This week we Lectio the Liturgy with the Collect for the Fourth Sunday of Lent.
O God, who through your Word reconcile the human race to yourself in a wonderful way, grant, we pray, that with prompt devotion and eager faith the Christian people may hasten toward the solemn celebrations to come. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.
The scriptural background for this prayer can be found in 2 Corinthians chapter 5. In verse 18 we read, “And all this is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ…”
Reconcile is an interesting verb. A common definition of reconciliation would possibly mean two opposing parties who have found a path to forgiveness and acceptance and now get along.
However, when I applied that definition to the word reconcile in the prayer, it didn’t really fit because there is only one opposing party and that is the human race. God has no need to ask for our forgiveness, we are the ones who need to seek reconciliation.
So I went back to 2 Corinthians 5:18 to find the Greek definition of reconcile. There we find the word katallassō which means to change or exchange. In general it meant to exchange one thing for another, to change someone from an enemy into a friend. The exchange that occurred for us is the “wonderful way” that God reconciled us to Himself, the exchange of the life of Jesus for ours.
During Holy Week, as we walk through the Passion and Death of Jesus, we should be ever so aware of this exchange. When Jesus died on the Cross, that could have been us, it should have been us, but instead, Jesus takes the fall and in exchange, He gives us the opportunity to share in His risen divine life.
That is why we hasten toward these celebrations with prompt devotion and eager faith. Prompt devotion and eager faith are what we choose to do with our own free will. Prompt devotion is our personal investment. It is our offering, our self-sacrifice given in exchange for the offering of Jesus.
Eager faith is our total investment. We are all in, body, mind, and spirit. We have full confidence and belief that the works of Jesus accomplished what they were meant to do.
Prompt devotion and eager faith are our declaration of reconciliation received, when we were no longer cut off from God and became a friend. However, this declaration is not meant to be kept to ourselves. It is to be declared and lived, so that we can bring God’s reconciliation to those around us.