Reconciliation, as a result of Christian worship and community life, is an important New Testament concept. Reconciliation is mediated through the practice of the apostolic vocation of all believers and supremely through the priesthood of Jesus Christ. Although there is no specific rite of reconciliation in the New Testament, both baptism and the Lord’s Supper, or Eucharist, have sacramental implications in the process of reconciliation through communion with God in Christ.
Reconciliation is an achievement, a process, and a goal in the life of the human community. It suggests the divisions and hostilities found among nations and peoples, within societies and families, between people and their environment, and even within each person. Priesthood, on the other hand, is a term that has meaning only within a religious frame of reference. Usually concerned with mediation or sacrifice, the term priesthood can assume a variety of meanings and is sometimes used in analogous or extended senses. To associate reconciliation with priesthood is to suggest that alienation and reconciliation pertain to humanity’s relationship with God and that priesthood concerns some of the most decisive events in human life.
Reconciliation and priesthood are to be understood only in light of Jesus Christ and God’s work in him. In Christ, God created the human family with one purpose in view: that each person should freely accept a share in eternal life and communion with the triune God. This creative purpose established unity and peace as a perfection proper to human life (Eph. 1:3–10).
Rather than accept God’s dominion in their lives, human beings have chosen to live in ways that declare their independence from God and his life-giving purpose. This causes alienation from God and accounts for the evil and hostility found in human life (Gen. 3). These effects lead to new rejections of God in an ongoing process that enmeshes all people (Rom. 3:9; 5:12). The term sin can refer to the cause, state, or results of this complex condition of evil and alienation.
Given this state of affairs, reconciliation necessarily requires the overcoming of sin by means of repentance and forgiveness and ultimately by an inner transformation that eliminates the tendency to sin and alienation (Jer. 31:33; Ezek. 36:25–28; Ps. 51:10). This could be accomplished only by God’s special intervention, which took place through the incarnation of Jesus Christ. Because he was fully divine and fully human, Jesus was uniquely able to mediate between and draw together God and the human family. By his suffering, death, and resurrection, Jesus reconciled us to God and made possible the forgiveness of our sins and the hope of a human life marked by justice, peace, and unity (Rom. 5:1–11; Col. 1:19–22; 2 Cor. 5:18–19).
Although there is no question as to who Jesus was or the reconciliation he accomplished, the New Testament seldom uses the terms mediator or priest in speaking of him. The principal exception is the epistle to the Hebrews, which seeks to understand Jesus and his work in light of the Israelite priesthood, especially that of Melchizedek. This epistle and the background it assumes made it inevitable that later generations would also view Jesus Christ as priest of the new dispensation and consider his work as uniquely priestly.
Jesus Christ and his work of reconciliation were unique and effective for all people and all times (1 Tim. 2:5). Even so, he required the service of others to extend the fruits of his reconciliation to people in every age and place (Matt. 28:18–20; Mark 16:15–16; Luke 24:47–49; John 20:21–23). Until the work of Christ is brought to its final perfection, sin and alienation remain urgent problems in human life. Christ relies on apostles and others to call people to repentance, forgiveness, and reconciliation. Required by Christ’s explicit mandate, this missionary apostolate is an essential part of the life and ministry of the church. Members of the church must confront all forms of alienation and work to remedy them by preaching forgiveness and witnessing reconciliation. Giving to the poor, making peace between adversaries, teaching and interpreting the signs of the times, caring for the sick and dying, giving hospitality to the homeless, and especially working for justice and peace are important aspects of the missionary apostolate.
These activities are important and called for on their own terms. They must also interpret the meaning of human alienation and evil and point toward the reconciliation with God in Christ that all people need and are called to share. This witness will be credible only to the degree that the church shows forth a convincing example of reconciliation in its own life.
As the reconciliation with God Jesus Christ won for us is progressively shared with more people through the ministries of the Word and forgiveness, a visible community of reconciled people is assembled, the church (Eph. 2:11–22). The church has an intimate relationship with Christ, whose life and power it shares (Acts 1:8; 2:1–4; 1 Cor. 3:16; 12:27). The church increases as the preaching of the gospel prompts its hearers to repentance, faith, and a request for baptism. In baptism, their past sins are forgiven, and they begin to share in the church’s reconciled life (Acts 2:22–41; Rom. 6:3–11). In this context, baptism counts as the primary sacrament of reconciliation.
The church’s supreme act of worship is the Eucharist. Nourished by the Word, the assembly celebrates in sacrament the mystery of Christ’s passion, death, and resurrection. From this mystery, the church draws its life and unity. At the Eucharist, the church most intensely realizes itself as a reconciled community, a priestly people that offers God the sacrifice of a holy life (1 Pet. 2:5, 9). From the perspective of the church’s life, the Eucharist is the sacrament of its reconciliation, its communion with God in Christ.
Every effort must be made to assure that justice and peace characterize relationships within the church. Its own integrity and the credibility of its witness and preaching are at stake. A crisis occurs when a member of the church insists on living in a way that means the abandonment of the commitments undertaken in baptism and inherent in the eucharistic life of the church. This kind of failure simultaneously involves the offender’s personal responsibility, alienation from the church and its eucharistic life, and a turning away from God. The offender’s position is analogous to that of one as yet unconverted and unbaptized. Reconciliation is urgently needed.
The process required to bring this about takes into account many factors, notably the nature of the offense, the disposition of the offender and the adequacy of the repentance shown, and the requirements of the church body. Reconciliation normally involves a cooperative effort by the repentant offender and an authorized minister of the church; it is another evidence of the faithful love of Christ and the church.