Healing With Forgiveness And Reconciliation
S Arokiasamy
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What is the relational and societal dimensions of forgiveness, reconciliation and healing in the Christian perspective? In common parlance, forgiveness, reconciliation and healing may be used interchangeably .Hence it is good to note the nuanced differences in the meaning of these terms in an ethical and religious perspective.Forgiveness stands for the acceptance of the offender and makes possible the restoration of relationships. Such an act sets in motion a process of reconciliation and healing. Often it is interpersonal.Reconciliation stands for restoring and rebuilding broken relationships. It flows from forgiveness and continues and completes forgiveness. Reconciliation is a process. Because it means restoring and building broken relationships, it becomes a relational event. Hence it evokes a strong social and communitarian dimension.
Healing is a term closely associated with forgiveness and reconciliation it refers to harmony of the physical, psychological, spiritual and social faculties of a person. It includes a relational dimension; the healing of psychological maladies and maladjustments and disturbances with the help of psychiatry and psychology .
Healing in a sense of social therapy means restoring to full health and wholeness inter-human and communitarian relations. Holistic process of healing recognises injustice and other kinds of offences. The wholeness that is the mark of healing is inclusive of the rejection of evil and injustice, the creation and promotion of justice and the building of reconciled and healed relations. If not, it would be a subtle way of perpetuating the status quo of an unjust situation.
From the ethical and religious perspective, it would mean removal of moral guilt and sin (as offence against God and the order willed by God) and restoration to a state of moral integrity and right relationship with God and one's neighbour. The medical and psychological dimensions of healing are present in the ethical, social and religious meaning of healing as related to forgiveness and reconciliation. Healing includes and integrates the relations of persons into a single process of forgiveness and reconciliation for wholeness. Though physical, psychological, ethico-religious and social dimensions of healing are interrelated; they are distinct and should not be confused. Hence we have to guard ourselves against reducing healing in the ethical, social and religious sense to medi cal or psychological dimensions.
Laplace, a spiritual writer, observes that we should not apply spiritual bandages on psychologi cal wounds or psychological bandages on spiritual wounds.
Healing in a relational perspeccludes healing of broken relations tive includes healing of broken relationships in personal, communitarian, societal, cultural and religious besides economic and political dimensions of life of commu nities and people. Hence we speak of social healing in an inclusive sense.Forgiveness, reconciliation and healing are three dimensions of one process.
Relational anthropology affirms that human beings are relational beings. To be human is to be inter-human, interrelated and community related. Relational humanity is the foundation for human communities to become reconciled and healed, making for solidarity and harmony in a divided and fractured world.
We could say that Asian and Indian ethos is deeply relational. From that perspective, an offence, even if it is against a single person, has a communitarian dimension. If an injustice is committed against any one, it is also against our shared humanity . So forgiveness of an individual offence or collective offence is primarily healing and restoring fractured relationships and community . A healed community becomes a reconciling community , becoming a resource for fuller healing that embraces all.
Healing is a term closely associated with forgiveness and reconciliation it refers to harmony of the physical, psychological, spiritual and social faculties of a person. It includes a relational dimension; the healing of psychological maladies and maladjustments and disturbances with the help of psychiatry and psychology .
Healing in a sense of social therapy means restoring to full health and wholeness inter-human and communitarian relations. Holistic process of healing recognises injustice and other kinds of offences. The wholeness that is the mark of healing is inclusive of the rejection of evil and injustice, the creation and promotion of justice and the building of reconciled and healed relations. If not, it would be a subtle way of perpetuating the status quo of an unjust situation.
From the ethical and religious perspective, it would mean removal of moral guilt and sin (as offence against God and the order willed by God) and restoration to a state of moral integrity and right relationship with God and one's neighbour. The medical and psychological dimensions of healing are present in the ethical, social and religious meaning of healing as related to forgiveness and reconciliation. Healing includes and integrates the relations of persons into a single process of forgiveness and reconciliation for wholeness. Though physical, psychological, ethico-religious and social dimensions of healing are interrelated; they are distinct and should not be confused. Hence we have to guard ourselves against reducing healing in the ethical, social and religious sense to medi cal or psychological dimensions.
Laplace, a spiritual writer, observes that we should not apply spiritual bandages on psychologi cal wounds or psychological bandages on spiritual wounds.
Healing in a relational perspeccludes healing of broken relations tive includes healing of broken relationships in personal, communitarian, societal, cultural and religious besides economic and political dimensions of life of commu nities and people. Hence we speak of social healing in an inclusive sense.Forgiveness, reconciliation and healing are three dimensions of one process.
Relational anthropology affirms that human beings are relational beings. To be human is to be inter-human, interrelated and community related. Relational humanity is the foundation for human communities to become reconciled and healed, making for solidarity and harmony in a divided and fractured world.
We could say that Asian and Indian ethos is deeply relational. From that perspective, an offence, even if it is against a single person, has a communitarian dimension. If an injustice is committed against any one, it is also against our shared humanity . So forgiveness of an individual offence or collective offence is primarily healing and restoring fractured relationships and community . A healed community becomes a reconciling community , becoming a resource for fuller healing that embraces all.
