Sackcloth and Ashes: The Bloomsbury Lent Book 2014 by Ann Widdecombe

Author:Ann Widdecombe [Widdecombe, Ann]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Penance and Penitence in a Self-centred World
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2013-11-07T00:00:00+00:00

6

Loving Our Neighbour

Christ’s teaching was that we must love our neighbours as ourselves and that if we hold anything against another human being we should seek reconciliation with him and if we cannot resolve the disagreement we can then seek the intervention of those in authority. We must deal mercifully with others (the parable of the two debtors in Mt. 18.23–35) if we are to obtain mercy for ourselves.

He spoke also about judgement and about being held to account for lives at the end of them and at the end of time.

The combination of these commandments appears to suggest that we should be aware of the impact of our deeds and to be prepared to make amends. Restorative justice places the focus of this back on the relationship between the individuals involved as perpetrator and victim in crime. It can occur in custody and as part of a sentence in the community between a criminal and his own direct victim or between a group of criminals and a victim of similar crime.

It can occur not only in the criminal justice system but in schools, as a diversionary tactic as much as a punitive tactic and as a tool for social services as much as for probation officers. It is found in violent crime and in petty crime, in youth offending and in dealing with long-term recidivists but, despite all that, the application of the principles may be wide but the practice is not as widespread as some would like it to be.

If thou has aught against thy brother, go and tell him his fault. Thus did Christ prescribe the process of reconciliation but that works only if you know who is responsible for the deed, if you know who your brother actually is.

The woman who lives alone and returns from work to find her house ransacked and small treasures taken will suffer a large number of immediate emotions: anger, disbelief, misery and fear. What has happened once can happen again so it may be a very long time before she approaches her home in the evening without wondering what she will find, and a long time before she can look at her windowsill and not miss the precious vase that was her great grandmother’s and which was smashed in the course of the thief’s entry. She may miss her mother’s engagement ring not for its financial value but for its symbol of the love between her parents which formed the background to her own upbringing or, worse, she may have recently suffered a bereavement and find the theft a violation of her memories of that dead husband or child.

In the midst of all this she is likely to ask the investigating police officer ‘do these people ever think about what they do to us?’ Restorative justice gives her the chance to put that question directly. She can explain either to the man who burgled her house or to a career burglar who has not been directly responsible for her own experience, how she feels and what the long-term impact is, and he will have to listen and respond.

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