The power of Reconciliation

Reconciling Power.
Yesterday I did something I needed to do for a while. I made a brave effort to reconcile with someone. If it bothers you then you need to act and this relationship bothered me a lot. Turned out we had a lovely conversation, once I was assured all was OK and then we listened to each other's stories. I felt a whole lot better afterwards. Today in the local paper I read about a huge act of reconciliation besides which mine pales and which fills my heart with hope and joy at what is happening inspite of the recent disheartening news and discourse on race relations here. The wounds of apartheid are far from healed and from my vantage point, the racial divisions are sharper than ever, at least in Cape Town. The work of the Truth and Reconciliation Committee led by Bishop Desmond Tutu did vital work but that was just the beginning. Hamilton Wende, a Johannesburg based commentator who is doing research for a documentary and looking at how reconciliation has progressed in the last 15 years, shared this story. On December 24, 1996 bombings in Worcester killed four people and injured 67. One of those injured was Olga Macingwane. She had just finished her grocery shopping when she remembered, she was "ovewhelmed by a huge wave of sound and darkness." She was able to crawl out the back of the shop when she heard an explosion and her next memory is waking up in the hospital. Since then her life has been one of pain and pills. She ahs received little help and to this point, no compensation. one of the men responsible for the act is Steefans Coetzee now in prison for the crime. Long since repentant he desired to meet his victims and apologize to them for his actions. While the social workers at the prison were willing to set up such a meeting, most of the still very angry victims had no interest in such a meeting. Olga and a few others agreed to do so. The Cape Times article described it this way. "Our cameras were off but in that tiny room in the summer's heat an extraordinary South African experience took place. Olga asked to begin with a prayer. She knelt on the floor and prayed aloud in Xhosa while the rest of us bowed our heads." The report noted she said little as each one introduced themselves. She wanted to hear what Coetzee had to say. He was brutally honest. He was a racist, nurtured in this by his family, but had since learned the error of his terrible ways. "I do feel remorse. I am asking forgiveness because I want to move on with my life. I want to do something else with my life and not be remembered only as a murderer."
Again the report described life-changing moments in that room. "Now that I have heard your story, I can forgive you," one man said. When it was Olga's turn to speak here again is the report from the article. "We waited as she gathered her thin, pain-wracked body in her chair. " I want to thank you," she said to Coetzee in Xhosa. "Because I have heard your story, something has left me. I feel healed." Then she and Coetzee stood up and hugged each other. There were tears in both of their eyes." Wende wrote: "The enormity of the deed and the power of Olga's forgiveness give no easy answers, no glib benedictions. There was something immensely powerful in the restraint and the silent depth with which forgiveness was granted by Olga and accepted by Coetzee, something uniquely South African." And I dare to add, something uniquely Christlike.