FORGIVENESS AND RECONCILIATION - #7

"Create in me a new heart and renew within me an upright spirit." The heart migrates, lives out its odyssey. It can move back and forth between hard and tender. It can be right on target and it can miss the mark. In fact, sin involves missing the mark, the bull's eye, the donkey's tail.

Some people think personally. Sin seems absent from their circles of life. "I did not murder anyone, cheat anyone, steal, or anything." Or, "at my age, what can I do?" The heart seems vibrant and well.

Other people think relationally. No one lives as an island. The food we eat comes to the table through a long chain of relationship. Each person relies on a healthy earth, soil, seeds, rain, water, and farmers to begin the food process. We rely on workers to pick the crop. We rely on those who pack and truck the food. We rely on local merchants and mega-supermarkets to place fresh produce on the shelves - which we select, purchase, and cook. Then we thank God for such fine blessings. Then we share convivial table with family, friends, or colleagues. Almost all these relationships are functional and invisible. Still, we assume that every role will be played out smoothly and harmoniously.

We inevitably live in simple and complex webs of social relationship. Sin involves dysfunction, disharmony, missing the mark in the relationships that constitute human lives. What relationships make up our lives?

First, each person is related to one's inner self. Each person enjoys human dignity because everyone is an icon of God. How do I care for my physical, emotional, and spiritual health? How do I attend to those who claim an affective affiliation with me: parents, spouse, children, grandchildren, dear friends, significant professional and work colleagues? How do I attend to my self-image and self-confidence? How do I make amends and work with my character defects?

Second, each person is related to God. How do I cultivate this bond? How do I pray? How do I accept God's forgiveness? How do I use spiritual practices such as reading Scripture, meditation, asking God for guidance? How do I keep the memory of the crucified and risen Christ alive in my life? How do I cultivate love and devotion for the community called church?

Third, each person is related to the earth. The environment is the canopy overarching all creation. How do I care for the earth's will being? How do I act toward my dwelling place, my neighborhood? How do I get involved in efforts to protect and enhance the environment? How do I cultivate the rights of all creation and promote the common good of all creation?

Fourth, each person is related to society. Society is a network of relationships. How do I do with sins that rip the heart asunder: abuse, violent deeds, hugging grudges, indifference to peace, racist and sexist attitudes and actions? How do I commit myself to what promotes life and rejects a civilization of death? How do I do with voting, volunteering, signing petitions, and calling someone in congress or the White House?

No one lives as an island. Forgiveness and reconciliation involve us in multiple relationships.