by Fr. Barry Fischer, C.PP.S.

"It pleased God to make absolute fullness reside in him and by means of him, to reconcile everything in his person, both on earth and in the heavens, making peace through the blood of his cross." (Colossians 1, 19-20)
"And for anyone who is in Christ, there is a new creation; the old creation has gone, and now the new one is here. It is all God's work. It was God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the work of handing on this reconciliation. In other words, God in Christ was reconciling the world to himself, not holding men's faults against them, and he has entrusted to us the news that they are reconciled. So we are ambassadors for Christ; it is as though God were appealing through us, and the appeal that we make in Christ's name is: be reconciled to God."
(II Corinthians 5, 17-21)

"We are called to be "ambassadors of reconciliation" in our world today, but we will only be able to give peace, if we have attained in our own lives that deep peace and reconciliation in the Blood of Christ. An important part of this process of personal reconciliation lies in accepting the Truth about ourselves. There is profound wisdom in Jesus' words when he gives us the two great Commandments: "Love God and love your neighbor as yourself!" In order to be ambassadors of peace and reconciliation, we must first find it ourselves, for we will speak from the abundance of our hearts.

Perhaps one of the best ways to understand reconciliation and its dynamics is to think of it as bringing people and things into their proper relationships. Sin, whether it be personal, social, or institutionalized has wreaked havoc on humanity, distorting, obstructing, and often destroying the proper relationships which God intends for our world. We might think of reconciliation in this sense on several levels: personal in which we are put into the proper relationship with God; community in which we reestablish the proper relationship with one another; social in which we develop the proper relationships with other social groups, societies, races, peoples, etc.; and environmental by returning to a more respectful and proper relationship with our mother earth. We read in Paul's letter to the Colossians, "It pleased God to make absolute fullness reside in him and by means of him, to reconcile everything in his person, both on earth and in the heavens, making peace through the blood of the cross." (1, 19-20). Indeed the symbol of the Cross speaks of this reconciliation. The vertical post rises from the ground to the heavens in a sign of humankind once again being in relationship with the Father as Sons and Daughters. The horizontal beam which holds up Christ's outstreached arms speaks to us symbolically of a reconciled humanity, in which we become one with others, recognizing our conditions as brothers and sisters, children of the same Father. In Christ who shed his Blood on the Cross, the original harmony between God and humans and between peoples is restored. Our relationships have been redeemed.

FOR REFLECTION:

1. Re-read the story of your life and discover in it the presence of our loving and redeeming God.
2. What are the wounds which still need healing in your life?
3. Sit before the Crucified One and absorb in your innermost self the Wisdom of the Great Book of the Cross. Thank God for loving you as you are and for calling you to share in His Life.