Everyday Reconciliation

Most of us are familiar with the scriptures’ admonition to forgiveness. Jesus, on being asked how many times we should forgive our brother or sister, tells his followers not only to forgive seven times, but seventy times seven times. To forgive seven times reflects that we should forgive many times, which multiplied tenfold urges us to unlimited opportunities to forgive and to be forgiven. The model of our forgiveness is the overflowing and countless compassion of the Father for us.

Over the last several weeks, this space has spoken about the more formalized sacramental moments, where God’s forgiveness can be found in our lives. Forgiveness is the central theme and reality of the Eucharist, where we come to know our oneness in Christ before the Father. The Spirit moves powerfully within the Eucharistic community to gather us at the Lord’s Table.

From that sacramental center, we are able to discover over and over reconciliation with the Father and with each other. In the moments of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, we come to hear the Word of God inviting us to pardon and peace. In that context we are able to confess our sinfulness and with the priest to be rejoined with the community of the Church.

In the richness of the sacramental life of the Church, we are also able to find that same pardon and peace in the Sacrament of the Sick. As we gather with those seriously ill, we are able to experience the presence of Christ in his passion, death, and resurrection. In human frailty and suffering, we find hope. The power to both heal and to forgive, which was so much part of Christ’s ministry, is made visible to us. As the prayers remind us, the Sacrament of the Sick is a vehicle of pardon, peace, as well as healing. The Table Fellowship of the Eucharist is brought to those unable to be with the worshipping community. Likewise, the suffering and sickness of the community is brought back to the whole community for inclusion in the Eucharist.

From One Table to Many Tables
The Eucharistic reality of the worshipping community is brought to the various parts or members of the community. We, gathered and reconciled in Christ at Sunday worship, are sent to a ministry of reconciliation. The one Bread and one Cup, which we receive at the one Table of fellowship, urges us in our everyday life to celebrate and bring that reconciliation to our daily relationships. Like the Apostle Paul, we are all called to a “ministry of reconciliation.”

A rich sign of that reconciliation is the family table or the gathering place of the Domestic Church. At

the family table, the family with all its members and its visitors is the Church gathered. Through sacramental Baptism and through the Sacrament of Marriage, the family is called to live in peace with one another and with Christ.

We hear often how family life is changing in our society. However true that is or is not, the Eucharist challenges families to gather regularly at their family tables. It is here where Christ is encountered in the home among the parents and children gathered to eat and drink together. Family stories are the telling place for God’s Word in very practical and intimate ways. It is at this Table that forgiveness is realized. Both in spoken and unspoken words, peace and forgiveness return to the family as they gather at their own table to give thanks for the food, for the love, and for the exchange of peace with family members. In each household the family sees itself as the Body of Christ.

Whether the family is at their table at home, or, as often happens these days, at a restaurant table, they are one family in Christ. Even on the run it is possible to share the love that binds them together. Other moments overflow from these table experiences. The seeking and giving of pardon among family members is a daily challenge. When family disruptions occur, forgiveness can be discovered seventy times seven.

Forgiveness as a Way of Life
Outside of the family, the challenge to forgive and to pardon is a Christian way of life. How often do we hear that the Christian community is known by their love one for another? The opportunities outside the family and the home are multiple to both offer and receive pardon. With friends, co-workers, neighbors, and even seemingly casually encountered people, pardon’s face is to serve, to give, and sometimes to be last in line. Selfishness, being first, or having things our way are the contrary way of life. We are a society of people who culturally are prone to take offense easily.

Patience might be the beginning of taking on the ways of forgiveness. Whether driving down the highway, or waiting in a grocery store line, or trying to “make excuses” for someone else, we might positively seek to be a peace-maker. It is the peace-maker that will see God, this includes in every person and in every situation. As Jesus reconciled us to the Father by being a servant, the way of pardon and forgiveness calls us to serve, to be the last, and to ultimately lay down our lives for the other. Every day we separate ourselves from others or they divide themselves from us in various ways. Forgiveness is to bridge the separation and the division among us. The times to forgive and be forgiven are almost innumerable, but Christ draws us together at every instant.

CDH