Before we delve too deeply into PART ONE of Reconciliatio et Paenitentia, a reminder of what lies ahead for us in this first of three Parts:
PART ONE: CONVERSION AND RECONCILIATION
(The Church’s Task and Commitment)
CHAPTER 1-1 A PARABLE OF RECONCILIATION
From the Brother Who Was Lost
… To the Brother Who Stayed at Home
CHAPTER 1-2 AT THE SOURCES OF RECONCILIATION
– In the Light of Christ the Reconciler
– The Reconciling Church
– The Reconciled Church
CHAPTER 1-3 GOD’S INITIATIVE AND THE CHURCH’S MINISTRY
– Reconciliation Comes from God
– The Church, the Great Sacrament of Reconciliation
– Other Means of Reconciliation
We’ll begin Chapter One with some much-travelled territory. In his second encyclical letter, Pope John Paul II visited a certain fictional family known for their place in A Parable of Reconciliation. More recently, Pope Francis has written and preached often on the father and two sons of Luke 15. Reconciliatio et Paenitentia kicks off part one, chapter one with this introduction:
5. At the beginning of this apostolic exhortation there comes into my mind that extraordinary passage in St. Luke, the deeply religious as well as human substance of which I have already sought to illustrate in a previous document.(Cf Dives in Misencordia 5-6) I refer to the parable of the prodigal son.(Cf Luke 15:11-32)
This document is Copyright © 1984 – Libreria Editrice Vatican.
Catholic Sensibility 