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About The Georgia bulletin (Atlanta) 1963-current | View Entire Issue (April 16, 1987)
Page 2 • Faith Today Faith Today • Page 3 Making up is hard to do By Jane Wolford Hughes NC News Service he old man gent ly placed the small bunch of flowers, still wrap ped in supermarket tissue, on the grave of a young woman who had died some years earlier. He stood there quietly for a short time. As he was leaving, the old man stopped to thank the attendant who had given him directions. Then, after turning to go, he stop ped again and said, “She was my daughter. I demanded a lot from her and she ran away. “I was too proud to go after her and as time passed the hurt harden ed me. For a long time I didn’t feel much of anything. But now my days are fewer; I knew I could not go without telling her I loved her. I didn’t expect she would be gone. “I hope she can hear me, even if it is too late and so little. At least I made some peace with myself.” Contrast that story with Scrip ture’s parable of the Prodigal Son who returns home, repenting his wasted life. The father, hearing that his son is homeward bound, has a lavish banquet prepared and per sonally runs out to embrace him (Luke 15:11-32). This is a story of hope. In it Jesus really is speaking about all lost persons and God’s welcoming compassion for them. This is a story of reconciliation with which all can identify. For how many can say they never have experienced the pain of division and estrangement to one degree or another? Reconciliation does not go with the flow of today’s life. To become reconciled one must stop, even go back. Reconciliation demands change in us. We reach out hesitantly for forgiveness. Each patching up of a torn relationship is hard won. Reconciliation may be the way to peace of mind and restored love. But it goes against the grain of the way we are: We fear being hurt again; we proudly resist admitting we are wrong. In some instances, we try to separate the need for reconciliation with others from our relationship with God. But no matter how we rationalize, we cannot embrace God with one arm while cradling personal angers, hostilities and pet tiness in the other. Jesus said it clearly: “If you are bringing your offering to the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar, go and be reconciled with your brother or sister first, and then come back and present your offering” (Matthew 5:23-25). No question. It is hard to forgive and forget and change — especially in situations where people are in constant rubbing distance such as husband and wife, parent and child or co-workers. Reminders of what we are trying to forget spread like corrosion from old batteries. The power is gone but the acid still stings. “Reconciliation may be the way to peace of mind and restored love. But it goes against the grain of the way we are....” We can allow ourselves to turn inward, living miserably in the past. Or we can truly accept what happened and allow the Christ of Calvary to empty and reshape us with the courage of St. Paul, who wrote, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Gala tians 2:20). The needed change comes when we try constantly to become closer to God. Then we know the joy that “no human being will take from you” (John 16:22). And then we know what reconciliation is about. We will be different persons, free of ourselves, respecting all others, turned to their needs. Unlike the old man, we will not walk in loneliness. Our companions will be many — all those who have discovered the mystery of reconciliation; those who sense that reconciliation leads away from the cross and into the new life of Easter. (Mrs. Hughes is adult education consultant for the Archdiocese of Detroit.) Life* on the cutting edge By Theodore Hengesbach NC News Service oly Week is the most dramatic # period in the church’s liturgical year. It draws us ^ into the last days of Jesus’ life. We are invited to wave palms in procession on Sun day, participate in a foot-washing ceremony on Thursday, shout our responses as spectators to the crucifixion on Friday and help spread the new light from the Easter candle through the darkened church on Saturday. The events of Holy Week are . engaging because they are a reminder that the struggle against darkness and pain, and the need for reconciliation are part of the" adventure of every life. A similar challenge can be found in every era of God’s people. < For instance, the opening chapters of Genesis have all the elements of an “edge-of-the-seat” drama. What is going to happen* next, we might ask, as the world begins to take shape, Adam is left to cope with his environment and his companion Eve comes on the scene? The idyllic life of paradise seems too good to be true. And it is. An * enemy makes a proposition that the couple can’t refiise and the relationship between husband and wife is strained. Later a moment of prayer by two brothers ends in Abel’s senseless murder. Cain refuses to accept * responsibility and is banished. Finally, in retaliation for human wickedness, a cleansing flood obliterates all living things except for a faithful few tossing about the sea in a homemade vessel with a precious cargo of animal pairs. We * watch with Noah as he sends out a dove to check for land. The first chapters of Genesis make for fascinating reading because they tell of a real human drama and invite us to participate in it. ■* Like Adam and Eve, we are given the task of tending our own private “garden” and working to establish a peaceful environment with spouse and family; we are asked to do our part to establish a world of mutual friendship and communion. » But shirking responsibility, heap ing blame on others, seeking a way oblivious to the needs and legitimate requirements of others — these rule today as they did before. The seasons of Lent and Easter ask each of us to examine the adventure of our own life. Do trust and caring predominate in our marital relationship? Do we realize that the answer to Cain’s question, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” is yes? In his passion and death, Jesus calls for the re-establishment of friendship, harmony and commu nion — for reconciliation. “Turn the other cheek,” Jesus says. “Do good to those who hate you.” “Love one another as I have loved you.” The elements of real life are revealed in the book of Genesis, just as they are in the dramatic in cidents of Holy Week. We are call ed to live on the cutting edge bet ween the threat of enmity, dishar mony and strife, and the call to friendship, concord and communion. (Hengesbach teaches at Indiana University in South Bend.) Accepting the olive branch By Father John Castelot NC News Service • t is maddening to go through life knowing that one has deeply hurt a dear friend. Usual- _ ly there is a chance to repair the hurt and to* experience the sweet relief of reconciliation. But suppose the friend dies before the opportunity presents itself? Then one has to carry that nagging remorse day in and day out. This was the prospect Peter fat ed. He had let Jesus down in his most difficult hour, had denied him publicly in most cowardly fashion, even while Jesus bravely was deny ing nothing. On his way through the palace courtyard the condemn ed Jesus had turned briefly, caught Peter’s eye and just looked at him. That one look was enough. It cut right through to Peter’s heart and he had to run away to hide his tears from the bystanders. And now Jesus was dead. He would never know how sorry his friendT, the “Rock,” was. What agony! But wait. Jesus is not dead. He is risen and here he is, asking the , heartbroken fisherman that all- important question: “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” (John 21:15). Three times Jesus asks the ques tion, giving Peter the opportunity to balance off his triple denial with three heartfelt protestations of love. What a blessed relief. Not only does the Lord accept Peter’s earnest avowals, he entrusts his own people to his care: “Feed my * lambs...feed my sheep” 0ohn 21:15-17). The reconciliation is complete, with the Lord actually showing confidence in this man who had shown himself most undeserving of confidence. But such is the amazing <* forgiveness of the risen Christ. By no means to be overlooked is the fact that he takes the initiative. One would expect the guilty party to seek reconciliation. But the Lord always seems to make the first move, more eager to patch things up than we are. Peter’s case is far from unique. Writing to the Galatians, St. Paul recalled his former hatred of Christ, his active persecution of Christ’s followers. But then “the time came when he who had set me apart before I was born and called me by -his favor chose to reveal his Son to me” (1:15-16). Again the amazing divine initiative stepping in to reconcile alienated * friends. But reconciliation is a two-way street. The Lord can offer « forgiveness; he can hold out the olive branch, but people have to accept it. About the risen Lord’s power to forgive, there can be no doubt. It is interesting to note how many stories of reconciliation are woven into the death-resurrection accounts. St. Luke tells us that “Herod and Pilate, who had previously been set against each other, became friends from that day on” (23:12). Luke tells us, too, of the dying Jesus’ promise of salvation to the repen tant thief (23:42), and of that almost incredible plea for his heartless executioners: “Father, forgive them, they do not know what they are doing” (23:34). The constant greeting of the risen Christ was the richly elo quent “Peace be with you” (John 20:19). The author of Ephesians, refer ring to the former hostility between Jews and gentiles, wrote: “It is he who is our peace and who made the two of us one by breaking down the barrier of hostility that kept us apart...reconciling both of us to God in one body through his cross, which put that enmity to death” (2:15-16). Earlier St. Paul had written: “I mean that God, in Christ, was reconciling the world to himself’ (2 Corinthians 5:19). (Father Castelot is a professor of Scripture at St. John’s Seminary, Plymouth, Mich.) FOOD FOR THOUGHT Jane Wolford Hughes insists that true reconciliation calls for change in people. Why is this so? The church’s people are not called merely to await reconciliation in a passive way, says Father Eugene LaVerdiere. They are called to serve actively as reconcilers. But how? Father LaVerdiere tells about something that happened to him on an archaeological dig in the Middle East. Why did this event stand out for him as an example of what reconciliation means? What does reconciliation mean for you? Where is reconciliation needed in the world — in your world — today? Why is the Easter season an especially appropriate time for thinking about what recon ciliation means? Second Helpings. Jesus saw to it that both the act and the attitude of forgiveness were given prime consideration in his ministry, Father Isaias Powers says in Quiet Places With Jesus. Yet “of all the lessons of our Lord, this is the area where we especially would like a Tightness of touch’ from Jesus, and a lot of loopholes,” Father Powers says. For most people prefer to dwell on remembered hurts and past rejections and allow a single slight from others to weigh more heavily than all kinds of loving acts. But, the priest adds, on this one point Jesus is “fierce and in sistent... forgiving one another from our hearts.” The book comes with three tapes which provide 40 guided meditations on biblical passages. They are meant for use especially during Lent and Easter. (Twenty-Third Publications, Box 180, Mystic, Conn. 06355- 1978. 824.95 ) 0xtoisum ©agasinc Bring home a Catholic tradition with free EXTENSION Magazine For 80 years, EXTENSION Magazine has been a part of Catholic families. 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