Cultura i societat

Why do we assume that jumping over the limits imposed by nature and social customs is the right thing to do? What consequences are there for our lives by uncritically assuming the technological mentality? Is there some way to escape from this labyrinth? These are some of the questions that the author poses in this pamphlet, written from a philosophical point of view and attempting to go to the roots of a question that is not only technical or scientific, but also affects that which is most central to the human condition.

The word “reconciliation” is a word with a diverse set of meanings that can encompass many different perspectives: religious, ethical, political and juridical. The author concentrates in this text on the religious perspective and on its Christian version., placing himself clearly in the point of view of victims. From that come all of the questions that recur in these pages: Is there a God who reconciles and who reconciles us with so many victims in this world? If that is answered in the affirmative, what does that reconciliation look like? In what does it consist?

We find reconciliation a reality that is difficult to accept in our present sociocultural context. A major reason for this difficulty is that the prevailing mindset in our society has no room for the essential elements for understanding and practicing reconciliation, elements such as repentance, self-criticism, guilt, forgiveness, and truth. Drawing on the experience of the Basque Country, the authors of this booklet develop a proposal that takes the perspective of the victims as the necessary point of departure for authentic justice and reconciliation. 

This year 2021 to a close and usher in 2022, right now we shan’t be reaching for grand words, but only penultimate words, spoken in fear and trembling, uttered from an urge to help: penultimate words that serve as an invitation to recover two principles which, in the present moment, can provide guidance in the life of people, communities and institutions. These principles are not new, but instead draw from the tradition that has guided forty years in the life of our study centre and which we go on revindicating as valid.

The pandemic has questioned the paradigm of self-sufficiency upon which our civilization is based and it has demonstrated the great limitations which our economic system has in order to guarantee the basic rights of all people, especially of those who find themselves in a situation of vulnerability. Flipping through pages in order to forget about this serious nightmare, in our opinion, is an error.

In Europe we are witnessing a genuine collapse of the Christian faith. In relatively few decades, a European society with deep Christian cultural roots has become a society in which Christianity is culturally irrelevant. In this booklet the author analyzes this crisis and then explores the conditions that would make a new Christian initiation possible. Such a re-initiation will have to take place from below, from the poor, from the passion of the people, from the great masses of humankind.

Vulnerability, linkages (for our mutual dependence and solidarity) and responsibility (or vigilance) are the bases of our being human and the key for our development. These three initial Vs should be for us today guides to reading well our present and for acting in a way that might be, at the same time, universal and practical, in both our work and in all the other fields of life. Perhaps this might be the great lesson of the pandemic.  

The COVID-19 pandemic has generated a global social, political and economic shock, with consequences that are not yet foreseeable, making even sharper the focus on the problems of an unequal and plutocratic world which is politically polarized, socially atomized and environmentally unviable. It is for this reason that the author invites us to take advantage of the “moment of clarity” that the pandemic offers us to take a deep dive into some essential lessons learned, as, for example, our having realized that working for the common good for those who need care is what sustains life.

We are starting 2021 with our gaze fixed on the end of the pandemic. It seems that now the question is not when it will all be over, but rather how it will happen and what will life be like after this very intense period. The imminent arrival of the vaccine – at least for the so-called “northern countries” – leads us to believe that we will be able to return to the same routine as before the pandemic started. Nevertheless, along the way, the virus of poverty continues wreaking damage. Will we have learned anything during the time that we have been confined?

We find the phrase with which this publication is titled in St. Paul when he says, “But when in the fullness of time God sent His Son” (Gal 4:4), or “He has allowed us to know the mystery of his will, according to his goodness, which He had proposed in Himself, to bring together all things in Christ in the dispensation of the fullness of time.” (Eph 1:9-10). Beginning with this expression, the author of this article directly formulates this question: could Paul have written this today? Or even more clearly: can we understand it?