Question 

Reverend Father Bellon, 

I’m Lorenzo, I am 30 and I am a practicing Catholic. I often read your column and I believe your answers are always clear and precise, clearly inspired by the Truths of Faith that Church’s Doctrine has passed down during centuries. That is why I decided to write to you, hoping that you may give me a coherent interpretation according to the Magisterium about a reflection in which I have been engaging for a long time. 

The main topic of this Pontificate is surely Divine Mercy, which means the eternal tendency to forgiveness which God uses with mankind. In spite of  few isolated Old Testament episodes in which God shows His strictness towards people who kept behaving badly, the Bible – from Psalms to Jesus’ words – gives us many startling points to show us that He is merciful and that He gives endless chances to sinners in order for them to repent . You may end up saying that divine anger and mercy derive from and end in His Justice. Now, my reflection comes exactly from those premises. Given that God forgives sins to those who turn to Him with a regretful heart and that He forgets our faults “almost” like we never committed them – in spite of how many and how serious they are, it is also true that we in turn should forgive people who hurt us. But I understand that this idea of absolution could lead to the theological conclusion of human mercy being even  superior to Divine Mercy itself. If the first one  is in a certain way one-sided (“love your enemies”, “turn the other cheek” which Jesus did), the latter is always influenced by the repentance and penance of the person who confesses his/her sins . So much so that people who die without regretting their sins end up in hell, while people who regret but don’t expiate them will do it in purgatory (that is why I used “almost” before). What do you reckon, am I right or wrong ? I would like to have a direct answer, almost straightforward (yes, no, why), as you usually do. I beg you not to tell me that people who end up in Hell didn’t want God’s forgiveness or that the relationship between men and God is not equal and so we can’t ask for an unconditioned forgiveness: I already know all those things and I would honestly find them off-topic. On the contrary, if I am wrong I would like to understand why among men we aren’t simply asked not to revenge one another, instead of forgiving one another. I am sorry if I have sounded a bit arrogant in the last sentences, but I just wanted to  clearly specify what kind of answer I’d like to receive and above all which are the points I would like you to analyse. 

Please, do pray for me. 

Lorenzo 

Answer 

Dear Lorenzo, 

1.  Forgiveness and reconciliation are two different things. You can forgive even people who don’t repent. Jesus forgave everyone from the Cross.

2.  On the contrary, reconciliation means that people who went away want to come back in communion. As you can see, for forgiveness goodwill can come from just one side, even though the other one doesn’t regret his misdeeds. Instead, reconciliation requires goodwill from both sides.
3.  The fourth sacrament which Jesus established is not just a Sacrament of  forgiveness . It is also and above all the  Sacrament of Reconciliation .  

4. That is why the requisite for  Holy Communion is the will to be reconciled.

There is no true Communion without Reconciliation.

5.   The Catholic Church Catechism states that “During his public life Jesus not only forgave sins, but also made plain the effect of this forgiveness: he reintegrated forgiven sinners into the community of the People of God from which sin had alienated or even excluded them. A remarkable sign of this is the fact that Jesus receives sinners at his table, a gesture that expresses in an astonishing way both God’s forgiveness and the return to the bosom of the People of God.” (CCC 1443)
6.  That is why for reconciliation we need a radical reorientation of our whole life, a return, a conversion to God with all our heart, an end of sin, a turning away from evil, with repugnance toward the evil actions we have committed. (Cf. CCC 1431)

I surely will remember you to the Lord according to your wish and your intentions.

I wish you all the best and I bless you. 

Padre Angelo 

Questo articolo è disponibile anche in: Italian