Fr. Thomas Punnapadam, SDB: Long COVID, A Portal of Reconciliation and Unity Page 12

2) Pursuit of justice

The pursuit of truth and justice is the precondition for reconciliation and a way for the healing of the past. There are three forms of justice: punitive, restorative and structural. All these efforts shall lead to the healing of memories, which means that they are not toxic. Forgiveness is not forgetting, but remembering it in a different way. To forgive is divine. In forgiving one establishes a different relationship to the perpetrator who is also a deeply wounded person. He also needs a healing touch. Archbishop Desmond Tutu has rightly said, “there is no future (for anyone) without forgiveness.” Forgiveness is an empowered form of giving. God does not die the day we cease to forgive others, but we become dust on the day we cease to be illumined by the radiance of divine forgiveness. “One loving spirit sets another on fire” (St. Augustine). Reconciliation is possible only when justice has been achieved and those responsible for acts and structures of injustice have been brought to repentance. One should remember that wound should never be justified and justice should never be wounded. C. S. Lewis said, “It’s not the load that breaks you down. It’s the way you carry it.”

We are called to speak the truth in love by breaking the conspiracy of silence. “In an age of universal deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act” (George Orwell). How many of us who hold a placard in our hands are prepared to forgive and forget the vestiges of the past and to show to the world that the power of love is meant to forgive? Any step to forgive is a beginning to live a better life. This is in tune with the words of Bertrand Russel who said, “to be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness.” In any fight between religions on holy sites or rites or doctrines, the causality is not human beings but God, God alone. A misplaced enthusiasm to defend God and his boundary of activity will only add fuel to the fire of discrimination, and marginalization. What the world needs today is men and women who have a passion for doing something beautiful for God on this planet. Jesus said, “Not all who sound religious are really godly people. They may refer to me as ‘Lord’, ‘Lord’, but still won’t get to heaven. For the decisive question is whether they obey my Father in heaven” (Matt 7:21). There is no reconciliation between justice and injustice, good and evil, God and the devil (Konrad Raiser).

Blessed are the makers of peace, reconciliation and harmony:

I am reminded of the story of a King, as told by Fr. Anthony De Mello. A King visited the monasteries of the great Zen Master Lin Chi. He was astonished to learn that there were more than ten thousand monks living there with him. Wanting to know the exact number of the monks, the King asked: How many disciples do you have? Lin Chi replied: “Four or five at the very most.” This is the real situation in the Church and in the society today. A few only are carrying coals of burning fire in their hearts for unity and reconciliation. They speak aloud and even utter the words of Jesus in the Giri Gita: “Blessed are the peace makers for they shall be called the sons and daughters of God.” Remember, it is not the peace lovers, but the peace makers that are called sons of God. A peace maker is vulnerable to death as it happened to Jesus on the cross. But death was not the last word for Jesus. We need to remember that “a heroe’s tomb is the cradle of the people” (A Mexican proverb). “The insight that any generation discovers will be far more powerful than the idea it inherits” (R. L. Shinn). If the Christian message is to speak to contemporary man, it must learn to address him at the point of his strength and bleeding points. Healing of divisions in the body of Christ and of human brokenness in the world are not optional topics in the mission agenda. A message of Forgiveness, Reconciliation and Unity is addressed to all people across all religious divide. The Passion Week recitals speak more of its need.

All that is good belongs to God:

In the midst of affluence there are points of vacuum in human hearts as well as in our inherited structures. The words of D. M. Kennedy are worth recalling: “We are called to pin our hopes on God’s purpose to reconcile all things in Christ.” In the vision of the New Heaven and the New Earth, the eternal purpose of God is unequivocally presented in Revelation chapter 21, 26-27: “People will bring into it the glory and the honour of the nations. But nothing unclean will enter it, nor anyone who practices abomination or falsehood, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” What right have the Christians to bar anyone to enter into the Kingdom of God’s grace and mercy? The Universal Religion of Love as preached by the prophets and religious leaders of old has no walls. God is on the side of all those unities, integrates, heals and makes people whole. As Dr. S. J. Samartha, a celebrated Asian theologian and a guru of mine, has rightly put it: “in the past energies were spent in strengthening the fence and guarding the gates rather than deepening the wells. The syncretic wolf could be kept at bay outside the gate, but the Christian sheep within could be safely undernourished.” All that is good belongs to God. All who work for the liberation and reconciliation are co-workers with God (Samuel Rayan). Church is only a hymn of praise to God. The prophet Isaiah had the courage to call Cyrus as God’s instrument. He is even called God’s anointed one to subdue nations before him and to strip kings of their robes . . . (Is 45:1 ff.). The mission of the Church is meant to praise God when