Rwanda genocide calls Church to look in the mirror

By Martha Thomsen and ChristianWeek | December 9, 2009

How many of us have asked of the Rwandan genocide, "How could such a thing happen—Christians massacring Christians?"

Emmanuel Katongole offers some clues as he follows Rwanda's history back to the time when Europeans, merchants and imperialists as well as missionaries, brought the idea of the superiority of one race over another. Thus, the 1994 genocide mirrored values learned decades earlier about what it meant to be Hutu and Tutsi: the long-oppressed Hutu, treated as inferior slaves, took revenge on the Tutsi (and moderate Hutu) who had held the positions of power.

Katongole traces this historical thread, not to lay blame, but to develop understanding. To understand the Rwanda story can help the Church in the West see itself more clearly, for Western Christianity is mirrored in that story. Katongole calls us to look in the mirror, joining him in a "pilgrimage of pain and hope" to discover and to embody a new kind of Christian identity that fits for the global body of Christ.

This is a book about broken bodies, broken, at least in part, because God's people forgot their identity as members of the broken body of Christ and gave allegiance to national or racial identities. Happily, this book is also about interruptions to those so-called "natural" identities: men, women and young people risked their mortal lives for the life inaugurated by the resurrected Jesus, thereby breaking down the walls that dehumanize those different from ourselves.

Throughout the book the author shares stories that are in turn heart wrenching and heart warming. But the stories are illustrative, not focal points. They flow from the wounded heart of a priest.

This is a short book—few pages, large print. Yet the words are weighted, pregnant with spiritual understanding and deep concern. I sense humility in this author, which is rare, and I hear the ring of the Master's voice.

If you are someone who sincerely prays, "Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth," this book will speak to you. Katongole closes with a challenge to live as resident aliens in the kingdoms of this world, adding thoughts on how we might do that.

For me, Mirror to the Church is a keeper, not only so I can re-read Rwanda's story, but to help me ponder how to live in Canada as a citizen of the kingdom of God.