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Forgive them. They don’t know what they do

Had a forum (rather like a press conference) in church last Tuesday morning. All about knives and their misuse.  Community worker and social activist Les Twentyman ran the show. He had a good line up of speakers including Bob Falconer, Chief of Police in two states, Angry Anderson, rock and roller and father of grown up children.

It made the TV and radio news. Our church as venue seemed good to me. South and Port have been home to many marginalised people, shunned for many years as gene driven troublemakers.

I was glad not to be asked to talk much. Sides were, naturally, being taken. People Against Lenient Sentencing” were present. So were “Victims of Crime”.

Jesus was present, hanging on a wooden cross presented to the parish by a visiting mission team of Vincentians in 1887.

I didn’t mention it to the assembly. Jesus was a victim of a knife/spear attack while hanging on the cross. It was legal, however, as an act of official mercy to put crucified persons out of misery to hasten death. (This incident may have been “mythical” and not “factual”.) John the Evangelist was a master at writing up deep messages in mystical language.

I will mention the crucifixion during Lent, and on Good Friday. I didn’t at Tuesday’s meeting. I thought such a mention could be construed as evangelizing. That was the thing furtherest from my mind when inviting Les to hold the meeting at Sts. Peter and Paul.

Churches were used behind the Iron Curtain to hold meetings of people chafing at Soviet occupation but unwilling to violently resist. I’d like to think churches would open their doors to provide a safe place for a neighbourhood to meet and discuss vexed social issues. “The glory of God is Man fully alive”.

People are not fully alive, if they live in fear of either a real or perceived threat.

Rightly, or wrongly, media fuelled for sales purposes or not, a neighbourhood should be where residents and strangers expect to live peacefully cheek by jowl.

I don’t want to get too vocally involved in the knife debate because I’ll want to warn against demonizing a generation or an ethnic group. I also want to recommend restorative justice not just retributive.

Melbourne society may not be in the mood for such a reflective attitude. Churches, mosques, synagogues can’t, however, shirk the role of peacemaker.

These places of religious, spiritual refreshment need, for Australia’s sake, to become known and trusted as places of reconciliation. That may require a reformation or renaissance to force localized religion to put neighbourhood issues first and sectarian/denominational interests second.

That victim of a knife attack, hanging in our parish church, central to our parish mission, said with his dying breath: “Forgive them. They don’t know what they do”.

RJM