RECONCILIATION

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RECONCILIATION

• A
• HISTORICAL OVERVIEW

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RECONCILIATION

• Historical development of a sacrament
• Organic in nature
• Not cumulative

• The Church responds to the prompting of the Holy
  Spirit in making revisions, changes, and
  adaptations

Like a seed unfolding it becomes united to the
earth which holds it. Who can imagine the tree
from the seed?
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RECONCILIATION

• Just as a seed develops through many stages
  unlocking the tree within
• Reconciliation continues to develop
• never remaining static
• providing new insight into the developing process
  of Gods forgiveness
• This history of dynamic growth and development
  should encourage us

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RECONCILIATION

• Old Testament people saw God in
  terms of
  cultic deity, nature God, warrior
• Their experience and response
  took on particular form and structure
  set off by particular laws
  and commands
• Ten Commandments
• Deuteronomy
• Leviticus
• Numbers

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Old Testament

• Covenanted communion with God is considered the
  source of life.
• Dt 3019-20 I am offering you life or death,
  blessing or curse.Choose life then, so that you
  and your descendants may live, in love of Yahweh
  your God, obeying his voice, holding fast to him
  for in this your life consists.
• If broken only God can restore the person back to
  the covenant promised Abraham
• Throughout the prophetic period men and women are
  called back to the source of life.

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Old Testament

• Despite many breaks in relationship
  Israel came to understand Gods love was
  eternal
• Penitential practices abounded
• Fasting, weeping, mourning, penitentiary garb
  such as sackcloth (Joel 113-20)
• Prayers for mercy (Lamentations 5 Ps 51, 60, 74,
  79)
• Sacrifices of expiation were offered (Leviticus
  1-7)
• Intercession of a community leader were sought
  (Exodus 3230 Jeremiah 14)

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Old Testament

• Ritual in itself was not enough
  Change of heart was needed
  A change that
  only God could initiate
• Psalm 5110
  God, create in me a new heart, renew
  within me a resolute spirit.
• The new heart for which the psalmist prayed
  was realized in
  
  Jesus
  life-death-resurrection

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New Testament

• Who could imagine
  when considering Israels growing awareness of
  Gods Spirit
• in creation and in the Exodus
• that it would reveal
• covenant, redemption,
  cross, and resurrection
  lying just beneath the surface?

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New Testament

• INCARNATION Enfleshment of
  God in Jesus The Good Shepherd, the
  Suffering Servant
• Reconciliation emphasized
  Mercy, Love, Forgiveness Beatitudes
  became the norm to follow
• Come back to me

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New Testament

• Recurring theme that Gods initiative,
  realized in the dying and rising of Jesus,
  is pure gift offered by God
• wanted all fullness to be found in Jesus and
  through Him to reconcile all things to him.
  
  (Colossians 119)
• with exultant trust in God, through our Lord
  Jesus Christ, through whom we have already gained
  our reconciliation (Romans 511)

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New Testament

• Jesus alone
  Restores us to life giving communion
  in the power of the Spirit
• Jesus alone
  Completes the original plan of God the Father
  by accepting in his own flesh
  the unbreakable link of
  sonship offered
  through the Holy Spirit.
• In him our adoption by the Father is finalized.

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New Testament

• Institution
  And when
  he had said this, he breathed on them and said to
  them, "Receive the holy Spirit. Whose sins you
  forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you
  retain are retained." (John 2023)
• Not the origin of todays event
• The communitys power to isolate, repel, and
  negate evil and sin was worked out differently
  within individual church communities, each
  specifying both the manner and means of its
  exercise.
• John highlights the communitys participation and
  power in the reconciliation process.

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New Testament

• We are all reconciled to the Father
  through the Son
• 2 Corinthians 518-21
  And all
  this is from God, who has reconciled us to
  himself through Christ and given us the ministry
  of reconciliation, namely, God was reconciling
  the world to himself in Christ, not counting
  their trespasses against them and entrusting to
  us the message of reconciliation.
  So we are ambassadors for
  Christ, as if God were appealing through us. We
  implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to
  God.
  For our sake he made him to
  be sin who did not know sin, so that we might
  become the righteousness of God in him.

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New Testament

• Various Reconciliation Practices emerged
• One on One
  Matthew 1815-20 Galatians 61-2
• Eucharistic Celebration Matthew
  523-24
• Communal
  1 Corinthians 51-5 2 Corinthians
  25-11

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New Testament

• Communities held basic truths certain
• Anyone who sinned could be forgiven through the
  ministry of the church
• Forgiveness is rooted in Christs victory over
  sin
• He handed the power on to his Ambassadors of
  Reconciliation
• Peter Mt 1619 I will give you the keys to the
  kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth
  shall be bound in heaven and whatever you loose
  on earth shall be loosed in heaven."
• Disciples Mt 1818 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.

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New Testament

• Initially NO structures, sacred signs or gesture
• This in no way means todays sacrament does not
  stem from Christ
• It shows an organic process at work as the
  community, led by the Spirit, celebrates Gods
  forgiveness in different ways, reflecting the
  diverse aspects present within the treasury of
  grace.

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The Early Church

• The Body of Christ
• Communal and Social dimensions
  Sin as not a matter of hurting God, but of
  wounding the body of Christ present in the Church
• Reconciliation was structured so that the
  community celebrated the healing of its member

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The First Six Centuries

• Marked by hesitancy on the part of the Church to
  offer a post Baptismal experience of forgiveness
• The question was not whether God could
  forgive sins after baptism
  but whether
  the Church could or should

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The First Six Centuries

• Tension between
  Matthew 1822
  Forgive seventy times seven Romans
  62
  We have died to sin
  how could we go on living it?
• The experience of committing serious sin after
  baptism was not the initial experience of the
  early community

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The First Six Centuries

• Time of unparalleled fervor and faith
• Early Christians
• Embraced the demand of Christian life with
  passionate love.
• Nothing could stand in the way of reaching their
  eternal crown of glory
• The second coming was imminent
• Christianity was an adult reality, accepted by
  adults, lived within the context of a strong
  adult support group

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The First Six Centuries

• By the 2nd Century a Gradual Change of Heart
• Tertullian
  The Churchs power
  to forgive sins is a
  second plank after shipwreck.
• Shepherd of Hermes (c. 140)
  Steering a course between rigorism and
  complete laxity
• Allowed for forgiveness to be granted when grave
  sins were involved but only once in a persons
  lifetime.
• Allowed forgiveness of non-grave sins at the
  Bishops discretion
• The Bishop judged the gravity of the sin
• Normal forms of mortification, that is fasting,
  almsgiving, prayers etc. celebrated the
  forgiveness

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The First Six Centuries

• Third Century Persecution
  Begins Decius (250-51)
  Gallus (253) Valerian (257-58) Rock the Church
  with their intensity
• Martyrdom vs Apostasy
• Should apostates be allowed to return to the
  Church?

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The First Six Centuries

• Council of Carthage (251) Pope
  Cornelius St. Cyprian
  Mercy and favor would be
  granted to those who denied the faith during
  persecution but only once
• Immediate dispute
  Severity vs Clemency Novatianus
  challenged the decision resulting eventually in
  schism

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The First Six Centuries

• By the fourth century
  A canonical or
  ecclesiastical structure emerged for the
  forgiveness of sins after baptism PUBLIC
  PENANCE
• Emphasis was on the process involved in
  reconciliation Unshaken conviction that a sinner
  could be forgiven only through ministry of the
  community
• 1 Peter 115
  Be yourselves holy in
  all your activity, after the model of the Holy
  One who calls us, since scripture says,
  Be
  holy, for I am holy.

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The First Six Centuries

• Sinner confessed privately to Bishop
• If serious enough penitent was enrollment in the
  Order of Penitents
• Community then praised God over sinners
  repentance
• Penitent was excommunicated removed from main
  body of believers
• No Eucharist
• Relegated to back of Church. There to greet the
  community with prayers, tears and prostration
• This was coupled with public acts of penitence
  that could last for years or in extreme cases a
  lifetime.
• Bishop decide when repentance had truly ripened
• Bishop then prayed over penitent and led them
  back to their prior place in the community. This
  usually occurred on Holy Thursday.
• Reintegration was never complete. Once a
  penitent always a penitent. They were considered
  Born Again to be excluded from clerical orders,
  holding public office. Rehabilitation was ongoing

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The First Six Centuries

• The entire church was obliged to take an active
  part in the sinners reconciliation with God,
  since the individual members unity or rupture
  with God affected the communitys holiness.
• By the end of the sixth century this form
  collapsed
• Church membership was increasing but apostolic
  fervor and heroism diminished
• People were no longer willing to give up their
  trade as a means of reconciliation
• End of persecution weakened community solidarity.
  No longer a minority.
• Christs coming was no longer seen as imminent

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Middle Ages

• Highlighted
  Gods splendor, majesty, kingship
• God was unapproachable, distant, omnipotent
• Reconciliation emphasized judgement, atonement,
  reparation, ransom

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Monasticism

• Affected the very core of spiritual growth among
  the churchs members
• Spiritual Direction Each
  person had a spiritual companion or soul mate
  with whom they confessed
• Not the form of reconciliation we exercise today
  It was a sharing of ones journey when in search
  of direction, encouragement, prayer, discernment

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Monasticism

• Patrick began to offer a conversion process in
  Ireland based on gradual growth in spiritual
  direction
• Monks began to offer forgiveness combined with
  Spiritual direction in the guise of ongoing
  conscience formation
• Penitential Books
• As Monasticism spread so did the new system of
  Penance

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Monasticism

• After the Germanic invasion
  Columban introduced the system into Europe
  The Monastic structure spread throughout
  Europe
• Third Council of Toledo (589)
  Condemned the practice
• Synod of French bishops (652)
  Deemed the practice good for all
• Spread to Rome where a compromise arose
• public notorious sin would use public penance
• private sin would use private penance

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What did it look like?

• No order of penitents
• No one time only rule
• No segregation from community
• No public penance
• Confess and receive absolution from priest not
  bishop
• Absolution was given immediately
• Penance was an honor system
• No more after effects from penitence
• Fostered a gradual process of spiritual
  conversion and growth
• No distinction made between mortal and venial
  sins
• The use of penitential books to assist in
  deciding on penance
• Early penance concentrated on personal healing
  and reparation Later it developed into a
  judgement and repayment mode

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Abuses Developed

• Commutation
• Penitent could commute their punishment to
  another through prayers, readings or payment
• Contributed to class distinction because the poor
  could not take advantage of it
• Resulted in buying and selling of indulgences

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Fourth Lateran Council (1215)

• The Ritual of Reconciliation in the Irish form is
  canonized
• Each member of the faithful of both sexes who
  has reached the age of discretion must confess
  their sins at least once a year to their parish
  priest, and accomplish within the measure of
  their means, the penance which is imposed.

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ControversyContritionists vs Absolutionists

• The relationship that the actions of the penitent
  and actions of the priest have on the forgiveness
  of sin
• Penitent
  Sorrow, Confession, Acts of Penance
• Priest
  Absolution
  In the name of Christ and the Church

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The Controversy

• Contritionists
  Peter Abelard (1142)
  Peter Lombard (1160)
• Sincere sorrow motivated by the love of God was
  the cause of forgiveness
• The priests absolution is more a statement of the
  fact forgiveness has occurred than the granting
  of forgiveness
• Absolutionists
  Hugh (1141) and Victor
  (1173) of St. Victor
• Saw the priests absolution as the proper use of
  Christs power known as the power of the keys
• This power was used to admit or exclude people
  from forgiveness, rather than from community.

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Solutions

• CONTRITIONIST
  Thomas Aquinas (1274)
• The individuals personal actions were the matter
  for the sacrament.
• The ecclesial action was the form.
• Both were necessary for the efficacy of the
  sacrament
• ABSOLUTIST
  Duns Scotus (1308)
• Forgiveness is received through the priests
  absolution
• The persons sorrow simply opened their heart to
  receive it
• A priest is required for forgiveness

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The Decision

• Council of Trent
• Advocates the absolutionist position of Duns
  Scotus
• Maintains the judicial importance of the priests
  absolution granting role
• He judges the penitents disposition
• Imparts penance as penalty for sin
• Pronounces absolution
• Penitent must then
• Confess the number of mortal sins integral
  confession
• Venial sin can be forgiven in other penitential
  practices

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• Today
  God is portrayed in his intimacy
• Face-to-face confession,
• Penance services filled with sensitivity and
  close experience of God
• Reconciliation is more Intimate
  Encounter

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Vatican II (1973)

• Sin ruptures relationship
• Our link with God
• Union with community in the church
• Forgiveness requires a restoration and healing of
  broken bonds
• Sacrament of Reconciliation
• Cleanses our sins through Christs redeeming
  blood
• Makes us one with God
• Reconnects us with Christs Body, the Church

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Vatican II (1973)

• Sacrament of Reconciliation
• The Church is represented by the Priest confessor
• The words of absolution officially signify our
  restoration to full healthy status within the
  Catholic Church
• This need to be reunited and reconciled with the
  Church is why someone who sins in a serious way
  is required, under ordinary conditions, to go to
  confession before receiving Eucharist

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Penance is a Sacrament of the Church

• Given to us by Christ.
  It restores Grace!
• Provides a uniquely rich and protected way for us
  to confess our failings, acknowledge our guilt
  and unburden our anxiety
• We actually hear in clear and certain words that
  our sins are forgiven
• Talking out our problems with a friend can
  comfort and reassure us when we are burdened but
  they can not announce Gods forgiveness with
  certitude