Reflections by Father Gerry Reynolds

**A reflection by Father Gerry Reynolds C.Ss.R.**
Our "ministry of reconciliation " is the ongoing task to make present, wherever we are in this world, that transformation of human relationships which God has brought about in Christ Jesus: For anyone who is in Christ, there is a new creation: the old order is gone, and a new being is there to see. It is all God's work: he reconciled us to himself through Christ and he gave to us the ministry of reconciliation. I mean, God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not holding anyone's fault, against them, but entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. So we are ambassadors for Christ; it is as though God were urging you through us, and in the name of Christ we appeal to you to be reconciled to God. For our sake he made the sinless one a victim for sin, so that in him we might become the uprightness of God. (St Paul' s Second Letter to the Corinthians, 5.17/21). We live by faith in Christ Jesus, the Lord of history.

We believe that, in the restoration of the IRA cease-fire and in the beginning of the Stormont Peace Talks, God has visited us his people. Over and beyond all the human motivations that brought it about, we recognise the merciful hand of the Lord of history in this profound political change. We make our own each day the thanksgiving prayer of Zachariah - "Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, he has visited his people and set them free " (Gospel of Luke 1. 6 - 8). But freedom for what? Why has God visited us and set us free? As people who assemble daily, to pray in, through and with the Lord of History, we seek "insight" into his purpose for us here and now. To pray is to enter into his work in history, to put ourselves at God's disposal. We sometimes meet the fellow-worshipper, the prophet of gloom who unloads on us his/her conviction that political violence here will never end. Ceasefires do not put these "prophets" out of business, They just change their despairing assessment to - "You can have everyone at the table and everything on the table, but our politicians will never reach agreement even if they sit around till doomsday". As a local congregation of the Church we oppose these prophets of gloom. Problems are solvable. A total transformation of this divided society is possible because our God wills it and he has called us to be his co-workers in achieving it. We believe that each local congregation of the Church is meant to be at the forefront of God's Peace Process in history. But our contribution as Church to the transformation of society is greatly impaired because we have yet to come together, where we are, as local Catholic and Protestant congregations of the Church. We have yet to end inherited family tensions in the "household of God'. The way forward for us, as Church, is a "Yes" together to God's purposes, a wholehearted "Yes" to one another as people entrusted with one and the same "ministry of reconciliation". The inherited family tensions which divide Catholic and Protestant congregations of the Church in Northern Ireland, like all such tensions, keep us from seeing facts as they are. They keep us from recognising God, the Lord of history, at work among us, the rock-solid basis of meaning and of hope for us all. These "family tensions" also keep us from recognising what God is doing outside our own circle. They cause us to miss seeing him at work in people of good will who do not see themselves as belonging in any way to the Church. They may not even believe in him. But God believes in them and can work through them. We allow God to surprise us. He is sovereign and free as he works in history. Our basic peace strategy is that we try to become in every locality, in every congregation of the Church, all that we are meant to be, i.e., the servants together of God's reconciling will for his people. We seek to break old moulds and to overcome "family tensions" in the Church that keep us from recognising God's work among us at this time. Catholic and Protestant have one and the same task from him - the ministry of reconciliation. It is right that both us pray regularly for one another this prayer of Fr Paul Couturier:

Lord Jesus, who on the eve of your death,
prayed that all your disciples might be one,
as you in the Father and the Father in you,
make us feel intense sorrow over the infidelity of our disunity.
Give us the honesty to recognize and the courage to reject
Whatever indifference towards one another,
or mutual distrust,
Or even enmity lie hidden with us.
Enable us to meet one another in you,
And let your prayer for the unity of Christians,
Be ever in our hearts and on our lips,
Unity such as you desire and by the means that you will.
Make us find the way
that leads to unity in you, who are perfect charity,
through being obedient to Spirit of love and truth.

Amen