RECONCILIATION

WHAT IS RECONCILIATION?

THEOLOGICAL UNDERPINNINGS

SUCCESSION OF RECONCILIATION

"As the Father hath sent me, I also send you. When he had said this, he breathed on them; and he said to them: Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained." (John 20:21-23).

CHANGE OF THE SACRAMENT

• Jesus instituted the sacrament
• In Europe, confession was practiced rarely
• Confessors paid for their sins publicly
• Irish tradition changed the sacrament to a private practice
• This tradition has held to today

DIFFERENT SPIRITUAL STAGES CORRESPOND WITH DIFFERENT STAGES OF LIFE

GOD'S GRACE IN PENANCE

"Jesus’ call to conversion and penance... does not aim first at outward works... but at the conversion of the heart, interior conversion."
(Catechism Section 1430)

"The human heart is heavy and hardened. God must give man a new heart. Conversion is first of all a work of the grace of God who makes our hearts return to him."
(Catechism Section 1432)

THOSIS: BECOMING ON WITH GOD

"The grace conferred is deliverance from the guilt of sin and, in the case of mortal sin, from its eternal punishment; hence also reconciliation with God, justification." -Catechism

GENESIS: 32-33 STORY OF JACOB AND ESAU

• Esau is supposed to get the inheritance
• Jacob tricks Isaac into giving him the inheritance
• Jacob runs away, but later returns
• Has a reconciliation with Esau

ART EXAMPLE ONE

THE GOSPELS

• Mark 10:17-22
• John 8
• Luke 23:24
• Luke 15:1-32

ART EXAMPLE TWO

ART EXAMPLE THREE

St. Cyril of Alexandria:
"Men filled with the spirit of God forgive sins in two ways, either by admitting to baptism those who are worthy or by pardoning the penitent children of the Church."
(in Joan., 1, 12 in P.G., LXXIV, 722)