Be Reconciled

Two households, both alike in dignity,

In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,From ancient grudge break into new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life;
Whose misadventur’d piteous overthrows
Doth with their death bury their parents’ strife.

      -- William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Prologue


There are two dimensions to Christian reconciliation. There is reconciliation with God and reconciliation with others. Even though Paul does not use that word often, we can be sure it was important to him, because reconciliation with God is achieved through the crucifixion is the alpha and omega of Christianity. If it were not for the crucifixion and resurrection, Paul said he preaching would amount to nothing. In Romans 5:10-11 he says, “For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life. But more than that, we even boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation." This is important. This is what makes atonement (See Romans 3:25), another name for reconciliation, a big deal. But there are two issues with reconciliation with God. The first, outside the scope of this reflection, is that there are theologians who are up in arms about the need for the violence of the crucifixion to be set right with God. More on that some other time. The second is that, in general, it is a once and done deal.

Reconciliation with others is never done, and as we said last week, reconciliation with others is necessary for forgiveness by God. So, we better get cracking!

There are two sides to reconciliation, success and failure. There are ample examples of both in Shakespeare’s plays, where a disagreement which ends in reconciliation may create a comedy and an unresolved disagreement results in tragedy. Several of Shakespeare’s comedies are based on cases of mistaken identity. Most are accidental, such as in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and A Comedy of Errors, which is one of Shakespeare’s earliest plays, and its influences and weaknesses are easier to see than in his later comedies and his great tragedies. One thing which makes Shakespeare’s comedies so memorable, capable of standing up with the histories and tragedies, is that there is generally a threat of death to one or more characters when the play opens, unless some very unpleasant condition is met. In A Comedy of Errors, a Syracuse merchant is under a death sentence for having landed in Ephesus, unless he can pay a steep fine. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, a young girl, Hermia, is threatened with death, or a convent, if she does not marry the man of her father’s choosing. In both plays, double and triple misunderstandings arise and get resolved, ending with the death threat being rescinded, due to a combination of magic and the unravelling of the mistaken identities and the generosity of the lord of the city. Reconciliation is good, and leads to true love.

The most famous tragic fallout from a failure to reconcile is Romeo and Juliet. The situation arises, in Verona, Italy, when Romeo, a son of the Montague family, falls in love with Juliet, the daughter of the Capulet family, while the Montagues and the Capulets are deep in a feud which has no reason (as far as Shakespeare is concerned) and has no prospect for resolution. What makes the situation explosive is that there are young bucks connected to both houses who, at the drop of a ducat, will engage in a duel with swords, as in the duel between the Capulet, Tybalt and the Montague, Mercutio. Both die in the duel making the dispute between the two houses even more acute. It is the Franciscan Friar Lawrence who shakes some sense into weepy Romeo and suggests that in the end, the bond between Romeo and Juliet may reconcile the two houses:

Rather than smoothing things over, the plan runs afoul of missed communications and mistaken assumptions, leading to another scene with the deaths of Paris, a relative of the ruling count, killed by Romeo at what he believes is Juliet’s tomb. Romeo, by his own hand with poison, and Juliet, by her own hand, with a knife.

The ending is both ironic, and even more tragic, in that the feud between the two houses is reconciled by the death of four of their children, plus the death of relatives of the ruling house of Verona. In Act V, Scene 3, the Prince scolds the feuding houses:

            Where be these enemies? Capulet! Montague!
             See, what a scourge is laid upon your hate,
             That heaven finds means to kill your joys with love.
             And I for winking at your discords too
             Have lost a brace of kinsmen: all are punish’d.

Love alone does not conquer all. Sometimes, it exacerbates disputes. Wisdom, and slow, careful steps are needed to steer clear of misunderstandings, hot heads, and quick tempers in reconciling disputes, and lack of attention by authorities may let nettles grow and fester already open wounds.

-- Bruce Marold