Reconciliation

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Evidence enough to believe

  Coming from the catholic biblical school of thought, I have always believed and accepted that ‘Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture, though two different channels of revelation, are bound closely together, and communicate with one another. Together they transmit the fullness of revelation, and make up one single deposit  of the Word of God.’ By sacred tradition I mean creedal formulae, liturgies and dogmas be it oral or doctrinal that have always been transmitted through the teaching authority of the apostles and through their successors who in this regard are the bishops, and especially the bishop of Rome. However we face challenges from our non catholic or evangelical tradition which argues that whenever what is doctrinal or liturgical or even moral belief cannot be substantiated biblically simply imply that it cannot be part of the deposit of faith. ‘if it is not biblical or if I cannot find it in the scripture, I exclude from my belief. Secondly, we have other school...
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Purification of Religion

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Religion can at times become a formality. Prophets like Amos have always condemned formalism in worship (Cf. Am 5:21-27) At one time Jesus by quoting Isaiah told Jewish Religious leaders that: ‘this People honours me only with lip-service, while their hearts are far from me. Their reverence of me is worthless; the lessons they teach are nothing but human commandments’ (Mt 15: 8-9). Once religion becomes ‘a partial fulfilment’ as it were, it has lost its essence. ‘I go to church to spend some time with friends and associates. I go to church because I have been made to’. At times religion can be confused with civil society, politics as if it is there to advance political or social agenda. At other times religion can confused with economic interests. Nowadays the ‘get rich’ Gospel message is preached more often than the ‘Cross’, all in the name of ‘blessings’. However, Christianity hinges on the Gospel of the Cross as St. Paul tells us ‘we preach a crucified Christ: to the Jews an obs...
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RECONCILIATION TO BRING PEACE

Introduction   Simply defined, to reconcile is to ‘restore to union and friendship after estrangement’ or to ‘bring to agreement’. Reconciliation describes two related situations, bound together by a move from enmity to friendship . In one situation, reconciliation restores a prior relationship , as when two family members or friends have a falling out and then re-establish the relationship. In the worst case, the enmity severs all communication and the individuals have nothing to do with each other; less severe is the case where only perfunctory communication occurs. In the other related situation, reconciliation refers to the creation of a relationship between enemies, where the enemies become friends, though they may never have had friendly contact before.   Reconciliation also calls for repentance and forgiveness. In evidently, when calling for reconciliation, one party or both might have been injured or hurt and a need for saying sorry to oneself or the other is param...
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