Under Her Wings
Theology of Reconciliation
and Implications for Liturgy
Gregor Sneddon
Those of us privileged to attend the International Anglican Liturgical
Consultation (IALC) in August 2015 in Montreal were immersed in a rich
encounter with the power of corporate reconciliation. Primate of Canada, Fred
Hiltz, and Canadian Anglican Indigenous Bishop Mark Macdonald presented
powerful testimonies on their experience with the Truth and Reconciliation
Commission in Canada as well as their ongoing work in the reconciliation of
First Nations peoples and “empire.” Fr Michael Lapsley OSM shared his
experience as a freedom fighter against the apartheid regime in South Africa now
turned healer after losing both his arms and vision from a letter bomb. His
work with the ‘healing of memory’ was extraordinary.
The community also
celebrated the Eucharist on the Feast of the Transfiguration with a
commemoration of the dropping of the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima. The liturgy was designed
and led by the IALC representatives from the Asian provinces, with beautiful
music by Saya Ojiri and a moving homily by The Rev. Shintaro Ichihara, both of
Japan.
As part of our work,
we began discussion on the theology of reconciliation and baptismal identity.
Here are a few initial reflections I took away:
1. Baptismal
Identity
Baptism
is the locus of Christian Identity. Human beings participate in the Trinitarian
life as “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4) by consenting to the
free gift of a restored human nature in communion with God through the Paschal
Mystery. Baptism is the unifying grace and deifying action of the Holy Spirit
through which the people of God live into throughout their entire lives and marks
the beginning of our free participation in the saving acts of Jesus Christ.
Baptism ultimately returns human life from the unnatural state of death, to the
natural state of life, intended by God, found in communion.
Acts
of reconciliation, both personal and corporate are always a realization of our
baptismal identity, a passing over from death to life, from separation to
communion with God and the human family. Liturgies of reconciliation may offer
ways to reflect this foundational principle directly through the use of water, specific
reference and baptismal narrative or indirectly through reference to passing
over from death to life, and the recognition of the one human family.
2. Restoration
of Personhood
The
life of the Trinity is a life of kenotic relationship in which the natural
state of human nature is to be in communion with, as the first human beings
shared before the Fall, and restored in Jesus Christ. Personhood is a
particular hypostatic reality shared by the Holy Trinity and made available to
human beings as the image of God and realized through the ontological reality
of communion, sometimes called theosis.
Our true personhood is claimed at the font and sustained and revealed through
the Eucharist and in acts of repentance and reconciliation.
The
work of reconciliation is primarily the work of restoring human dignity and
personhood both individually and within the community. Personhood is the true
ontological status of human being that becomes impaired and broken through our
separation with God and our fellow human beings. In corporate liturgical rites,
the implications of a restored personal dignity, individually and communally,
is both a psychological and theological understanding that corresponds both to
restorative justice and to the salvific understanding of a restored humanity in
relationship with God.
3. Freely
Chosen
All
Christian Theology preserves the ultimate freedom of God who created ex nihilo. The capacity of freewill is
the defining character of the ‘image of God’, human beings. For love to be
true, it must be unconditionally free. God has endowed human nature with free
will, therefore, the capacity to love as well as to choose life over death.
Freedom is enshrined in the dramatic events of the salvific narrative in both
Mary’s free consent to the divine invitation of the incarnation (Luke 1:38) as
well as Christ’s yielding to receive the cup at Gethsemene (Matthew: 26: 36-46), even against the natural inclination to preserve his
own life. Christ’s human nature in freely transcending itself in obedience to
the divine will marks the restoration of all human nature to its natural state:
oriented to communion with God.
Reconciliation
is a freely chosen act of the will, an invitation to transcend the inclination
to defensiveness, righteousness and the vulnerability inherent in confession
and forgiveness. Any act of reconciliation that is forced, mandated, or
rewarded loses its true character. Thus from a corporate perspective, language
which infers a moralistic or judgmental tone may need to incorporate a
confessional dimension which is authentic to a variety of positions which seek
to be reconciled.
4.
Metanoia
Repentance
is the freely turning back towards relationship with God, from separation to
communion, from death to life. It is firstly an act of the will to return to
right relationship. Repentance includes the unconditional confession of
perpetrators, as well as victims, of human violence, humiliation and all
actions which lead us from our divine inheritance as children of God. Acknowledging
how communion has been broken is a ‘lamentation’ that must be given the space
to be properly mourned. The tears offered become the waters of our return to
the font – through which we pass over again in return to our restored human
dignity claimed at Baptism.
The
work of reconciliation requires a clear opportunity for victims to share their
experience, and name their wounds and humiliation which has led them to an
impaired relationship with God and others. Perpetrators are also invited to
unconditionally confess to their actions and to offer their expressions of
regret and contrition. These acts of the will, again, are movements that
require great vulnerability and require great trust, transcending our
inclination for self-preservation and defense. In corporate acts of repentance,
the space for narrative, for mourning and lamentation are not to be avoided.
5. Eschatological
Christian
perfection, according to Gregory of Nyssa (d. 394), is an eternal progress.[i]
The act of returning to the font, metanoia, is the supreme activity of human
freedom, as the saving work of restoration is completed by God, freely offered,
to be received through human consent. The consummation of all life is a
realized, yet future reality that human beings must continually yield towards
as we yearn for its fulfillment. Acts in the past which led to separation,
which we feel may now be reconciled, may be repeated again, or be continuing in
ways that are hidden to us.
Acts
of reconciliation are ultimately never complete, as we forever open new
horizons where healing is needed, opportunities for human beings to make
reparation for the fruits of our misdirected freedom. Christian life is a
journey of yielding into the fullness of communion with God, a lifetime of metanoia. Rites of reconciliation should
reflect some open-endedness, a commitment to the ongoing work of reconciliation
and the journey towards unity of all people.
It would seem to
me, on the path of reconciliation, the font is where we find a starting place
and a place to return, again. This is
the “way of tears,”[ii]
that St Symeon (d. 1022) speaks of: the road to a reconciled human family with
the Creator, who yearns “to gather her brood under her wings” (Luke 13:34, Matthew
23:27).
Gregor Sneddon is a
presbyter serving St Luke’s Church in the Diocese of Ottawa. He completed his
graduate work at the Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Institute of Eastern
Christian Studies. A member of the Council of The Associated Parishes for
Liturgy and Mission, Gregor is also a member of the International Anglican
Liturgical Consultation, and founding Coordinator for Contemplative Outreach
Eastern Ontario. When not with his family, he likes to be cooking, in the
woods, or swinging the Blues.
The Holy Trinity, by Valerie Anne Kelly
http://www.imagekind.com/The-Holy-Trinity_art?IMID=4dfee882-8618-4be0-a68c-bee616824e5e
The Annunciation, by Phaedra Taylor
http://www.phaedrataylor.com
[i] Herbert
Musurillo, From Glory to Glory: Texts
from Gregory of Nyssa’s Mystical Writings (reprint ed., Crestwood, M.Y.:
St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1979). Pgs 16, 21, 43, 46, 50, 51, 53, 75, 155.
