Chapter Leader Lectures:
By Neil Earle
GLENDORA, CA.—Evelyne O’Callaghan-Burkhard is an ORM Chapter Leader who is also a well-travelled nurse, a lecturer on reconciliation and a workshop presenter.
She is also a deeply committed Christian.
On October 7, 2006 Evelyne presented a lecture at Glendora Friends Church in Southern California which spoke to all people concerned about the practical how-to’s of implementing the timeless teaching of Jesus to love our neighbor as ourselves. This is a message the audience eagerly devoured, as Christ’s mandate is one most religions and people groups have admired. But what blocks the fulfillment of this elementary commandment? In an age of nuclear threats, extreme religious tension and personalized, everyday violence Evelyne showed how unresolved feelings and unmet needs set us up for feeding a cycle of violence even if we are not aware of it.
“The creation account in Genesis shows we are made in God’s image,” Evelyne began. “We have a capacity for love and relationships, indeed we are created for relationships, but very early we read that pride, rebellion and selfishness short-circuited communications between the first man and woman and with God. Genesis 4 records the first murder.”
Murder, violence and other destructive acts flow from bitterness and resentment, says Evelyne, “chewing the cud,” stewing over real or imagined wrongs. This is amply demonstrated in another example of failed relationships, the story of Joseph and his brothers. Genesis 37:2-4 mentions the timeless issue of sibling rivalry. “Joseph was given favor and acceptance which led to competition, jealousy, a desire for retaliation and ultimate violence against him. Often the answer to the victimizing we feel is to go for CONTROL, seeing the Other as the enemy, seeing them as an object and ultimately perpetrating violence against them.”
Evelyne saw this cycle at work in her time in Rwanda. “There was the colonial period which led the colonizers, and even Christian churches, to play off the ethnic groups amongst themselves. This only enhanced latent tribal rivalries after independence which ultimately led [after political failures to reconcile] to each one wanting to display power against the other. Many dictators take this route: When I didn’t know who I am or my feelings are not acknowledged I use frustrated feelings to seek power over others.”
This effectively nails a big part of the problem. The history of the 20th century was too often a recurring series of groups seeking power at the expense of others to feel significant: Korea, Biafra, Cambodia, Darfur today. One root source of a solution is, says Evelyne, answering the questions: “Who am I? What makes me, me?”
This is the well-known problem of identity. One’s identity has many sources, Evelyne argues. Tennyson wrote: “I am a part of all that I have met.” In Evelyne’s reconstruction: “We are each of us affected by our nation, our church, our neighborhood, our group, our personality, our jobs, our public and private selves, from hidden wounds, from unresolved emotions. Our vision of the world is ultimately affected by all these factors and more.”
All too often, the reality is that we see the world only through these filters. “Our perceptions shape our view of the world. It’s so easy to focus on our anger and our feelings instead of what we know to be our true reality, that we are made in God’s image, that we are made for relationships. This is because what we ‘know’ to be true cannot override our feelings and experiences. A person can say, ‘I know God is love but I can’t get past my feelings.’”
Here, for Evelyne, is the crux of the issue. As a deeply committed Christian she urges her audiences to focus on Christ as the center of our lives. “Christ is perfect love, holiness and justice. Perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18). A focus on Him reminds us of his promise that we will receive all we need, that we will be filled. As he said, ‘He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his innermost being will flow rivers of living water’” (John 7:38).
Evelyne adds: Fear is the great inhibitor. Fear cripples. Fear prevents us from going beyond our feelings. It makes us afraid to risk, to risk love and to create loving relationships. “Our purpose in life is to find significance in Jesus and in his love. We become part of the intimacy, the love that exists between the Father and the Son, as it says in John 14:23, ‘If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.’”
God meets our needs and that in turn inspires us to serve God and neighbor in loving actions. “This is the kind of intimacy that bears fruit,” concludes Evelyne.
Hearing Evelyne’s presentation caused some in her audience to remember Mahatama Gandhi’s remarks that all Christians need to do is heed their Founder’s basic instructions and the world would be immensely improved. Housewife and grand-mother Lucy Cantu commented: “On behalf of those who have to raise little grand-daughters burdened with their own fears, I wish I could hear that message all over again.” Graham Weakley, a Korean specialist living in Los Angeles, remarked: “Evelyne really got to the root causes of so many of our present distresses – national and individual. I wish everyone could have heard that talk.”