Reconciliation

I was listening to a radio service from Coventry Cathedral soon after its Golden Jubilee, celebrating 50 years since the new cathedral was completed.

It is linked with the ruins of the old cathedral destroyed in a terrible night of bombing in World War II.

Very movingly the speaker explained how the architect, Basil Spence, aimed to create a journey from the scarred ruins into the new cathedral to illustrate the journey from despair to hope, from death to life.

The theme for the future was to be reconciliation, not revenge.

Standing on an altar in the ruins is a cross made from charred timbers salvaged from the debris with the inscription: ‘Father, forgive’. When someone asked Basil Spence why it doesn’t say ‘Forgive them’, he replied, ‘Because there are no innocents.’

These five words profoundly emphasise the two-way direction of forgiveness.

Every one of us needs forgiveness from God and from other people we have hurt; and we need to show forgiveness to those who have hurt us.

Jesus has made forgiveness freely available to us all through his death on the cross. Every time we say the Lord’s Prayer, we say, ‘Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.’

The only way to walk forward into life and hope again after deep hurts and tragic loss is by forgiving and being forgiven—reconciliation that brings peace between former enemies and inner peace of mind.

Prayer: Father, forgive. Amen