Today (sundown last night until sundown tonight) our Jewish brothers and sisters are celebrating Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar. It is the “Day of Atonement,” on which those of the Jewish faith atone for their sins of the past year. The day is traditionally observed by fasting and prayer, and many of my Jewish friends spent a significant period of this day in their synagogues.
The day of Yom Kippur itself is reserved for atonement of sins between oneself and God. One comes to the day itself having already atoned for sins committed against other persons. To atone for those sins, one must seek reconciliation with that person, preferably doing something to right any wrongs one has committed against them. This is to be done before Yom Kippur.
We who are Catholics don’t have a single annual day of atonement. The Sacrament of Reconciliation is available to us all the time for us to seek pardon for our sins between ourselves and God and between ourselves and other perople (although it is a Sacrament frequently ignored by many except, perhaps, during Lent).
But one of the things I am drawn to by Yom Kippur and the days leading up to it is the emphasis on seeking reconciliation with those we have injured, on seeking pardon from the person and trying to do something to right the wrong. This is not something that should seem foreign to Christians; Jesus tells us to do exactly that. In Matthew’s Gospel Jesus says “if you bring your gift to the altar, and there recall that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift there at the altar, go first and be reconciled with your borther, and then come and offer your gift.”
We who are Christians can learn from the example of our Jewish brothers and sisters. Seeking absolution for our sins from God is important, but so is seeking pardon from, and reconciliation with, those against whom we have sinned.
Creo en Dios! 