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Weekly Reflections
Dear Good Shepherd Friends,
One final reflection on reconciliation.
Our communities are called to be special places of reconciliation.� When harmony is disturbed we are ready to pardon and to ask pardon with a sincere heart. 1� Referring to this section of the Constitutions in her talks at the Reconciliation Sessions in Angers 2006, Sr. Brigid Lawlor, said, “We should be ready to pardon … the victim is …� the initiator of forgiveness.� We should be ready to pardon and to be pardoned … the wrongdoer is mentioned second!”2�What an evangelical challenge – something that Mary Euphrasia could truly live up to! Can we do any less? Moreover, when the pardon we give and the pardon we receive take place in an environment of mutual understanding -- not only of what is said but of what is not said; where we offer space not only for the facts but for emotions as well and therefore time and trust, acceptance and humility have to be unmeasured, we truly know in the depths of our hearts why “there is more
rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent” (Luke 15: 7,10).� If such witnessing to God’s love and mercy becomes ‘a way of life’ then we can truly say with St. Jean Eudes, “true acts of reconciliation are as a new Baptism and a new creation.”� Reconciliation is transformation.
Footnotes
[1] Constitutions # 35.
[2] Lawlor, ibid.Reflection:
Jesus died on the cross rather than be separated from any of his relationships.� His love embraced all that his Abba-God had given him including sinners, lepers, children, women, publicans, Pharisees – everyone who believed in him (John 17).� In prayer, we learn from the Spirit directly the last wish of Jesus: that we may be one just as Jesus and his Father are one.� How can you encourage your community to take opportunities to be in dialogue with other groups quite different from yours or from whom you may be estranged?~Sr. Edith Olaguer
