I sometimes think that if women ran the world, it would be a very different place – a better place even. When I watch this video, I start to believe it more deeply.
To be a human being in the world is to be vulnerable. To be vulnerable is to be hurt… sometimes deeply hurt. The reason the world is such a mess has to do with how we have reacted as human beings when we have been hurt. We fight, we blame, we lash out, we kill, we self-protect, we become numb, we run to easy answers and certitudes, and the world goes dark with pain, violence, despair, and loneliness.
Jesus’s call is always to forgive when we have been hurt. Simply forgive. We bear the sins of the world with Jesus – as part of the body of Christ, the church – and we do this through forgiveness. We are hurt? We forgo vengeance. We reject retribution. We do this because we know that in order to be forgiven ourselves, we have to forgive others. This is so basic to the Christian faith that it is actually part of the most basic Christian prayer: “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
Richard Rohr teaches about what he calls “forgiveness in real time.” He says that you have to forgive others for how they’ve wronged you, but even more basic than that you have to forgive reality for just being so broken. This kind of deep down forgiveness becomes an orientation of the soul. The one who can forgive reality for its brokenness, the world for its hatefulness and violence, the self for our own retribution and self-justification… this person can forgive anything. These kind of people can change the world.
Whether or not women should run the world I don’t really know, but I do know this: If we all felt forgiveness first – before rage, vengeance, retribution, fear, violence, and hatred – if we felt forgiveness first the world would be a very different place; a better place.
I don’t know how you can lose something that you love this much, a child, and forgive. I don’t know you you stand on stage in front of a bunch of people and hold hands with each other like this. I don’t know how you find the courage to reach out to the “other.” I don’t know how you do it. But when I see it happen, when I hear the story of true forgiveness like this one, I know that I have seen a glimpse of the kingdom of God. I know that I have seen “thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
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