by Pablo Virgilio David *

Bishop of Kalookan Pablo Virgilio David, president of the Bishops' Conference of the Philippines, gave a talk yesterday at the PIME Center in Milan on "Reconciliation, Peace and Mission: the Philippine Frontier." On today's World Missionary Day, we publish an extensive excerpts from his talk. 

What does working for peace and reconciliation entail? Let me think out loud with you:

-First of all, it entails the readiness to face conflict. It is not a simple task to face people who are hungry and angry, people who are victims of injustice and no longer trust either church or government or the law and whose only desire is revenge.

-Secondly, it entails the danger of getting hit or wounded in the crossfire. There is such a thing among some indigenous tribes in the Philippines as “rido”—a practice that is akin to the Jewish lextallionis, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. The one who dares to go into a battlefield where people are at war with each other has only himself to blame for doing so if he gets wounded in the process.

-Thirdly, it is a participation in the “mission Dei”, the mission of bridge-building, which is the title of the bishop of Rome, our symbol of unity.(...)

“If the ministry of the bishop of Rome is defined by the designation Pontifex Maximus, Supreme Bridge-builder, and our primary model for bridge-building is none other than Christ himself, who unites humanity and divinity.

A bridge links two frontiers together to allow people to cross over. Anyone who serves as a bridge must be ready to be trampled to fulfill their purpose. This is precisely what God did when he decided to immerse himself in the human condition in kenosis (Phil 2). He emptied himself. He made himself ready to  facehumanity’s woundedness by becoming wounded himself. (...)

There is one fundamental principle that gives us the boldness to take the risk of working for peace and facing the danger of gettingwounded in the process. We don’t give up on humanity as God himself never did; He always saw our innate goodness no matter what stupid things we’re capable of doing. And so we make a distinction between the sin and the sinner, the action and the person. We hate sin but love the sinner. We never call any person evil no matter what evil he may have done. (Recall Cherry Pie Picache who continues to minister to convicts in the National Bilibid Prison despite the fact that her own mother was brutally murdered by one of them.). 

That was my plea to the government during the war against illegal drugs, during that time when the president himself depicted drug addicts as epitomes of evil, as a menace to society and that the only way to solve the problem of criminality was to get rid of the perpetrators. I publicly expressed my disagreement with him and insisted—you can’t get rid of criminality by just exterminating criminals. Rather you address the situation or system that breeds criminals. Addicts are not criminals but sick people, some of whom may indeed be capable of committing crimes when under the influence of drugs. We can work for their rehabilitation—CBDRP (community-based drug rehabilitation program), we called Salubong, still ongoing. We created a new ministry of accompaniment and listening—people trained by professionals in psychological 1st aid—we called Kaagapay (a support for the wounded).

There is a profound wisdom in the Christian distinction between person and action, the sinner and the sin. We are prevented from being resentful when we focus on the action and continue to recognize the dignity of the person by asking ourselves where he’scoming from, what makes him do the evil that he’s capable of doing. Then we get to see him also as a victim needing our compassion, not our judgment or condemnation.

I love to use the image of the Japanese KINTSUGI, the art of piecing together a broken bowl with gold. The glue that is used to restore the wholeness of the bowl is more precious than the bowl itself. We are all wounded people. Christianity was never meant only for the holy and deserving. The Eucharist is not an exclusive meal for the righteous but a body broken for broken people. That’swhy Jesus says, “this is the new covenant in my blood poured out for you and for many so that sins may be forgiven.” (...)

Our fundamental mission is peace and reconciliation in a wounded and conflicted world. How do you witness peace today in Gaza? In Ukraine? In Sudan? In Myanmar? In Syria and Lebanon?

Jesus called the fishermen and used the image of nets to make Peter understand the ministry of reconciliation: two acts are performed to repair the nets and keep them useful for fishing:

- tying the broken ropes

- untie or untangle the knots.

In the Synod, the Sacrament of Reconciliation was proposed as the basis for the theology and spirituality of a dialogue-facilitation ministry for conflict management, peacebuilding and reconciliation. Inspired by the sacrament, I envision its advocates striving to promote and facilitate the four essential aspects of Reconciliation: confession, contrition, penance, and absolution.

Let us reflect on each of these aspects. People mistakenly mistake the part for the whole and sometimes refer to the sacrament as penance or confession. No, we call it reconciliation and it involves all four of these dynamics. We can actually propose it as a model for peace building:

1) How can we experience reconciliation if we do not have the humility to confess or admit two things:

- the evil we have done or committed and

- the right things we have failed to do or omitted?

2) How can we achieve reconciliation if we are unable to express contrition or feel sorrow for the evil we may have caused people? If we do not feel unhappy for causing others to live unhappy lives?

3) How can we know reconciliation if we do not make even an effort or symbolic gesture to make amends, a concrete action to repair the harm caused to others by our sins involving actions and omissions?

4) How can we be reconciled if we do not know how to forgive and seek forgiveness? (In the prayer Jesus taught us, we say, "Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.")

Finally, we can model ourselves after Paul's exhortation in Ephesians 6:11-15: "Put on the armor of God, that you may be able to withstand the wiles of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of this world of darkness, against the evil spirits that are in the heavens. Therefore put on the armor of God, so that you may stand firm in the evil day and, after you have accomplished everything, stand firm. Stand firm therefore, with your sides girded with truth, clothed with righteousness as with armor, and your feet shod with readiness for the gospel of peace."

Paul teaches us that the only battles we must learn to fight well in this world are the spiritual battles, the battles we fight against the evil one, within and among ourselves. He teaches us to increase our level of spiritual intelligence. After all, the only enemy we have been taught to reject as Christians from the moment of our baptism is Satan. That is why it is so essential that our decisions as a synodal Church in mission undergo a process of communal discernment through conversations in the Spirit, as promoted by the ongoing Synod on Synodality.

* Cardinal-designate, bishop of Kalookan and president of the Bishops' Conference of the Philippines