LASFORM6 ISLAND OF TEARS, ISLAND OF HOPE Summary of pgs.

139 165 Chapter 9: Reconciliation: Do Not Speak To Us Of Reconciliation The word reconciliation had been prostituted. The word had been hijacked and manipulated to suit the needs of some people. However this should not stop us from reclaiming it and using the concept in its true and original meaning and force. It is regarded as false reconciliation. In its genuine sense, reconciliation must be somewhere among the cards Christian peace-builders hold in their hands. Obviously it should not be the first card to be played, and in fact normally it will be the last to be played. But it must be played or intended to be played sooner or later. The problem was always presented not as a case of injustice but rather a case of broken human relations or a breakdown in communications. The job to be done was to mend the relationship, not to undo the injustice. Patapan-tapan, meaning smoothing over was resorted to in Negros whereby cowed people have been browbeaten and duped, sometimes the priest or bishop would be asked to be present to give an added air of legitimacy to such spurious settlements. The feudal attitude mentally bound the poor and made them ready victims for this false reconciliation. A great amount of subsequent violence could be avoided at this early stage if people were able to speak up for themselves and answer back instead of accepting the injustice and going away aggrieved and then possibly months or years later evening the score by a furtive knifing. Revenge for perceived injustice is one of the commonest causes of murder in the Philippines. Confusing Reconciliation and Forgiveness Another problem with reconciliation is the danger of confusing it with forgiveness. Forgiveness is at the heart of Christs message. It is a nonnegotiable condition for being a Christian. The theme occurs again and again in the gospels. Obviously, Christians are bound to forgive, but this Christian imperative is frequently manipulated by some in order to escape the consequences of their actions. I have forgiven Juan for what he did. There is no withholding of forgiveness here; I have forgiven him and he is in my prayers. But we priests met and decided to take this case for the safety or ordinary people, because Juan is alleged to have done many acts like this and if no one takes a case he will go on doing them. Some priests said there is no justice in the courts, but I said that I am sure there is, and this would surely prove it. Reconciliation is the Kingdom in Practice

The guards at the Bacolod Provincial Jail were drunk and tried to take out two prisoners from the cells: Moldez Diaz and Nene Martinez. Moldez handed himself over, but Nene would not budge. Nene Martinez, faced with all these troops said simply, We wont take down the barricade till you hand back Moldez. Colonel Geolingo, without a word, handed back Moldez, the barricades were taken down, and the troops withdrew. You took a risk for a friend that I dont know that I would have taken. When all is said and done, the guards are really victims like ourselves and ultimately they are our brothers. My words are ahead of my deeds, because I myself got mad with the guards publicly several times. In the midst of the fray I did not remember that being brothers and sisters is at the heart of evangelization and that the task before us is precisely the rediscovery, the restoration and the regaining of this fellowship, this being one family in God. Every time we do this or avert the opposite, we are initiating the Kingdom of God. Reconciliation seems to be the ultimate aim of the coming of Jesus restoring the world to the dream God had for it from the beginning through Eph. 2:14-18 and Col. 1:15-20. This is the work of propagating the gospel of peace.

Chapter 10: Forgiveness WhoWill Stop the Spiral of Hate? Romeo became a hero in rebel circles and songs were sung about him telling how, in spite of the torture, he had not divulged the whereabouts of the rebels. The motives for all the killings and torturings at one level can be presented in ideological terms. At another level they can be presented as part of a relentless spiral of revenge. Both levels interact. Even if a semblance of equity were introduced, could people on both sides forget what and who they had lost in these terrible years? Even granted that conditions for reconciliation were objectively realizable, the residue of hate and personal hurt is so great that some people cannot even look at one another without revulsion; beginning a dialogue is out of the question. There is an impasse. Only one thing can break that impasse: forgiveness. In the growing spiral of anger and hate and war, some people must grasp the sharp barbs and absorb the pain and give space for the dove of peace to descend upon the earth. It is possible to have no plans or ideas of any sort of revenge but still be unwilling or unable to forgive. The first step must be to forswear revenge and hate. If we do this consciously, if we do what is within our power, then we may be given the grace to do what is not without our unaided power the grace to forgive. Because forgiveness is not reasonable, it needs something more than reason to evoke it it needs grace. It is the only condition given to Christians for receiving forgiveness: first they must forgive. Attacking the Heart and the Conscience The act of forgiveness is a wholly personal act; no one can do it for another. What we can and should do is exhort them to forgive their enemies with the carefully underlined precaution

that we are not once again asking them to draw back from the arduous process and task of seeking restitution and genuine reconciliation. The suffering of one is the suffering of all. Military men regretting or compensating for what they have done, they got the grace of repentance.

Chapter 11: Stumbling Blocks To Give or Not To Give What use is all the faith in the world if it doesnt result in stretching out our hand to the hungry and oppressed around us? Such faith is worthless. a rough but accurate translation of James 2:14. For disciples it is precisely our faith which gives the impetus to us to go out and do. Neglect of our own faith dimension will surely affect our activity dimension. We forget that we ourselves surely began our outward journey by first being moved by the plight of others and giving a handout. Later we realized that this was not only not enough, but possibly damaging. However, the handout mentality is a stage along the way, and we should try to lead people to the next level, not by condemning them but by explaining to them the need for social and political analysis. Compassion must go hand in hand with a hardnosed examination of who is doing what to whom. The Nicodemus Clause Another stumbling block for those working for justice is the frequency with which they see the rich align themselves with the oppressors. It seems as if Marxs insight that people always align themselves on a basis of class interest is an inexorable and ironclad law. Yet there are exceptions: Nicodemus and Zacchaeus are two. Zacchaeus did an aboutface when he met Jesus. He not only repented and gave up his extortion, but he promised publicly to compensate his victims fourfold. Nicodemus, like all of his class, stood to lose materially if he followed Jesus. At first he would only meet Jesus secretly and at night, but ultimately he made the break and took a public stand by claiming the criminals body. Thus, we are not irrevocably determined by our class interests. Since then we have made the decision that we would rather lose our land and even our lives rather than get into guns. We have been saying what we will not do, but what can we positively do? We are all paying the legal minimum wage, but that is not enough. Its not a family wage; its not a living wage. The Conflict Is Structural In such a way, it is true that the poor have no monopoly on virtue. But we must avoid the delusion of setting them on a pedestal because our disillusion will be in proportion to our original illusion.

The problem in Negros is not between good and bad people but is a structural conflict between rich and poor. Structurally, as Albert Nolan says, the cause of the poor and oppressed is right and just no matter what individual poor people may be like. We side with them, we take an option for the poor, not because they are good but because that is what the Kingdom is about; it means removing the structures which turn societies into ones that put us at each others throats. When we locate evil in persons themselves rather than in their actions, we prepare the way for terrible crimes. When we locate evil in structures, we open the way to the sort of change that will release the captors from their own chains, not eliminate them. Would it be legitimate to describe both the physical force used by a rapist and the physical force used by a woman trying to resist the rapist as violence? Walter Wink No church has the moral right to condemn violence unless it has condemned the injustice that gives rise to it. The Church, a Scandal? But one of the greatest of all stumbling blocks for peace-builders is the scandal they feel when their own church leaders do not support them or when their ecclesiastical leaders always take the side of the rich. Church superiors answer: You dont consult us when you make decisions, then you blame us when we dont come to rescue you from positions youve got yourself into without consulting us. When this protest is genuine, it is an argument for moving, at times, more slowly in order to preserve the unity of the Church in an important issue. It is a terrible tragedy when bishops and priests and lay people are divided; it results in a sort of balkanization of the community. Under such circumstances no work for peace through justice can prosper. So everything should be done to avoid it. Im voting in favor of revolutionary patience. Matthew has some special advice for resolving disputes within the community. He says that when a problem like this arises we should approach the person we think is erring privately. If he listens, you have won your brother. Though you have attacked his heart and conscience, you have saved him the embarrassment or even humiliation of a public attack; maybe you have also learned something by listening to his point of view. If he does not listen to you, take two or three others; this raises the stakes but it is still, to a degree, private. He has a chance to see that this is not a gripe of one person and obviously the quality of the people who come together will mean something. The very act or organizing such a meeting will demand that matters are more thought out. If he still refuses to listen to them, inform the assembled church about him. Only at this stage do you go to a higher body. If he does not listen to the Church, regard him as a pagan or publican. We are not bound to follow Matthew literally. The essence of his advice is that the unity of the community is a pivotal value which we undermine at our peril.

Chapter 12: Prayer To Work or To Pray? Prayer is a contact with God, and when it is authentic the mercy of God touches and searches and flows out on their fellows, radiating Gods mercy and love to them. Because the work itself is so all-engulfing we find that we being to neglect prayer. The contact is obviously vital to a person whose faith and hope and love are each being put to a grueling test. I am writing as one who, while working for peace and justice, has continually found myself neglecting my prayer life. It is in spite of all my own failure that I reassert the necessity of prayer.