‘Every Cloud has a Silver Lining’: Reconciliation and Unity Dr. Zac Varghese, London “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!” (Ps 133:1-NKJV)
none and harmony for all.” Reconciliation and unity under the love and grace of God is fundamental to establishing the values of the kingdom of God. The Japanese scientist Masaru Emoto showed that water from clear springs when exposed to a word such as love or kindness shows beautiful symmetrical snowflake patterns of harmony and unity. On the other hand, water exposed to negative or impure thoughts forms incomplete asymmetrical chaotic patterns of division. According to Emoto water is a symbol of unity and integration. Only in the power of love and gratitude we can create true ecumenism. Let us continue to pray for ecumenical understanding, and doing God’s will for the benefit of everyone and for the common good of society.
Millions and millions of people across the world pray 24 hours a day the prayer that Jesus taught: “Thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” This prayer will only become a reality when we continue the work that Jesus has entrusted to us to establish the kingdom of God on earth. It is a kingdom of unconditional love of God, relationship, justice, truth, spirituality and beauty. We are not only to pray for it daily, year in and year out, but to work diligently for making it a reality on earth, as it is in heaven. This kingdom is ‘now-and-notyet’ reality. On 20th January, 2021, Amanda Goldman had the following lines in her poetic recital at the presidential inauguration of President Joe Biden: “And so, we lift our gazes not to what stands between us, but what stands before us. We close the divide, because we know to put our future first, we must first put our differences aside. We lay down our arms so we can reach out our arms to one another. We seek harm to
Oxford theologian, Alister McGrath24, defined reconciliation as: “The bringing of two estranged parties back into relationship. It is one of the central images of what was achieved in the death of Jesus, bringing God and humanity into harmony and taking away the barrier due to Sin. Once reconciled to God, Christians are equipped to bring reconciliation across the divisions in the world.” The estrangement between humanity and God happened at the beginning of the creation story as we read in the Genesis. Reconciliation has been central to Christian experience at every level: within self, with God and with others. We learn that in Jesus that heaven and earth have come together once for all and ‘Jesus built the bridge from there to here.’ Building a bridge was a very costly self-giving act of reconciliation. In a short meditation in 2015, I wrote25: “We cannot get away from the reality that God came in search for us and He built the bridge from ‘There to here.’ Jesus further said emphatically: “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14: 6). The initiative for this relationship, bridge building, is from our creator God: “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If any one hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him and he with me” (Rev 4: 20). It is not our search and effort, it is God’s; we only have to be there to listen to that ‘still small voice’ to align ourselves to be in that bridge of reconciliation and unity in God. It is in this network of relationships we enjoy and realise haven on earth and the answer to the prayer: ‘Thy kingdom come’. St. Paul was very much concerned with various kinds of conflicts and tensions that emerged in the churches that 1 Alister McGrath, The New Lion Hand Book Christian Belief,
Lion Hudson, 2006, page399. 2 Zac Varghese, ‘A Bridge is built from There to here’ ECHO’, Oct, 2015.
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