Service of reconciliation
In a very dense text, Paul speaks of the ministry of reconciliation, of himself and of the Church. God has reconciled us and the world to himself; he does not accept the world in as far as it is sinful but rather draws the world to himself and makes it – and us – a new creation. All this he does through Christ, who brought us reconciliation.
The same ministry of reconciliation between people and God, from person to person too, has been entrusted to the Church, to all of us. Are we agents of reconciliation?
Why do people require that at special occasions a statement be backed up by an oath? Is it because they doubt one another’s sincerity and truthfulness, particularly when it matters? And if God is invoked in witness of the truth, is it always the truth that is sworn to? In the mind of Jesus, Christians should always be so reliable that there is no need for swearing oaths. We should mean what we say at all occasions.
Reading: 2Corinthians 5:14-21
Our firm decision is to work from this focused center: One man died for everyone. That puts everyone in the same boat. He included everyone in his death so that everyone could also be included in his life, a resurrection life, a far better life than people ever lived on their own.
Because of this decision we don’t evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don’t look at him that way anymore. Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it! All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. God put the world square with himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins. God has given us the task of telling everyone what he is doing. We’re Christ’s representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God’s work of making things right between them. We’re speaking for Christ himself now: Become friends with God; he’s already a friend with you.
How? you ask. In Christ. God put the wrong on him who never did anything wrong, so we could be put right with God.
Gospel: Matthew 5:33-37
“And don’t say anything you don’t mean. This counsel is embedded deep in our traditions. You only make things worse when you lay down a smoke screen of pious talk, saying, ‘I’ll pray for you,’ and never doing it, or saying, ‘God be with you,’ and not meaning it. You don’t make your words true by embellishing them with religious lace. In making your speech sound more religious, it becomes less true. Just say ‘yes’ and ‘no.’ When you manipulate words to get your own way, you go wrong.
Prayer
God our Father,
to make it possible for us, sinful people,
to live again in your friendship,
you let your Son Jesus Christ
take our weakness and failures upon himself
and die the death we deserved.
Make us your new creation through him,
that we may no longer live for ourselves.
Let his love move us
to be his ambassadors of peace and forgiveness
to everyone of good will
in the Church and in the world.
We ask you this in the name of Jesus, the Lord. Amen.
