Today’s principle message is of reconciliation. To arrive at reconciliation we need to take a step back to the 1st principle of God. God is a God of order. In God we have a need for order and unity. It can be said that if God is a God of order and science is the study of an ordered universe then science is the study of God revealed in his order. Science is however subordinate to the highest order of truth, a lower order of truth. What does all this philosophy have to do with reconciliation?
To be in unity with God we must be reconciled with each other. We must restore order to our relationships. In contrast disunity is the poison of disorder. We must begin with ourselves. “if today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.” Our hearts must be open to reconciliation to be in unity of mind, body, and spirit. Perhaps our struggle of relationships is a deeper struggle of self. Our own restlessness and disunity promotes disorder in our relationships.
The first reading is God’s call to reconciliation with Him, to hear his voice and be in right relationship with the God of love while the second mandate is to be in reconciliation with our neighbor. With God we have a sacrament of reconciliation to renew the bond of love. With neighbor we have a calling to dialogue but dialogue requires the desire for unity and free will cannot force unity in a hardened heart. Thus as the gospel reading makes clear our obligation is limited by the heart of the other. We can directly seek reconciliation and extend peace, we can seek unity through others and we can turn to the church as a voice of truth. We then must let go and let God in God’s time work in the hearts of others.
The order of unity is love where two or three agree on anything through prayer it shall be granted for the greater good. In the first reading God testifies that we are to proclaim the Word of God when we hear him speak. God speaks in scripture all the time but there are those moments in time when it speaks directly to us. It is when the person in the pew feels “that is coming towards me”. It enters our soul to awaken us to his truth in our particular situation and to reconcile us in our relationships.
The Word also takes flesh in our flesh when we witness evil, sin, injustice, abuse, and neglect to awaken our duty to respond to the danger of eternal death. There is a cultural paradigm shift going on in our society to silence speech whether by so called “safe zones” or by outright inflammatory speech and violence. Billy Graham started his ministry on a street corner preaching the Word of God’s love, mercy and call for reconciliation. Today, I fear he would be stoned to death, persecuted or injured for offending a group of people in the pubic square.
God seeks to reconcile the world to himself and we are called to be the voice of dialogue beginning at home, in our communities, and in our engagement on world issues. The consequence of sin is death. How many souls remain resentful and unforgiving? Malachy McCourt states, “Resentment is like taking poison and waiting for the other person to die.” Many souls are dying with resentful hearts. They feel justified in their resentment. They see forgiving as a sign of weakness, giving into the other person or giving up their cause The cause is never given up if it seeks truth, not my truth or your truth but God’s truth.
What are we to do? Rev. Dr. William Mitchell says, “Forgiving is a gift given in the face of a moral wrong, without denying the wrong itself.” Give the gift don’t dney the harm that can eat us up alive inside. We give the gift and let God take care of the rest. This comes from a heart of love greater than the wrong done. It is a voluntary decision to give up the desire for revenge and release a person from any interpersonal debt incurred by wronging you. This comes from a mind that is willing to make an act of forgiveness, perhaps by going to confession to invite God to help us release the pain and receive his grace. Forgiveness is a process both emotional in dealing with the anger, hurt, and disappointment and of the mind in understanding the behavior, the person, and having empathy.
What are we not to do? We don’t minimize the reality of what happened. We don’t forget or repress the memory we learn to let it go. Sometimes memory has its own sense of humor. We stop talking to someone for years and we don’t remember why but we remember the anger. Forgiving is not making excuses for the other or oneself. Forgiving is not tolerating negative behavior that only keeps us angry. Forgiving is not something we do after we “get even”, two wrong don’t make it right. I remember a woman who came in for counseling for depression and anger management. She was very remorseful for hitting her husband with a 2X4 piece of stud saying, “he made me mad”. Anger is not a sin it is what we do with our anger that becomes a poison.
Forgiveness, reconciliation, mercy is seeing Jesus on the cross and accepting his love is open to all sinners and we can be an instrument of his love. The world is in need of more and more reconciliation. The path to destruction begins with the silencing of the voice of the other leading to disunity, then disorder and finally destruction. Even if we disagree we need to be at least willing to agree to disagree in dialogue. God works where two or three are gathered in his name.
Who is our model for forgiveness and reconciliation? The one called “full of grace”, Blessed Mother Mary a model of humility. The Mother who stood at the cross of her Son’s persecution remained in perfect love and did not sin. Did she feel all the human emotions of anger, grief, pain and suffering? Yes, she did. She overcame them with love. In Jesus, God became more like man to bring us to reconciliation. In Mary humanity became more like God to be perfect as God is perfect. God entrusts in us the message of reconciliation to be more like Christ. This too takes great courage.
Literature speaks of four great themes of life. There is a “comedy” where anything that can go wrong does go wrong but in the end all ends well. There is a “romance” where life has its passion and challenges that seek a higher unity of life. There is a “tragedy” with a sad ending, a sense of loss and emptiness. There is also an “irony” where we are left with no understanding and confusion. So how does this play out with reconciliation?
“Comedy”: Why did it take so long to make up? I don’t know but you started it. You also held onto it for so long but now together we end it.
“Romance”: I was so angry because I love you so much. I wish it had never happened but we are much closer now and understanding of each other.
“Tragedy”: What happened cannot be undone and letting go is not easy. I still love you but life goes on without you now and I can accept it.
“Irony”: Though I will never completely understand I trust in God and accept his will for my life.
In each of these themes of life we can find God’s peace and reconciliation. Let us harden not our hearts to his voice calling us back to his love and mercy. Forgiving all injuries is a spiritual work of mercy. “Love one another” and we will receive God’s peace of heart.
Let us pray an act of love and reconciliation. “O my God, I love you above all things with my whole heart and soul, because you are all-good and worthy of all my love. I love my neighbor as myself for the love of you. I forgive all who have injured me, and I ask pardon of all whom I have injured. Amen.” (Handbook for Catholics, Loyola Press 1995, pg. 8)
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