I suppose it makes sense to want to see justice in the world. Those who do wrong ought to be punished. But something happened to me early in life to add other considerations.

My mother, who was raised Catholic and sent to Catholic schools, had no inclination to see me follow ther path. She merely acquiesced for my father’s sake to see that I received religious instruction. But she did two things for me when I was in first grade and in second grade, just prior to my First Communion.

In the first instance, after picking me up from catechism and having what appeared to be a tense discussion with a priest, she tucked me into bed later that night, and she taught me the Our Father, the Hail Mary, and the Glory Be–three important prayers in Catholicism. Then she told me always to say a prayer afterward in my own words, telling God what was on my mind. I duly followed her instructions, and the fourth prayer each night became my favorite.

In the second circumstance, I had received a children’s Bible from her parents, and she found in it the Sermon on the Mount. Almost without comment, she read the portion to me regarding the turning of one’s cheek and of walking two miles with someone who insisted only on a mile. I was barely eight years of age, but something in me responded to this.

I find it profoundly ironic to suspect that my mother, who rejected the hypocrisy she experienced in Catholic schools and despised the Catholic church, clearly understood Christianity far better than those who had putatively instructed her in its tenets. And I truly respect her for having faithfully imparted to me such meaningful lessons when she so obviously had apprehensions about those who made such a shallow show of representing them.

Also, my mother did me a true service in putting me on a path that would lead me to understand that the truly sacred elements of our humanity do not belong to any particular religion. And when I sensed a cynicism she refused to discuss at the time, the memory, in due course, provoked in me a consideration of her misgivings and imparted a helpful understanding of the distinction between worldly institutions and eternal truth.

I am now older. I understand the need for transactional rewards and consequences when they represent the only feasible manner of establishing order. Society, after all, needs a framework.

But, whenever possible, I favor redemption over justice, reconciliation over reparation. I often say that it is hard to be a human being. There are no excuses for ignorance, selfishness, and malice, but there are explanations to consider. A genuine embrace of our common humanity makes open to things that can unite us.

Photo credit: Pixabay

I am participating in the Two Writing Teachers March 2024 Slice of Life Challenge.