The Ministry of Reconciliation

The Church fathers taught that the Spirit’s primary ministry is to re-produce Christ within the Christian. This is not to say that there is more than one Christ, but rather Christ means to become fully and truly present in the life of every Christian as He is, while making them that which they are called to be. As this work unfolds, the fellowship of the Church matures in the godlike character of agape, or the love that is uniquely God’s to bestow and enjoy. But before we are united in love as members of one another, before we are made perfect as the living members of the Body of Christ, we will experience the work of personal perfection and the manifestation of Church unity through what the Scriptures call the ministry of reconciliation.

Reconciliation is grounded in the second love commandment, given first in Deuteronomy and then affirmed by the Lord in the Gospels: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” In the Gospel of St. Matthew, though, the Lord further articulates the relationship of the second commandment to the first and great commandment, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and soul, and mind, and strength.” Particularly, Christ reveals the relationship between being turned again in love toward one’s neighbor and the integrity of their worship of God. As He says in Matthew 5: “Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.” One’s faithfulness to live, as much as depends on them, in love for the other is integral to their faithfulness to God.

St. Paul articulates the connection between the Lord’s commandment about reconciliation with Christ’s work on the Cross. As St. Paul writes to the Corinthians: “Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.” The goodness of God is revealed as a work of reconciliation performed in Christ, into which Christians are invited and, by the Spirit, are united. The reconciling of the creation to God through Christ has become the work of the Christian as well. The Christian cannot, of course, do this work out of their own strength. But they are indeed called to participate in the Lord’s work by means of working out reconciliation in their own relationships with each other and with their neighbors.

As we are brought from the dis-integrity of life after the world and the flesh, and into life in Christ by the Spirit, we can expect that there will be symptoms of that transplanting. We should expect to see the gifts, ministries, and fruits of the Spirit emerge. We should expect to start becoming more like Christ. And we should also expect that there will be pockets of our old life that pass away at varying paces and with various intensities. Some things that have no place in our new life will pass away quietly. Some will tempt us to turn away from Christ until our last breath. The Lord allows us to experience these trials so that, when we endure them through the strength of the Spirit, it manifests His victory over the world, flesh, and devil through us. We become, as we are made whole in Christ, the Lord’s answer to the Accuser. But the Lord may also allow certain temptations to vex us (and usually in ways that undermine our vanity). This, too, is for our good because the frustrating and even embarrassing temptation produces humility before the Lord, reminding us that we need His strength, always. As Blessed Julian of Norwich, said, “Sin is behovely, but all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.”

The ministry of reconciliation begins with each Christian’s experience of it for themselves. Out of that experience of the passing away of the world and flesh from our members, we find that we do not always perfectly love the Lord and our neighbor. Yet in these regressions we are not abandoned. The Lord has provided a way for us to repent and return continually to the life of our Baptism and Confirmation. Sacramentally, this occurs through the sacrament of penance, by which we are reconciled to God and His Church by the absolution bestowed by His priests. The Lord gave this authority to absolve sins to His apostles by breathing the Spirit on them and saying: “Whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven. Whose sins you retain, they are retained.” Historically, the exercise of this ministry was bestowed by the apostles to the bishops of the Church, who in time bestowed it on the priests they ordained, invoking the Holy Spirit by their prayers and speaking those same words of Jesus. In the sacramental world of the Church, to be absolved by a duly-ordained priest is to be absolved by Christ Himself. Reconciliation is enacted on earth as it is in heaven.

From the experience of that reconciliation, we are called to reconcile others in our relational worlds. As St. Paul writes to the Ephesians: “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ forgave you.” Forgiveness is an art of grace that the Christian fellowship is called to perform for one another, by which the presence of Christ is mediated. With forgiveness comes the call to forbearance. We find that even where forgiveness is practiced, we still encounter the rough edges of one another. These are not sinful, per se, but they are those impediments to unity that emerge insofar as we each seek life as we would have it, and not as it is given. The inelegance of our participation in Christ can vex others; even well-intentioned people can suffer incompetence until they grow in proficiency. In such cases, we are called to exercise an image of forgiveness called forbearance in which we, for the Lord’s sake, endure the irritation we might feel over immaturity or ignorance in one another.

As we have been meditating on the work of the Spirit to make us each, and all together, the Temple of God, the Body of Christ, we have to remember here at the close that the primary experience of that perfective and unitive work is in the small and often tedious daily labor of forbearance, forgiveness, and active love. That is the work of edifying the Church, and edifying always means building up. We have become co-laborers and co-heirs with Christ, and co-edifiers with the Spirit. We have been regenerated and consecrated to this work of drawing the world to Christ and presenting it as an oblation for the blessing of the Father. And when this work of oblation is complete, it will be shot through finally with Resurrection life and gifted to us again as a New Creation, no longer marred by ruptured relationships but alive in love again. Heaven and earth will be married. And God will dwell with His people and be their God forever.

Lord, haste the day.