"… in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.", 2 Corinthians 5:19
In theology, reconciliation is the mechanism which ends the estrangement between humans and God. Downstream from that major estrangement, all our relationships can’t help but become tainted with animosity and rivalry.
In the book of Genesis it doesn’t take long before the sibling rivalry between Cain and Abel turns deadly. Cain, the farmer, offers up a sheaf of wheat whereas Abel, the shepherd, offers up the flesh and blood of his prize lamb. You can guess which one God was more pleased with. Cain’s resentment boils over and he murders Abel.
In his work of reconciliation Christ identifies with both Cain and Abel, as both as a farmer sowing and reaping and as a shepherd caring for the lost sheep. In his very person, at the last supper, Christ unites and reconciles the Sacrifice of Cain, the produce of the earth (bread and wine) and the Sacrifice of Abel (flesh and blood) and then elevates them as one in his Eucharistic Sacrifice.
Note that Christ reconciles not by proposing some mushy middle ground of compromise but by transcending the entire estrangement / rivalry game all together. In doing so he takes our relationships up into a whole new world. We become new creatures in Christ.
As another example of reconciliation consider the crucifixion scene where Christ is offered wine from a sponge placed on a stalk of hyssop. This was not sweet wine but was the dregs left over from the vineyard, an unpalatable swill. Once he had tasted this bitter offering Christ declares that "it is finished". Having breathed his last breath, a spear was thrust into his side opening a fountain of water and blood that flowed down the cross. The sponge offered Him that which was spoiled but the spear revealed that at his death what flowed from his side was pure. This pattern of purification is revealed in God’s earthly creation where clouds, like sponges, draw up the salt water from sea and then from those clouds rain falls as life-giving water, cleansing and watering the earth.
The Church Fathers saw the sacraments of baptism and Eucharist in the water and blood flowing from Christ’s side. The Church is born not despite the spear’s wound, but through it. "But he was pierced for our sins, …[and] by his wounds we were healed." Isaiah 53:3.
One of the sacraments of the Church that flows from Christ on the cross is the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Through the priest acting in persona Christi (in the person of Christ) we can offer to Christ the sponges of our lives – what we have spoiled, our regrets, and our sins. He does not refuse them, but He takes them in, cleanses them, forgives them, and then pours them back into us as new life. The Sacrament of Reconciliation can be a real game-changer for us!
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