Good morning, Digital Neighbors! Blessed Feast of the Sacred Heart from the wonderful world of Cath-o-landia! Today’s feast in the Church is a celebration of God’s great mercy. The Heart of the Redeemer is the symbol of His immense love for us and His desire to reconcile us to the Father and to one another.

I frequently remind my flock that forgiveness, contrition, and reconciliation are related realities, but they are not the same. The recipient of an offense can choose to be merciful no matter the attitude of the offender. I can choose to forgive someone even if they are never sorry for their offense or don’t possess a single bone of contrition in their body.

I don’t necessarily have to welcome people I forgive back into my life, and forgiveness is certainly not just ignoring the offense or injury and pretending it didn’t happen. Someone still embracing their offense, still feeding their addiction, or justifying their evil cannot be welcomed back into your life. Insulating and isolating ourselves is often the most sane and safe path with toxic individuals. You can forgive someone and still expect them to face justice in this life. Mercy does not erase the act — it heals the injury. Many seem to fail to grasp that forgiveness is about the heart of the offended or injured, not the offender.

Contrition is my sorrow for the offense I have committed — an awareness of the evil of my acts and a willingness to take responsibility for them. I can be sorry for my offenses and seek to make amends for the wrongs done to my neighbor. In the case of the Divine, I realize that I can never sufficiently make a return for all that God has forgiven me. The people we have offended or injured may choose never to forgive us, but we can still have sorrow for our offenses and the desire to make amends.

Disciples believe that the Master has paid that bill in full by the blood of His cross. We have no merit in life that is our own; whatever merit we might experience comes from the activity of God’s grace in our hearts. Grace is a transformative and restorative reality — it is His love for us. The wound of the Tree-pickers and their foul fruit of disobedience is healed by the Wounded One on a Tree and His complete obedience to the Father.

Reconciliation is the highest fruit of mercy. It occurs when the offender is truly sorry and the offended grants forgiveness. The Master comes not only to offer us God’s mercy, but to bring about actual reconciliation with the Father and with one another. Some wounds are too deep in this life for full reconciliation. I think especially of the wounds of murder, slavery, rape, and abuse — atrocities where reconciliation is least likely and most difficult. For those, only in Heaven can victim and perpetrator be fully healed and reconciled in the Heart of the Master.

Reconciliation can never be forced; it must be accepted in the mutual awareness of forgiveness and contrition. It can be one of the most challenging experiences in life. Yet to live without forgiveness is to remain frozen in the past, held hostage by injury or the anger that encases it. To live without contrition is to fail to take accountability for one’s past and to refuse to face the truth of your life. You will live in fear of retribution and haunted by the past. Better to face the truth of your story than to live with the lies that will consume you — in the next life, if not in this one.

Well, if you’ve lasted this long, thank you for your time and interest. Here’s a little scriptural reflection on mercy from a murderous Pharisee turned Apostle. It’s a great story of reconciliation. Few understand the relationship between Disciple and Master better than St. Paul.

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love he had for us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, brought us to life with Christ (by grace you have been saved), raised us up with him, and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so no one may boast. For we are his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for the good works that God has prepared in advance, that we should live in them. St. Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians 2:4-10

“In the Sacred Heart, every treasure of wisdom and knowledge is hidden. In that divine heart beats God’s infinite love for everyone and for each of us as individuals.” Saint John Paul II