hell

Several years ago my wife Ann counseled a dear Catholic friend (Mary (not her real name) about a particular crisis Mary was dealing with. At one point during the conversation Ann suggested that Mary present her problem directly to Jesus and wait for his response. “Oh, no I couldn’t do that!” Mary promptly responded” “For heavens sake", Ann replied “Why not?” “Because”, Mary sobbed, “ I couldn’t possible present Jesus with my silly little problem while he is hanging on the cross”.

For those who still hold a view of a punishing or impotent God and tremble with fear of hell , Saving Paradise will help them to recover an ancient world view that is life transforming and earth affirming. It reminds us of a biblical perspective that does not reserve paradise for the dead but invites the living to find grace, justice, peace and compassion – here and now- amid the jangling discord of violence and war. It may mark the beginning of a paradigm shift in contemporary Christian understanding and interfaith dialogue.

This remarkable book reveals that during their first millennium, Christians filled their sanctuaries with images of Christ ... as a shepherd, a teacher, a healer, an enthroned god; he is an infant, a youth, and a bearded elder. But there were no images of a dead crucified Christ. Neither will you find any references to purgatory and hell as a place of eternal of pain and suffering.

Saving Paradise turns upside down the history of the church's view of Jesus' crucifixion and its stress on the importance of suffering. The authors attempt to show that for the first thousand years of its existence, the Christian church placed much more emphasis on the resurrection and paradise than the crucifixion. The Christian church of the first millennium never stressed that Jesus' suffering on the cross was necessary for the salvation of humanity.

What changed? How did the Christian churches, until this day, come to embrace such terrifying images as hell and purgatory? Why do they still exist today? One can still find booklets such as What Will Hell Be Like? filled with terrifying images of suffering and pain supposedly attributed to St. Alponsus Liguori (1696 –1787). At the same time many evangelical churches continue to spread the word of God under a similar threat of heaven and hell.

Many people today would be surprised to learn that these fearful images and theological ideas did not prevail in the Church until the ninth century beginning with the Carolingian campaign to subdue the Saxons.

The authors tackle what they consider the subversion of the Christian message -- exemplified by the ninth-century Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne, who instituted the death penalty for conquered people who refused to convert. The Carolingians constructed a Christian piety that used violence to convert pagans and then taught its victims to regard their violation as justified and sanctified.

The Carolingian theology of the Eucharist drew humanity to the dead Christ and separated believers from the living Christ with his power to teach, heal, and give life to all. Christ no longer offered love and abundant life but judgment to be feared and suffering to be repeated by the faithful. Salvation, once a community of life in paradise, now meant escape from guilt and punishment.

The crucified Christ confronted communicants at every Eucharist, accusing them of killing him. To be an unrepentant, sinful Christian was to be judged a murderer by Christ the victim and judge. Those who knelt before the divine victim petitioned for mercy for their sins, hoping not to be condemned to hell.

The Carolingians cut the connections between great power and great responsibility, and denied divine power in humanity, forfeiting their ethical obligations to protect life on earth.

Was the Eucharist the crucified body or the resurrection of life? The Carolingian Eucharist placed ritual murder at its center and a dead body on the altar of life. This new theology of the Eucharist took away the life-giving love of Christ and made him a victim. His corpse’s power to judge sin alienated Christians from communion with Christ and from the love and support of the community of the saints. It isolated individuals and left them terrified.

Now the Christian trembled in the presence of the crucified Savior, guilty and overcome, begging for mercy

Penalties and punishments proliferated for the faithful and unfaithful alike. The torments of the martyrs, like that of the good thief became standard in devotional images.

The ninth century’s new focus on the crucified Christ coincided with a shift in the Christian prohibition against the shedding of human blood. For centuries, the church had taught that participation in warfare was evil, that killing broke the fifth commandment, and that soldiers were to perform penance to cleanse their soul from the stain of blood. At the dawn of the Holy Roman Empire, Christianity began to lose its grip on the sinfulness of killing. A new age began – one in which the execution of Jesus would become a sacrifice to be repeated, first on the Eucharistic altar and then in the ravages of a full-blown holy war (crusades).

To this day the most recognized symbol of the Roman Catholic Church remains the figure of the crucified Christ. The theology that supports that symbol is largely based on the ideas first put forward by St. Anselm (c.1033 - 1109). He stated that the work of Jesus was "salvation" - saving those who believed in him from the impossible abyss that separated God from humanity, bridging it with his own body. Thus many people today accept the idea that Jesus offered up his body to satisfy a vengeful God.

James Carroll, 'Constantine's Sword', (2000) writes "The first result of Anselm's theology of salvation was, as we saw, to solder the faith to the cross, and to make the death of Jesus more important than anything he had said, despite his clear statement that "the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life". His death counted for more than his having been born, having lived as a Jew, having preached a gospel of love in the context of Israel's covenant with a loving God, having opposed the imperium of Rome, even having been brought to the new life of Resurrection. The death obsession of the flagellants was deemed holy, and the blood lust of the crusaders was sanctified . God, too, had blood lust. Christ's agony on the cross would now become the black flower of the Western imagination - on armour, in Passion Plays, in paintings, in altar carvings, in rituals like the Stations of the Cross, and ultimately in the cross at Auschwitz."

St. Anselm's influence or theology were to have severe consequences in the following centuries. Furthermore it fully supports the claims made by Brock and Parker in their story SAVING PARADISE.

In 1231, Pope Gregory IX made the torments awaiting the bad thief vividly real. He launched the Inquisition and licensed the church to use torture to discipline heretics and protect the faith.

Frightful images of martyrs being boiled or burned alive, disemboweled, speared, beheaded, stoned, devoured by beast, tortured on a rack and taunted by demons began the appear in religious art and literature.

In the thirteenth century, postmortem paradise began to morph into purgatory. The Second Council of Lyons in 1274 established that “purgatorial and purifying penalties” would take place after death for sinners who had failed to render full satisfaction for their sins before they died. Once Christians died, they still had to be purged of every trace of sin before they could enter the heavenly paradise.

The living could pray for the dead, perform masses for them, or buy indulgences to lighten their purgatorial load. As purgatory heated up, the distance between heaven and earth stretched ever wider. In the Divine Comedy, Dante (1265-1321) detailed his visionary pilgrimage through hell and up the steep mountain of purgatory. By the fourteenth century, to die in an agony of torture had become a spiritual ideal. Public spectacles of torture and execution became popular, which the faithful could find repeated in Passion images and again today with Mel Gibson’s The Passion’.

More recently, fundamentalist factions such as The Society of St Pius X., previously excommunicated by Pope John Paul II, are now being invited back into the fold despite denials of the Jewish Holocaust and stating that the Inquisition, which resulted in the deaths and torture of thousands, merely reflected an “attitude toward heretics comparable to that of our Lord.”

At this point I can only think of what Jesus might say, forgive them Father, for they do not know what they do or say!

Resources:

Rita Brock & Rebecca Parker, Saving Paradise – How Christianity Traded Love of This World for Crucifixion and Empire, Beacon Press, Boston, MA., 2008.

A review by Fr. Diarmuid O'Murchu
Brock, Rita Nakashima & Rebecca Ann Parker (2008), SAVING PARADISE. Probably the single most inspiring book I have read in the past ten years! After an extensive study on how Christian art depicts the death and resurrection of Jesus throughout the first millennium, the authors highlight that the image of the suffering Jesus on the Cross is an invention of the 900s and only became widespread with the Crusades in the 1100s. The dominant imagery of the first 1,000 years envisaged "paradise" as happening within the living creation itself, and salvation required the Christian to engage seriously and justly with creation in the here and now (paradise), rather than seeking to escape into the salvation hereafter made possible by the the suffering of the cross. A revolutionary and inspiring read!