What the gospel teaches us about reconciliation is that it must come from a place of genuine concern and love, if it’s to be really effective and taken to heart. It doesn’t work, if it comes purely from anger. I think that’s a big problem with much of our national discourse. So much is coming purely from anger. That’s not the type of confrontation Jesus calls for.
Jesus does not look just for a change of behavior, but for a change of heart. Punishment and anger don’t produce a change of heart. Love produces a change of heart. Bringing love and respect into the conversation is the challenge.
Think of a time when you offended someone and needed forgiveness, or perhaps you needed to be confronted about a behavior. Was it anger that caused you to have a change of heart? Or love?
Such conversations must come from a place of love and concern, in the hope that the individual or individuals will realize that we have their best interests at heart. Love can produce change. That’s the formula that Jesus used.
“Amen, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” (Matthew 18:18)
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“Amen, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” (Matthew 18:18)
… and “heaven” is that place, amidst all our pain, anger and suffering, where suffering, compassion and forgiveness touch, yielding to a gentle mercy and a tender love; and an even more subtle, nuanced form of love that all great religious traditions refer to as “heaven on earth” (e.g. Buddha nature, Nirvana, Enlightenment, Great Mystery, Wisdom, etc.)
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Beautiful, Father!
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