In Christ

I would like to focus on today’s second reading, Second Corinthians 5:17-21, which is beautifully tied to today’s gospel reading, the famous pericope of Christ dining with sinners and tax collectors and his telling the Pharisees the parable of the prodigal son.

St. Paul highlights the beautiful sacrament of Confession as the way to enter into the forgiveness of the Father’s love through uniting ourselves to Christ. Let us look at it line by line:

“So for anyone who is in Christ, there is a new creation: the old order is gone and a new being is there to see” (5:17). St. Paul reminds the Corinthians that they are a new creation in Christ. What does it mean to be in Christ? Christ has died for our sins and rose again so that we might share in His glory, but how can we access that glorious resurrection?

“It is all God's work; he reconciled us to himself through Christ and he gave us the ministry of reconciliation” (5:18). We do not reconcile ourselves to Christ, but rather, Jesus reconciles us to the Father. But where is Jesus? How are we in Christ? Jesus said to His apostles at His ascension that He would send the Holy Spirit, cf. Acts 1:7-8.

“I mean, God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not holding anyone's faults against them, but entrusting to us the message of reconciliation” (5:19). It would be a cruel trick if Jesus promised us the forgiveness of our sins in Him without giving us a sure way to be united to Him. St. Paul, therefore, reiterates the importance of our connection to Christ through the Apostles and those who succeed them.

“So we are ambassadors for Christ; it is as though God were urging you through us, and in the name of Christ we appeal to you to be reconciled to God” (5:20). To whom is St. Paul referring when he says “you” and “us”? When St. Paul says “us,” he is referring to himself and the other Apostles, as well as to their successors, the priests and bishops of the Church. “You” refers to those who are in need of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, i.e. all of us! St. Paul is not making a false dichotomy between “the righteous” and “sinners,” like the Pharisees do in today’s Gospel. Rather, he invites the Corinthians (and us) into the gift of Reconciliation in Christ and through apostolic authority.

“For our sake he made the sinless one a victim for sin, so that in him we might become the uprightness of God” (5:21). Again, St. Paul says that it is God’s work. All are sinners, including the Apostles, but in Christ all are made whole and return to the Father like the prodigal son.

-Jacob Pride