Prolog

When you wake up in the morning, you mostly expect to have a good and fruitful day, started from your bedroom. You might want to meet good colleagues that help you in your work, cooperative clients, even good and polite crowd on the street. But when you return to your bedroom by the end of the day, you might see that the things happen out there do not always meet your expectation. In the morning the call for prayer from a nearby minaret irritates you. Your neighbor next door speaks to his children aloud, in such a way that you consider impolite. During working hours, you meet some colleagues, clients and friends from many different backgrounds, whose manners do not please you. Once you are back at home, your spouse, children and housemaids might come with some problems to solve. And then you realize, that you cannot satisfy everybody, and consequently have some conflicts with some people. Some happen because of other people’s faults, but mostly happen by your fault. Here something must be done.

This everyday story actually pictures the dynamic of our lives. Unless one is a lunatic, nobody has desire to hurt people on purpose. Everybody wants to live in harmony, treat and be treated properly. However the reality speaks differently. Here and there, one would crash into other people’s privacy and steer up uneasiness. A conflict subsequently occurs and might tear a wound that disturbs human communication and relationship. Yet we do not want to leave the things as they are but move to do something to repair the damages. This is what we call reconciliation.

The reality of our world today

Our world today is marked by many different forms of “death culture”, that steer up sectarianism, violence, fundamentalism, fanaticism, and any other forms that violate human essence. There are many efforts initiated by many people to impose justice in order to keep the society a good place for all. However, many times we see that justice does not always bring peace when people tend to exploit “eye to eye” model of justice. We need to move beyond that, i.e. to bring peace through reconciliation, which requires repentance and forgiveness, renewal and empowerment.

To begin with, allow me to briefly highlight theological perspective of reconciliation that is strongly related to the Holy Trinity, the only source of true reconciliation. In the Holy Trinity we experience all aspects of spiritual qualities that lead us to the fullness of reconciliation. The Father pictures the divine faithfulness and respect to sinful men; the Sons depicts the divine sacrifice for the salvation of the sinful men; and the Holy Spirit presents the picture of divine inspiration that makes sinful men divine partners to develop the Kingdom of God. The combination of the three values gives us a perfect model, to what extent men should response to the needs of reconciliation in the secular world today. Briefly speaking, a true reconciliation is an extension of Trinitarian communication, or Trinitarian love in action.

n terms of spiritual development, all faithful come to agree, I believe, that reconciliation is an integral part of human effort to build a new world, worthy for a dignified society. But, what is reconciliation all about? Generally speaking, reconciliation is a two way process. On one side, one acknowledges his or her failure in doing God’s will, an attitude that requires spirit of humility. On the other hand, here God shows his compassion to sinful men. This dialog of love will bring the two parties to an act of solidarity, through which one renews his or her commitment to extend the Divine love to reach out other people, and God continuously grants his blessing to all mankind. The reconciliation then becomes a process that will heal, empower and inspire everybody to develop and share such high quality of spirituality. The fruit we deserve is more opportunities to sparkle the same spiritual energy to others. .... NEXT