Consecrated Life as a Reconciling Presence in the World

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This story of God’s reconciling work on our behalf is the vertical axis of reconciliation.It finds its clearest expression in Paul’s Letter to the Romans, chapter 5, verses 1 through11. Let me recall some of the highlights what Romans presents us there:Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God throughour Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to thisgrace in which we now stand, and we boast in the hope of sharing theglory of God….For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ diedfor the ungodly….God proved his love for us in that while we still weresinners, Christ died for us. Much more surely then, now that we have beenjustified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath ofGod. For if while we were still enemies we were reconciled to Godthrough the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled,will we be saved by his life. But more than that, we even boast in Godthrough our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now receivedreconciliation.Mediating this vertical reconciliation is at the heart of the Church’s activity, especially inthe sacraments of Baptism, the Eucharist, and the sacrament of Reconciliation itself. Thisvertical reconciliation is also the continuing source and guiding power that makes theother axis of reconciliation possible: the horizontal one.Horizontal reconciliation is the reconciliation that takes place within God’s creation—between persons, between groups, and even with the earth itself. It is only possible, webelieve, because of the vertical reconciliation of God. Elsewhere in the Pauline writingsthere are two passages that speak especially to horizontal reconciliation. Let me quote thefirst of them, found in 2 Corinthians 17-20:So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old haspassed away; see, everything is made new! All of this is from God, whohas reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministryof reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world tohimself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting themessage of reconciliation to us. So we are ambassadors for Christ, sinceGod is making his appeal through us: be reconciled to God!4
Here Paul reminds us of the basic truth of reconciliation: this is the work of God. Paulnotes that our experience of reconciliation is one of becoming a new creation. And nowthis message and ministry of reconciliation has been entrusted to us. We are ambassadorson Christ’s behalf.The other principal passage on horizontal reconciliation is in Ephesians 2:12-20, wherePaul speaks of Christ reconciling Jew and Gentile, breaking down the wall of separationand making them all fellow citizens in the household of God.There are, thus, solid biblical foundations for the Christian understanding ofreconciliation, both as a concept as well as distinctive dimensions within it, as we shallsee shortly.In the wider world of how horizontal reconciliation is being practiced today, twoelements have emerged that reveal themselves as foundations for this important butdifficult work. These help us direct the biblical message into our current settings. Theyare these: at its very basis, reconciliation entails creating new social spaces and buildingrelationships.By social spaces, I mean groups of people who, working and acting together, are able tocreate a forum that is different from their surrounding, everyday world. In this forum, notonly can things be shared that otherwise remained locked away, but also very basicvalues and commitments can be presented that will make for a different reality—a “newcreation” to put it in Pauline terms—within which reconciliation might happen.One of the characteristics of a situation of conflict or polarity is that the contendingparties tend to get “stuck.” In the case of conflict, one party’s view of the other gets so setthat change seems nearly impossible. In the case of polarity, people cling to their own5
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Consecrated Life as a Reconciling Presence in the World

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