Reconciliation - Luke 16:19-31

I've found that one of the best ways to expand my faith has been to focus in on a word or phrase that is central to our faith - examine it, look up the definition (if appropriate), and then prayerfully meditate on it. If I can gain a better command of that word (or concept) at the end of the day than when the day started, I feel like I will have given myself the best chance to avoid letting my faith become stale.  As we heard in the First Reading from Amos, God says, “Woe to the complacent.”

May I offer this word: Reconciliation, being reconciled? Definition: To restore to harmony, resolve, to make congruous, to account for.  Our faith tells us that we need reconciliation.  At Mass, we sometimes hear, "Lord Jesus, you came to reconcile us to one another and to the Father". We’re asking for mercy from both the Father and the Son. The story of the rich man today reinforces the importance of reconciliation.  

We could liken spiritual reconciliation to an accounting reconciliation.  There may be those among us who are familiar with the accounting software "Quicken” or “Quickbooks". My wife and I use Quickbooks for her book business – she sells books to school and public librarians. With Quickbooks, we load into the database all the daily business activity – all the deposits, all of the disbursements. Once a month, we use its "bank reconciliation" program to compare what we think the balance is in our account against what the bank says the balance really is. At the end of this little exercise (ie-examination), there’s a bottom line comparison which indicates the "difference" between the two sums. If that line shows as $0 dollars, you click a little “reconcile” button that confirms that you are reconciled, you’re congruous, you’re assessments are in harmony!

But just as we have imperfections in our faith life, there always seems to be something amiss with our accounting, and unfortunately, we're not in balance.  If the difference shown is something other than 0, I could still try to hit the little "reconcile" button, but I'd be sure to get a pop up screen that says, "no can do, your out of balance" (paraphrasing).  There's also another button next to the reconcile button, that says "leave (leave)".  By clicking on that button, it simply closes down the program. When you come back to it, it'll look just like you left it, with your balance out of sync. You've in effect kicked the can down the road.

If you don't go back into the program and "amend" that which is causing the disparity, you will not be able to reconcile.  You can't reconcile without making things right. Our faith works the same way. Sometimes we have to dig deep and ferret out the areas where we're not right with God. Some sins are more apparent than are others. 

As Jesus teaches us in the story of Lazarus and the rich man, salvation and eternal life are not just about avoiding what we might call “big sins”, the sins of commission. It’s also about dealing with the sins of omission.
 
The rich man in the gospel parable was not (by all indications) an axe murderer, or mafia boss. He had no particularly damaging “sins of commission” on his resume. And yet, he failed to enter eternal life. Why? Because of his sins of “omission.”  Daily, he closed his heart to a neighbor who was in dire need of help. He spent his life in selfishness and self-focus.  And since being a Christian means living like Christ, and living for others, he was on the outside looking in. This should compel us to more thoroughly examine our sins of omission.
 
Isn't it interesting that when Jesus was asked which were the most important commandments, he didn't choose the negative ones, the "thou shalt not" ones. Instead he listed two active, positive, creative commandments: love God with all your heart, and love your neighbor as yourself.

Back to my accounting software: If I think about, most times when my balance did not reconcile with the bank balance, it was not because of an egregious entry error that I have made. It was because I neglected to make an entry that I should have made, an error of omission.
 
Some might remember the movie, the Schindler's List from 1993. It was a true story of a rather mediocre Catholic businessman, Oskar Schindler, who lived in Poland during World War II.
 
When the war started, he saw it as an opportunity to make money. He worked out a deal with the German officials to use Jewish prisoners as free labor for his munitions factory.  Since he didn't have to pay his workers, he was able to rake in a pretty handsome profit. But little by little his eyes opened to the horrors of the Nazi regime.
 
His heart changed, and he started using his factories and connections with German officers to save his Jewish workers from the Holocaust. He used the money he had made during the early part of the war to "buy" more and more Jewish workers, just so he could save their lives. By the end of the war he was as broke as he had been at the beginning, but he had managed to save hundreds of Jews from being massacred.
 
In the very moving last scene of the movie, the Germans have fled, and the hundreds of workers whom Schindler saved surround him in a tribute of thanks. One of them proclaimed, “There will be generations because of what you did.” In an unforgettable moment he is presented with a ring harvested from gold teeth fillings. Inscribed on it in Hebrew were the words, “he who saves one life, saves the world entire.” But in the face of this outpouring of adulation, Schindler began to cry uncontrollably.
 
He looks around at the faces of the people he saved, and he tells them, "I could have done so much more." He holds up his pin and then points to his car, and says, "These could have bought more people’s freedom." Every face he sees makes him think of another face that he could have saved, if in the beginning, he had been less absorbed in serving himself. He was completely distraught and fell to the ground trembling because he had been overtaken by the gravity of his past sins of omission. What a remarkable transformation in this man and what a profile in humble self-reflection.
 
It’s been said that the relevant distinction amongst people is not between sinners and non-sinners, but between those sinners who know it, and those sinners who don't.  Because they have ordered their lives toward God, it was the saints who were most keenly aware of how far they fall short from the ideal. 
 
It was St John the Cross who compared the soul to a pane of glass.  He said, as long as that pane is pointed away from the light, its imperfections do not appear.  But turn that pane toward the light, now all the smudges and marks become visible. 
 
This helps to explain the paradox that exists when we hear the saints say (or as Oskar Schindler might say), "I'm the worst of sinners". They have directed their lives toward the light of God.  Therefore, they are more, not less aware of the times that they have not been reconciled to God.
 
Let’s not beat ourselves up over our past sins of omission, but be inspired what God has made possible for us, and what was exemplified by Oskar Schindler. There were a couple of comments that I saw under the YouTube clip of the film that captured it best: One said, “The kindest people are those who feel regret over things they could not do to help others.” And second, “To have done so much and yet feel like you did so little is the mark of a great man.”
 
It’s in that process of actively seeking reconciliation through daily, and thoroughly reflective prayer, and going to confession, that allows us grow in our walk of faith in a way that was demonstrated by Oskar Schindler, but clearly was not demonstrated by the rich man in the gospel.
 
 
 
And so, let us resolve today to be more purposeful with our lives, to beat back the temptation to press that “leave” (leave) button, kicking the can down the road, leaving reconciliation or even the thought of it for some other time. No matter what we’ve done, or not done, we’re never too far gone. We’re never too far from God’s grace.
 
And so we pray, Dear God, lead us by your guiding light. We seek your pardon from those things that we have done wrong, and those that we have failed to do.  Give us the energy to seek your wisdom, reflect your light, and be reconciled with you and each other. Amen!