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ReconciliationI have just returned from Northern Ireland. The novelist Leon Uris once described it as a terrible beauty - a beautiful, yet tragic place. I remember a conversation with a mercenary who told me he'd fought wars all over the world and usually at least knew what they were about. The rationale behind the Ulster conflict eluded him. We hope it is now over, but did we ever understand it ? Many, over the years, have thought they did and have come to grief as a result - Gladstone, Lloyd George and a succession of modern politicians - they all got nowhere. There are parallels in other parts of the world as well: other places where two communities are at such a level of variance that deep-seated hatred and ultimately bloodshed result. In such places there often seems little chance of any form of reconciliation until people become war-weary. We have seen encouraging signs in Northern Ireland - long standing enemies at least prepared to sit down with each other and talk. City centre pubs and clubs doing a roaring trade as people, for the first time in thirty years, dare to venture out of their own enclaves at night. There have been many examples of good people in both communities working together for the common good. But the message that comes across loud and clear is - the apparatus is all still in place. We may have a cease-fire, but it can all start again, as soon as the circumstances dictate it. The red, white and blue kerbstones are still there, the tricolours still flutter as if to proclaim 'It's only on hold !' Let us hope and pray that peace will come to Northern Ireland but if all that has been achieved there in thirty years is a temporary shelving of the horror and violence, how long will it be until the Balkans are at peace ? Will Greek and Turkish Cypriots ever see the homes they were turned out of in the 1960's and 70's ? Will the Tutsis and the Hutus of Central Africa ever be able to live together again ? Can the East Timorese ever be reconciled with the Indonesians ? Ordinary people are unlikely to be able to provide answers to these questions. Politicians often make things worse. Perhaps only God can sort the problem out. In times of strife and conflict, there are always examples of human goodness which God elects to bring about which make us stop and think 'If only they were all like that'. One thinks of organisations like the Red Cross with all the marvellous work they do in troubled places. But it is principally the ordinary people, like the Albanian Moslem family who prevented the KLA from killing their Serb neighbours, the Greek and Cypriot rescue workers who helped in the aftermath of the recent Turkish earthquake (and the Turkish rescue workers who did the same after the next earthquake struck Athens). Many people have crossed divides, bridged cultures and hatreds to do God's work and to show their love of their neighbour. Conflicts such as those we have looked at can never be right in the sight of God, no matter how much religion is brought into the issue. It may be called a Holy War by one or both sides but it isn't. God did not put us on earth to kill each other and then claim to be doing it in His name. Self-defence has to be allowable but how many times is that used as a cloak for aggression ? Hitler claimed to be defending German minorities in Czechoslovakia and Poland, when he invaded those countries. Self-defence can never be a justification for expanding one's own territory or bringing the people of another country into subjugation. The Christian, therefore, has always to desire peace above all else. The example God gives us in Scripture, in the life of our Church and in the actions and words of His servants are His way of answering those who prolong and profit from violence. It is only when people in the world's trouble spots listen to the Still, Small Voice that man can mature sufficiently to start to be found acceptable in the sight of God. John Moore |
