Click here to listen to my ‘Thought for the Day’ on BBC Radio Ulster.
It draws inspiration from a story told in my biography of Fr Gerry Reynolds, Unity Pilgrim.
The text of today’s contribution is below.
The Peace Walls Remain
It was 1983. Fr Gerry Reynolds, from Limerick, had just arrived in Belfast to serve in Clonard Monastery. The Troubles were raging.
Brother Hugh Murray took Gerry to a window on the third floor of the monastery. Their view was the peace wall that separated the Catholic Falls from the Protestant Shankill Road.
Now 80-years-old, Hugh had grown up near Clonard. They watched the people making their way through the militarized and traumatized streets. Hugh said: ‘They are all the same people. For generations the same factory hooters ruled their lives, calling them to the mills. Their differences were exaggerated to keep them divided. Neither group got a fair share of the wealth they created.’
For Hugh, the people they observed were, in some ways, victims of history.
In Exodus, we are told that the Lord visits the sins of the fathers upon their children, unto the third and fourth generation. At first glance, this makes God seem vindictive and unfair, with children cast as victims of God’s unwillingness to absolve their fathers and mothers.
But I wonder if those words in Exodus are less a curse, than an observation.
Eugene Peterson’s translation of the Exodus text hints at this. He writes: ‘Still [God] doesn’t ignore sin. He holds sons and grandsons responsible for a father’s sins to the third and even fourth generation.’
This summer, the sins of our fathers and mothers have echoed across our world. These are centuries-worth of sins, exceeding a mere four generations. We have been reminded that we are responsible for them.
Inspired by Hugh’s observations, Gerry devoted himself to peace making. In his own way, Gerry assumed responsibility for generations of sin. Because of Gerry and others like him, the Troubles are over.
But the peace walls remain, reminding us that God still expects us to change the world, and waits patiently for us to do it, for as long as it takes.