Dear Sisters and Brothers
As 2016 comes to an end, it’s time to reflect and look back before we look forward.
During this year we held a conference focusing on and responding to the world map of pain.
A great many people across our planet continue to endure more than their fair share of human pain.
It is easy to lose hope.
The recent election in the US unleashed a degree of toxicity as well as fear and hopelessness.
Many, many South Africans also have despondency and disillusionment about what is happening to our national project.
Just a few days ago the Cuban leader Fidel Castro came to the end of his mortal life.
For millions of poor people across Asia, Africa and Latin America, the Cuban Revolution under his leadership taught the world what international solidarity means.
We realised at the conclusion of our conference that human solidarity is the life-giving response to human pain in a very wide variety of contexts.
It has been heartening to witness the response of solidarity with the indigenous people at Standing Rock (Indian Reservation in North Dakota and South Dakota).
Who would have expected the military veterans to come and kneel before the Sioux nation and ask for forgiveness for their role in degradation, pain and decimation of the first nations of the US across generations?
There are signs of hope in the world if only our eyes are open to see them.
In our work of healing of memories, we often bear witness to the healing that comes when people have their pain truly heard and acknowledged by others.
I have heard people say countless times in the midst of a healing of memories workshop that they have experienced, often for the first time, a sense of our common humanity.
Our very survival as a species requires with great urgency that we proclaim and live out our common humanity and care for Mother Earth.
As we heal ourselves, so we are freed to take back agency, to become instruments ourselves of peace, tenderness, kindness, generosity and compassion.
In South Africa in the past week, we have witnessed our Parliament recovering its voice… that is a sign of hope.
For me, as one who seeks to follow Jesus, the story of the first Christmas continues to inspire me and reminds me that we have a God who travels with us on our journeys
A few days ago, I read this message from the great Franciscan theologian Richard Rohr: “A wonderful children’s book, Old Turtle and the Broken Truth, tells a story of how the world came to be so fragmented when it is meant to be whole and how we might put it back together again.
“I invite you to read this tale as a child might, with wonder and imagination.
One night, in a far-away land that “is somehow not so far away,” a truth falls from the stars. As it falls, it breaks into two pieces; one piece blazes off through the sky and the other falls straight to the ground. One day, a man stumbles upon the gravity-drawn truth and finds carved on it the words, “You are loved.” It makes him feel good, so he keeps it and shares it with the people in his tribe. The thing sparkles and makes the people who have it feel warm and happy. It becomes their most prized possession, and they call it “The Truth.” Those who have the truth grow afraid of those who don’t have it, who are different. And those who don’t have it covet it. Soon people are fighting wars over the small truth, trying to capture it for themselves.
A little girl who is troubled by the growing violence, greed, and destruction in her once-peaceful world goes on a journey – through the Mountains of Imagining, the River of Wondering Why, and the Forest of Finding Out – to speak with Old Turtle, the wise counsellor. Old Turtle tells her that the Truth is broken and missing a piece, a piece that shot off in the night sky so long ago. Together they search for it and, when they find it, the little girl puts the jagged piece in her pocket and returns to her people. She tries to explain, but no one will listen or understand.
Finally, a raven flies the broken truth to the top of a tower, where the other piece has been ensconced for safety, and the rejoined pieces shine their full message: “You are loved / and so are they.” And the people begin to comprehend. And the earth begins to heal.”
All the best for 2017
Love and solidarity