The simplest and most difficult in the world is probably, "to reconcile." To
reconcile is to forgive as God forgave us. An anonymous author shared about a
company bulletin board: it read, "To err is human; to forgive is not company
policy."
It is difficult to believe that we have moved on and fast approaching another
Season of Lent. One of the essential Christian ideas that need urgent attention
is the idea of Reconciliation. To "reconcile," or bring about "reconciliation," is to
restore harmony between two entities formerly divided. The Biblical tradition is a
tradition of parables of reconciliation, which illustrate relationships restored
between human persons, between humans and God, and among various
elements in the cosmos.
The apostle Paul, while addressing the early believers in Rome invites them to
think about reconciliation. God's reconciliation with the world is not about the
change in God's mind about the believers, but there is an altered relationship
between God and sinners by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross. We can
be reconciled at the cross. It means that we are empowered to reconcile with our
own sins and the sins of the other. To reconcile, is not to feel weak but to feel
strong, as Paul would say later, to be content with weaknesses, insults,
hardships, persecutions and calamities (2 Corinthians 12:10). Reconciliation is
an act of courage and the celebration of difference, because, the cross is itself a
symbol of difference; it is at the cross, the reconciliation is celebrated in the
midst of vulnerability.
Our Lenten Reflections will help us focus on the different aspects, and the
possibilities and contexts of reconciliation. Our Friday meditations will focus on
Jesus' journey towards Jerusalem, towards the cross and the parables that
appear 'on the way.' The Parables of Jesus can inspire us to think of our own
parables of reconciliation and probably share it.
In the last chapter of the Book of Genesis, there is a beautiful picture of
reconciliation. The brothers of Joseph were not sure, if he, who being placed in
the position of power will pay back for the wrong they had done. But that did not
happen. Instead, Joseph wept and the brothers also wept (Genesis 50:18).This is a parable of Reconciliation. Reconciliation is not about one weak person
surrendering to a strong person, but it is the discovery of harmony, which in
Kannada is translated as Samanvaya.
Finally, there is nothing godly about responding to systemic evil with passive
acceptance or unexamined complicity. As the theologian and anti-Nazi dissident
Dietrich Bonhoeffer warns us, we must never allow forgiveness to degenerate
into "cheap grace." That is, "the preaching of forgiveness without requiring
repentance, baptism without church discipline, communion without
confession... grace without the Cross."
It is my prayer that this Lenten Season, we will rediscover the possibility and
power of reconciliation in all spheres of life, as Paul would wish, "If it is possible,
so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all" (Romans 12:18).
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