Originally Published on OMIWORLD.ORG

Click here to see the Article en Español

By Jim BROBST, OMI, General Councilor, Canada- U.S. Region

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This month I was blessed to be in Canada when they and the United States celebrated Veteran’s Day (U.S.) and Remembrance Day (Canada). Each year it falls on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month – the day World War I officially ended. Even though it was called “the war to end all wars,” many more wars have followed; many still rage.

My own father fought in Europe during the Second World War. As a young man with a growing family, he moved away for a new job. There he met another man his own age, also with a new family, in the same workplace. Like my father, he was also a war veteran who had served in Europe. They discovered that they had both fought in at least one of the same battles (Bastogne, Belgium), although in different military divisions. Since both families now lived hundreds of miles from their nearest blood relatives, we chose to become like family to each other. We visited each other’s homes every Christmas and took turns hosting Thanksgiving dinner every year. One set of parents were “proxies” for distant godparents, and sometimes even real godparents to the most recently born children.

None of this may seem remarkable, except that around the Thanksgiving and Christmas table was where I learned the sound of a German accent. Our fathers had not fought on the same side in the Ardennes forest of Belgium – they had fought each other. Hans had escaped through Italy after the war and made it to the U.S. My parents were Hans’ and his wife’s sponsors for citizenship. Many grand “war stories” are told, written, and made into movies. But my favorite is a very different kind of story – reconciling with one’s enemy. When will we give medals for reconciling with one’s enemies, and not only vanquishing them?

A Challenge for Today

The places Oblates serve need people who are willing to reconcile – from Ukraine to Southern Africa to Canada’s Indian Residential Schools to the U.S. political stage and beyond. We need peacemakers wherever strife separates nations across borders, or family members across dining room tables. Between Indigenous persons and newer, dominant cultures. Between polarized members of churches who claim to follow the “Prince of Peace.”

Our divisions are killing us – and not always in battles. And yet, I know that true reconciliation IS possible when faithful people choose to do so. I witnessed it every year growing up during Thanksgiving Holidays and Christmas; it was an essential part of my own baptism. With whom does the world need each of us to reconcile today? Dare we choose to do so?