The Rt. Rev. Jeff W. Fisher, Suffragan Bishop of Texas, writes about the National Day of Reconciliation:
I don’t really like reconciliation. Reconciliation requires me to make an effort. Yet Jesus asks me to put in the effort and work to be reconciled to people, people who sometimes drive me crazy.
I didn’t know that there was such a thing as a National Day of Reconciliation, April 2. I can now add that to my list of other days that I have learned about such as National Margarita Day and National Left-Handed Day (which as a southpaw, I completely support).
To me, it is interesting that this National Day of Reconciliation falls on Easter Monday, the day after we celebrate that God raised Jesus from the dead. For after the Resurrection, I imagine that a lot of reconciliation needed to take place.
The night before Jesus dies, the Apostle Peter throws Jesus under the bus, denying him three times. The relationship between Jesus and Peter was not in a good place. Judas did more than throw Jesus under the bus; the relationship is so torn that Judas takes is own life. And we do not get off the hook either: we, the crowd, ask Pilate to do our dirty work, screaming “Crucify him!” so that an innocent man dies. As Jesus hangs on the cross, our relationship with Jesus is certainly broken.
The day after the Resurrection of Jesus, there was a lot of reconciliation required.
In my own experience, the only way that I am reconciled is to have a one-on-one conversation. Not an email rant. Not a text. A real live conversation.
Matthew Townsend is a Halifax-based freelance journalist and volunteer advocate for survivors of sexual misconduct in Anglican settings. He served as editor of the Anglican Journal from 2019 to 2021 and communications missioner for the Anglican Diocese of Quebec from 2019 to 2022. He and his wife recently entered catechism class in the Orthodox Church in America.
