The true power of truth and reconciliation

Today is Truth and Reconciliation Day in Canada.

In 2015, after six years of hearings and testimonies from residential school survivors, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada published 94 Calls to Action to be followed if Canada is to address the cultural genocide of Indigenous Peoples and achieve true reconciliation.

Call to Action #80 was the call to establish a National Day for Truth and Reconciliation to honour survivors and their families, and to ensure the public commemoration of the history and legacy of residential schools.

Bob Joseph, author of 21 Things You May Not Know about the Indian Act, says:

"Reconciliation is not an Indigenous problem, it's a Canadian problem, and every Canadian needs to be aware of this dark (but not distant, as the last school was closed in 1996) period of history, understand [its impact], and find ways...to support reconciliation."

I believe that even though this is a secular holiday, it is one that makes God smile. Why? Because...

1. Our God is a God of reconciliation. This is the whole point of the Cross. The world is broken, and every key relationship in our lives is fractured by sin: our relationships with God, with others, with ourselves, and with creation. God went to great lengths to bring restoration to these relationships (i.e. every relationship, including Jew and Gentile, Indigenous and colonizer). Therefore, every time healing and reconciliation happens, it echoes God's heart and God is glorified.

2. Our God is a God of truth. The truth can be ugly. But facing the truth allows us to move forward into full healing. Deep relationship cannot happen when things remain secret or when we refuse to address the truth. When we acknowledge the truth of our actions - to God, to ourselves, and to the other - his light and healing floods that dark place and we can be set free from shame, guilt, anger, and other things that may block reconciliation.

3. Our God is a God of forgiveness. The ability to forgive is true power and true freedom. Why? Because forgiveness takes the power to affect our wellbeing out of the hands of the other person. When we cannot or will not forgive, the other person has the ongoing ability to affect our quality of life. Does forgiveness need a confession of wrongdoing? Even though confession helps the forgiveness process, it is not essential. That is why forgiveness is so powerful. Forgiving doesn't mean forgetting. It doesn't even necessarily mean trusting again. It means we release that person to God and refuse to give them power over our wellness any longer. Then we realize they were the weight holding us back in our healing journey.

PAUSE and REFLECT: Where are your relationships at? Have you been reconciled to God, others, yourself, and creation? Or perhaps there are still unreconciled relationships marked by deep hurt, either the hurt we received or the hurt we caused. Usually, this is not something we overcome in the blink of an eye. It is a journey, and the point is not how fast we are going, but whether we are taking steps in the right direction.

My preferred definition of sin is "anything we do to rob ourselves of the fullness of life, or anything we do to rob another person of the fullness of life." Our nation and some of our churches have robbed fellow humans loved by God of fullness of life. This is a day we can sit with that truth and accept that it happened and that the residential school legacy continues to rob people of the fullness of life. However, this is only half of the day's emphasis, for today is also a day we can move toward reconciliation and forgiveness.

Finally, today is a day we can look at the relationships in our own lives and continue our own journey of restoration that brings a smile to God's heart. He is your biggest cheerleader in this journey, and promises accompaniment, encouragement, and strength should we look to him for help.

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Photo by Sinitta Leunen on Unsplash