The Goal of Forgiveness
I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one. John 17:22
WHY FORGIVE? The goal of forgiveness lies in one word, community. That word means "a unified body of persons." The community may be a small or a large unified body. Often in large communities there are subcommunities that may be very much at odds with one another. For instance, the community of the Church of Jesus Christ across the world is divided into several smaller communities, denominations, which are sometimes even antagonistic to each other. Or, in the political sense, the former community of the U.S.S.R. is now divided
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into many smaller states, some of which are very hostile to one another.
The idea of community as a unified body of persons is sharpened by noting the derivation of the word. Our English word comes from a pair of Latin words meaning "to belong to or to be shared by each of two parties." [Classical scholar Dr. Winifred Weter pointed out this derivation in conversation with the author.] Hence the goal of forgiveness is to restore a shared oneness by working through whatever problem or problems spoiled the oneness.
The psychiatrist Scott Peck makes the pregnant comment, "If we are going to use [community] meaningfully, we must restrict it to a group of individuals who have learned to communicate honestly with each other" (The Different Drum, p. 59). Christ's relationship with his Father underscores this idea. "The ground of [Christ's] communication with God was His communion with the Father" (Ray Anderson, The Gospel According to Judas, p.48). Communion and communicate both come from the same root as community. Community requires honest and caring communication. Loneliness is not the absence of people but the absence of community. It is possible to be in a group of people without any sense of community.
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Not to have a shared oneness with another person or persons is to be lonely indeed.
"The experience of being called the Beloved is the experience of communion. Communion is the word that responds to the deepest yearnings of the human heart. We are created for communion. I don't believe it is an exaggeration to say that what all people share is a lifelong search for communion." (Henri J.M. Nouwen, "Forgiveness: The Name of Love in a Wounded World," Weavings, Vol. VII, Number 2, March/April, 1992, p. 10).
My two older brothers were very close to each other and seemed able to communicate with each other almost without words. The two brothers just younger than I also seemed to pair off. While I enjoyed playing with my brothers and sisters, I was also very comfortable being alone with a book. Or I would sometimes go off on my bike and ride on back roads and trails (we lived away from the city). My relationship with my father tended to push me further into aloneness. If he did not believe I could do anything well, perhaps others felt the same way too.
The marvelous weekend conference I attended when I was nineteen began to move me more to communion, to fellowship. The sense that I was of real worth because Christ lived in me and the beginning of a new relationship with a person who
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became a close friend (and subsequently my wife), combined to begin drawing me out of myself and into new friendships with others, that is, into an alive community.
Two especially helpful passages of Scripture in this regard emphasize the richness and breadth of community. The first is John 17:20-23, which speaks of Christ's desire for community. This passage does not come from our Lord's teaching. It is, rather, the cry of His heart expressed in His moving prayer the night before His crucifixion. He prays for a oneness, a community, among His followers which is like the oneness He shares with His Father. He is not praying for a structure, for an organization, but for a relationship. "The glory which thou hast given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one" (verse 22, RSV). The glory God has given Christ, Christ has given us with a view to oneness. What an incredible statement!
We do not often enjoy the level of oneness Christ expresses, a quality of oneness like that between Father and Son. An important aspect of the reason for this problem is that we confuse relationship and behavior. Miroslav Volf has a superb treatment of Jesus' parable of the prodigal son (Exclusion and Embrace, pp. 156-165). The older brother could only think in terms of rigid obedience to rules. Relationship
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depended on whether the rules were followed or not. The father, however, "rejected this alternative because his behavior was governed by the one fundamental 'rule': relationship has priority over all rules. Before any rule can apply, he is a father to his sons and his sons are brothers to one another" (p. 164, emphasis his). Or again, a few lines farther on: "Relationship is prior to moral rules; moral performance may do something to the relationship, but the relationship is not grounded in moral performance. Hence the will to embrace is independent of the quality of behavior, though at the same time 'repentance,' 'confession,' and the 'consequences' of one's actions all have their own proper place" (emphasis his).
Two aspects of relationship and forgiveness need to be noted here. One cannot talk about forgiveness without realizing that there must be some degree of personal relationship with the wrongdoer.
For instance, drive-by shootings are common enough in our cities today. If the assailant and the victim are unknown to me, I may properly be angry at the wrong, but forgiveness is not the relevant response. The issues then are rather ones of justice and safety on the streets — matters about which I should be very much concerned. If the victim is my child or grandchild, that fact relates me
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to the guilty one or ones, and the question of forgiveness enters into the equation. I cannot forgive a person for the evil he or she does to others. I may properly be angry for the evil a person does to others, and I am responsible for what I do with my anger.
That anger can become a significant impetus to work with others to bring about change in the world. That response is good, but the "category" of the action is not a subheading of forgiveness. We do not forgive an act; we forgive the person who does or promotes the wrong act. Forgiveness is a relational transaction, and there needs to be some personal relationship with the person if forgiveness is to occur.
There is a second important dimension of relationship. The fact of a marriage relationship doesn't say anything about the quality of the relationship. Two married couples are equal in the fact of the relationship. They may be worlds apart in the quality of their respective relationships. When I speak about the importance of restoring a fractured relationship, I mean the quality of the relationship. Forgiveness in the fullest sense wants nothing less than a very warm and close fellowship between the parties.
Our relationship with God is sometimes similar to that of many marriages — a couple is still married,
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but one or both partners is more concerned about self or other interests than he or she is about a healthy and vital relationship with the partner. That becomes a joyless marriage. So the goal of forgiveness is not merely a relationship that is quite empty, but rather one that is alive and joyful and richly satisfying to both parties, at least to whatever degree is possible in the particular situation.
Our understanding of our responsibility with reference to community must come to terms with our Model. God's desire in forgiving us is that we become part of His family in a close and joyful fellowship. We need to respond to Him, or His goal is not accomplished. Still, that quality of closeness remains His desire. God's desire is the pattern for us to follow in our relationships with others.
The goal remains, a goal Christ desires, a goal we want to move toward in our relationships. Relationships must be nurtured, cultivated, cared for. Christ also indicates that this quality of oneness has a purpose beyond its own intrinsic value, namely, "that the world may believe that you have sent me" (verse 21 — compare this with verse 23). The power of genuine oneness, of community, is very persuasive.
The second passage is Ephesians 2:11-19. Here Paul portrays the oneness that Christ makes possible among Christians. He does so by referring to
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the hostility that existed between Jew and Gentile, a virulent hostility present on both sides. But in Christ a tremendous change has taken place. He "has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility." The former hostility is "put to death." Christ "himself is our peace, who has made the two one." The Gentiles "are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people" (verses 14-19). Paul is saying that community is first of all between God and the forgiven person, but it does not stop there. It extends also to others in His family.
Phillips' paraphrase of verses 16-17 brings out the larger picture with startling clarity. Christ's death "made utterly irrelevant the antagonism between [Jew and Gentile]. Then he came and told both you who were far from God and us who were near that the war was over." Paul declares that Christ rendered the deep antagonism between Jews and Gentiles who have become Christians "utterly irrelevant." He announced "that the war was over." The same truth applies to other antagonisms and conflicts between or among Christians.
The "utterly irrelevant" is not easy to apply. When I was teaching in a black college in the South, my wife, two children and I lived in the black community where the college was located. An observation by my students surfaced several times: How can whites be Christians when they do not respect us
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as persons? It is a good question in the light of what Christ prays. My response admitted the problem, and I went on to point out that we all have blind spots. Part of the process of growing in Christ is to let His healing touch transform our blind spots.
From that situation in the South we moved to Beirut, Lebanon, where I taught in another college. There the animosity between Arabs and Israelis was at least as bitter as that between blacks and whites in America. At that college in Beirut, a large proportion of our textbooks were ordered from the United States. On one occasion, for a course on the life of Christ, I ordered a supplementary text. Of course the word Israel was used a number of times with reference to the time of Christ. To Arabs, the ancient use of the name was confused with the name of the modern state of Israel. I was directed by a senior official at the school to black out every occurrence of the word Israel in all copies of the text. Of course the students knew what was blacked out, but the school was protected by that device. That level of hostility runs deep indeed.
The antagonism of the Israelis against the Arabs was equally extreme. Whether with blacks and whites or with Arabs and Israelis, the bitterness often seemed as strong among Christians as among those who were not believers.
I mention one other example at a different level.
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In one church where I served as an interim pastor, I undertook to call on former members of the church who still lived within easy reach of the church, though they no longer attended. One of the people I saw was a woman who had been very active in the church some years before. After we visited a bit, I asked if there was any particular problem that had prompted her withdrawal. There was. Here is what she told me:
She often helped in the kitchen after any function where food had been served. On one occasion she was washing a few dishes and another woman was drying them. At one point the woman drying the dishes put a cup back in the wash because it wasn't completely clean. The woman I was visiting, who had been doing the washing, took offense at that and never returned to the church. What a tragedy! Although I suspect that this incident was "the straw that broke the camel's back," this woman obviously did not understand that "the war was over," that her antagonism was "utterly irrelevant." "The gift of forgiveness will always feel incomplete if it does not bear fruit in reconciliation ... Reconciliation means full restoration of a whole relationship" (Marjorie J. Thompson, "Moving Toward Forgiveness," Weavings, Vol. VII, No. 2, March/April 1992, p. 21).
When we experience God's forgiveness, when we become a part of His Body, the Church, the truth
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of Ephesians 2:16-17 becomes actual. Paul liked the analogy of "the body" (see, for example, Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12 and Ephesians 4). The various parts of a healthy physical body are a community, a oneness. The incredible complexity of the physical body is hardly noticed when all the parts are working together as a community. When they are not working together, we are ill. "The Pauline move is not from the particularity of the body to the universality of the spirit, but from separated bodies to the community of interrelated bodies — the one body in the Spirit with many discrete members" (Volf, Exclusion and Embrace, p. 48).
It often takes some time before the practice of the reality of the truth of our oneness in Christ becomes a part of our daily lives. The critical thing is that the basis for good relationships is in place. For a good relationship to become operational in our lives, we need, first, to recognize the truth of what God has done. We see it best in our new relationship with God. We are now part of His family. It also applies to our relationships within His family with other Christians.
Second, we need to enter into the process, not only to be willing but to align ourselves with what Scripture has said is true, namely, that the war is over, that the old antagonisms are "utterly irrelevant." Sometimes we need help from others with
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greater maturity in Christ to get new insights into dealing with a particular relational problem. We also need to be responsive to the Holy Spirit. I like the thrust of Gregory Jones' comment, "Christian forgiveness is not simply a word of acquittal; nor is it something that merely refers backward. Rather, Christian forgiveness — and, more specifically, forgiven-ness — is a way of life, a fidelity to a relationship of friendship, that must be learned and relearned on our journey toward holiness" (Embodying Forgiveness, p. 66).
Third, since "wars" involve others, we need to initiate some peace moves; we need to talk with the other party or parties. That conversation needs to be undertaken gently, with the recognition that the problem may be primarily on our side.
Sometimes the other person may not even be aware of what we see as a problem. Those situations require very gentle handling. Ernest Boyer (Finding God at Home, p. 173) suggests that community primarily does two things: It provides a caring context, and it assists the caring persons to enlarge their scope.
The awareness of the truth of Ephesians 2:16-17 has profound implications for the relationships within the Christian community. For example, in a marriage problem between a Christian husband and a Christian wife, the fact that the war has ended does
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not do away with differences; it can, however, do away with the differences moving into resentment, antagonism, bitterness. Some years ago, my wife and I were part of the advisory team of a college Christian fellowship group at the college where I was teaching. One Sunday evening the program involved a panel talking about the areas of courtship and marriage. One of the panelists said she and her husband began their life together with the solid resolve that whatever problems might develop, divorce was not an option they would consider. Rather, they would work through problems as they arose.
We can have that same resolve in the Christian family, so that whatever problems or dissensions might develop with another Christian, resentment, antagonism and their like are simply not available choices. Negative responses don't just happen — we choose how we respond. This approach, whether in marriage or in other relationships, is not possible if one chooses to pursue his or her "rights," desires, etc., without regard for the other. In a community, we must deal thoughtfully and gently with others in the community, though recognizing that sometimes "tough love" is required. Differences are good and add variety and richness, as we see in nature. There is not simply one shade of green in the foliage of trees. Nor is there only one kind of
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tree or flower. We appreciate such variety in nature. People, too, are different from one another!
If we let differences move into resentment and bitterness, those qualities easily become hurtful and destructive. The problem, again, is not that we have differences. Differences bring richness to a relationship. As Archibald Hart says, we must seek for understanding, not necessarily for agreement (Feeling Free, p. 88). When I officiate at a wedding, just after the pronouncement of marriage, I emphasize by tone of voice our Lord's statement, "Those whom God has joined together let no one separate" (Matthew 19:6, my rendering). The "joining together" also happens as we become part of Christ's Body. Here, too, that does not mean the differences are at an end. Our oneness with other Christians needs to be cultivated and enjoyed.
In the community, we help one another in that process. Jones speaks several times of "forgiveness as a craft" (Embodying Forgiveness, pp. 218 and elsewhere). That also suggests the truth that forgiveness is an ongoing learning process. Because we cannot avoid wounding one another, we have many opportunities to keep learning the "craft"!
The example we have in Paul's letter to his friend Philemon who lived in Colossae is powerful. Onesimus, a slave of Philemon, had run away and
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made his way to Rome. Runaway slaves found the inner city of Rome a good place in which to get lost. Somehow Onesimus came in touch with Paul, a prisoner in Rome at the time. Growing out of that, Onesimus became a Christian. Now Paul and Onesimus are brothers in Christ (in Colossians 4:9 Paul refers to Onesimus as his "faithful and beloved brother," my rendering). So also are Onesimus and Philemon. Do Onesimus and Philemon know that the war is ended, that the former antagonism is now "utterly irrelevant"? As Paul and Onesimus talk, presumably over a period of some days, the decision is made for Onesimus to return to Philemon in Colossae. Did Onesimus suggest it, or did Paul? We don't know. That decision would have required significant courage on the part of Onesimus. According to the customs of the day, Philemon could have had Onesimus executed out-of-hand.
Paul writes a letter to Philemon and sends it with Onesimus. In the letter, Paul says, "Perhaps this is the reason he was separated from you for a while, so that you might have him back forever, no longer as a slave, ... but ... a beloved brother." Then Paul encourages, "Welcome him as you would welcome me!" (verses 15-17, NRS). That request is totally revolutionary in terms of the social mores of the day. A runaway slave and his owner beloved brothers in Christ? The war is over; the old antagonisms
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are "utterly irrelevant." If this is true for the deep hostility that had existed between Jew and Gentile, if it is true for the antagonism that existed between Philemon and Onesimus, it can be our experience also! That is what genuine forgiveness can accomplish when a spirit of forgiveness meets repentance. That is the goal of forgiveness! That is community.
In her Learning to Forgive, Doris Donnelly makes the profound comment, "To reconcile means to bring together that which belongs together but which is apart" (P. 70). That statement underscores the fact that forgiveness (Donnelly uses reconcile and forgive essentially as synonyms) must move toward togetherness, toward community. Forgiveness is not solitary; it is communal.
Salvation means becoming a part of the Body of Christ, where all the parts belong together. Hurting one another, offending one another, leads to separation, to tearing asunder "that which belongs together." It was the togetherness of the Christian community that led the ancient pagan to cry out regarding the Christians, "Behold how they love one another!" A spirit of forgiveness when wounding occurs, met with the expression of repentance, brings healing, brings forgiveness, brings reconciliation, brings wholeness, brings restored oneness. Jones' comment is worth repeating: "Christian forgiveness ... is a way of life" (Embodying Forgiveness, p. 66).
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Again, the pattern God established in giving His Son portrays the reality. Our sin separates us from God; Christ died in order to make possible the family of God and our ongoing fellowship within the family; God's spirit of forgiveness meets our confession of our sin (repentance), resulting in our forgiveness. The "transaction" calls for celebration: " 'This son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!' And they began to celebrate" (Luke 15:24, NRS). The celebration is both fitting and necessary. When we are hurt or when we hurt another, we need to reach out to express a spirit of forgiveness or our repentance, to seek to restore the troubled relationship. Doing something to celebrate renewed fellowship where there was alienation is good in itself. Might it also tend to discourage subsequent alienation between the two parties?
On beyond the specific hurts we do to one another, there is another layer of wrong. So often between fellow believers there is a kind of distance. We don't like to respond to another's appearance, lifestyle, understanding of the faith — or whatever. It isn't so much that we offend each other, but we fail to reach out, to seek to understand, to get to know, to learn from the other. In a word, while we belong together as a part of God's family, we don't endeavor "to bring together that which belongs
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together." Consequently, our individual lives, as well as our community, as well as our impact on the non-Christian world are all crippled to some degree.
It is worth pausing for a moment to consider the principal obstacle to community, indeed, to forgiveness. I think the central problem is self-centeredness. Self-centeredness turns our focus inward and excludes others, except as they may meet our needs. If my life strongly hinges on my desires, my hopes, my satisfactions, etc., it becomes very difficult to express either a spirit of forgiveness or repentance. (There is, of course, a proper concern about oneself — health, work, family, etc. I am not speaking here of that very legitimate concern.)
Self-centeredness manifests itself in many ways. Sometimes it is pride. Or it may be the flip side of pride, a lack of self-worth. Other times it is expressed in greed and unthankfulness. An absence of genuine caring is another expression. Can we not almost define sin as self-centeredness in opposition to God-centeredness? Self-centeredness is always destructive of relationships, sometimes very quickly, other times more gradually. One of the reasons my relationship with my father was a problem for so long was because I thought of forgiveness as a one-way street, from him (the wrongdoer!) to me. Not so. Forgiveness is always a two-way street.
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How do we deal with the obstacle of self-centeredness? There is a radical way, a way that will expand to touch all facets of our persons, a way that opens onto some breathtaking vistas. Here we are at the heart and the glory of the Gospel, the good news of Christ. The language of the New Testament is striking. To let Christ into one's life is a new birth (see John 3:3) or a new creation (see 2 Corinthians 5:17). Neither figure means that all of our past history is removed, that we are somehow separated from all that has gone into making us what we are. On the other hand, we must not discount the newness, the freshness, the openness that is present in Christ. What makes the great difference, what is really new, is the fact that Christ comes into our lives (see Galatians 2:20).
The words seem to be prosaic, but there is nothing prosaic about the fact. To be indwelt by deity, to have God's Holy Spirit enter our lives, is a radical change. I no longer struggle to change simply by my own effort. The resources of Almighty God are now available to bring about growing change. Part of the freshness and excitement of walking with Christ is the newness that is present in that kind of life. Walking in fellowship with the King of kings and Lord of lords can hardly be called boring!
Too often we prefer to remain restricted by the limits we put on ourselves. Our horizons become
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so circumscribed when we exclude God from our reckoning. The human person is an amazing being, even with all the problems we have from ignoring God. When we open ourselves to the One who designed us to walk in fellowship with Himself, then the possibilities are simply incalculable!
How do we begin to turn it all around so we become members of God's family, of our natural families, of friendship "families," of employment "families," who genuinely care for one another? The answer, in a word, is forgiveness. That is what this book is about, an attempt to clarify the richness of forgiveness and to move us toward a spirit of forgiveness and genuine repentance, toward community with God and with one another.
The sadness and loneliness of the absence of community was vividly demonstrated to me on one occasion. In a college where I was teaching, it was the practice to assign new freshmen each fall to various faculty members for help in advising regarding courses, and for whatever other help we could provide the new students. One fall, one of the students assigned to me was a bit unusual, though not in a way I could put my finger on. We met together two or three times and worked out his schedule to his satisfaction.
The first day of classes, I was in my study shortly before 8:00 A.M. This young man came to my door,
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said he had ten minutes before class, could he talk with me. I invited him in and turned from my desk to face him. He didn't seem to have anything special on his mind. We chatted until he had to leave for class.
At noon that day I had a call from the president of the college asking me to come to his office. I went there, and a sheriff was with the president. They told me a young man from the college had driven three miles north of the college, turned off on a secluded road, had taken his clothes off and doused himself with gas. Then he had struck a match. Would I go with the sheriff to identify the body of the man who had stopped for a chat that morning?
As I thought about the young man, I wondered what kind of experiences, what sort of life, his had been. What had he gone through that left such hopelessness that he took his own life? I also wondered if I had been more alert, might I have picked up from our conversation that morning a cry for help? I don't know. I did not accuse myself of being responsible for his death, but might I have helped him if I had been more sensitive?
The sadness of the experience to me centered on the loneliness the young man must have felt. There were other students around, of course, but he apparently felt alone, without community. Rather than reaching out (unless his visit with me that
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morning had been such an attempt), he simply decided to end his life and, as suicide usually is, all alone.
Paul is speaking, in Ephesians 2, of the relationship between Christian and Christian. Likewise, Christ's prayer in John 17 is for members of his "family." In the case of relationships between non-Christians, or between a Christian and a non-Christian, the situation is somewhat different. It is certainly true that a spirit of forgiveness and repentance are essential for resolving relational problems, whether or not the parties are Christian, but there is not the further component of oneness in Christ. There is the oneness of shared humanity, which is in itself significant. With Christians, however, the forgiveness we know and experience in Christ brings about a oneness that provides a new base for the healing of relationships. While we Christians often don't do as well as we could in personal relationships, we have a foundation in Christ which non-Christians do not have.
I do not mean to suggest that Christians don't have significant differences! We do indeed have such differences. But in God's family, we have an actual relationship with one another. To use the family analogy that is so much a part of the New Testament, we are brothers and sisters in Christ. Forgiveness practiced among us keeps that family
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closeness alive and healthy and warm. We not only share a common goal, a feature found in all sorts of groups and organizations, but we share a common life. We are part not merely of an organization but of an organism. Forgiveness is important not only because it maintains a closeness with God, but also because it maintains the warmth and closeness in our Christian family, within which we can wrestle with our differences.
We need to keep growing both in our understanding of the truths of Christianity, including our community, our oneness, and in the application of those truths to daily life. Growth is an essential element in the concept of life. Life is dynamic, not static. We never reach the place in our Christian life where there is not room for more growth — again both in understanding and in practice.
Of course, in many areas there will be a necessary opposition between Christians and non-Christians, for example, regarding the centrality of Christ for daily life or as the basis for ethics, etc. That opposition does not need to be marked by antagonism and bitterness, but the opposition in fundamental orientation is very real.
The new life in Christ has many facets which work toward the building of community. Here are a few of them: It is a life of faith working through love (see Galatians 5:6); it is a life under the control of
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the Holy Spirit (see Romans 8:5-6); it is a life of liberty (see 2 Corinthians 3:17 and Galatians 5:1); it is a life of joy (see Philippians 1:18 and 4:4); it is a life of thanksgiving (see Ephesians 5:20); it is a life which increasingly manifests the fruit of the Spirit (see Galatians 5:22-23 and others). As these realities become apparent in our lives, our community, our oneness, grows and is enriched.
These things are not suddenly and completely attained, but are a result of growth. The term "fruit" in Galatians 5:22 is expressive. Fruit is not the result of studied effort; it is not put on from the outside like the decorations on a Christmas tree. It is the product of life, the life of the Spirit of Christ. A healthy apple tree cannot fail to bear apples; it is the nature of the tree to bear apples. In the same way, a person who is growing in Christ cannot fail to bear the fruit of the Spirit. As the child of God sees more and more of the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ, he is gradually changed into His likeness, from one degree of glory to another (see 2 Corinthians 4:6 and 3:18). (There is a quite marvelous illustration of this principle in the experience of Ernest in Nathaniel Hawthorne's lovely short story "The Great Stone Face.")
The foundation for this process of growth is beautifully stated in John 1:16: "From his fullness we all received, even grace in place of grace" (my rendering).
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The imagery of the Greek preposition anti "in place of," is that of standing by a river. As the water immediately in front of one moves on, there is not an empty space. Rather, water takes the place of water — water in place of water. So in the Christian life there is always grace taking the place of grace, taking the place of grace, without end.
As Annie Johnson Flint wrote in the hymn "He Giveth More Grace":
His love has no limit, His grace has no measure,
His power has no boundary known unto men;
For out of His infinite riches in Jesus,
He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again!
—Annie Johnson Flint
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Questions for Discussion
1. If forgiveness and community are as closely linked as I contend, why do you think Christians are as divided as we seem to be? What can we do as individuals to help fellow Christians realize that antagonisms between us are "utterly irrelevant'?
2. What are ways in which we can help the practice of the reality of our oneness in Christ develop?
3. Try imagining yourself as Philemon when Onesimus hands you Paul's letter. What do you think your response would actually be? Is that what you wish your response had been?
4. Consider Doris Donnelly's statement, "To reconcile means to bring together that which belongs together but which is apart" (p. 76). Discuss with a few others what the implications of that statement are.
5. What can we do to "grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ"?
