Reconciliation is not an option. In today’s Gospel, we hear Jesus speaking with his most firm voice: You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, “you shall not kill” … But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment … if you bring your gift to the altar, and there recall that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift there at the altar, go first and be reconciled … and then come and offer your gift. What a challenge these words are. For as we go through life, we all do destructive things to the material or psychological worth of other people. And they do so also to us. What seems like a small matter to us may be a huge injury to my “brother,” and vice versa. Left unaddressed, relationship wounds grow until estrangement becomes permanent. To make matters worse, we often don’t have the words to say, or know what approach to take to make things better. Too bad Jesus didn’t say something about that! This Gospel today addresses several other moral failures, and so there is a long and short form of the reading. But the need for reconciliation seems to me to be a universal failing in our fractious world. I believe the starting point always is first doing our inner work, talking with the Lord about our situation, asking for the grace and wisdom to move forward, and if needed, asking for help from a trusted person. Sadly, sometimes there cannot be a satisfactory reconciliation, but we are asked to take action toward reconciliation instead of living with hardened hearts.
— Blog entry by Sister Mary Garascia; photo by Zulfugar Karimov on Unsplash
The post February 15, Sixth Sunday in Ordinary time, Reconciliation: a Sunday Scriptures blog first appeared on Sisters of the Precious Blood.