What can I do? Tell me what I can do to make things right?

Joe and Jan – those are not their real names, but they are real people – hardly knew how to talk to each other since the fateful day when Joe, and their two-year-old son, Joey, went for a walk in their neighborhood. As they stepped out to cross the street, a car careened around the corner, striking both father and son. The car sped away; neighbors called 911. Dad and son were rushed to the hospital.

Both required emergency surgery. The prognosis for little Joey was hopeful, but it didn’t look like Joe was going to make it. Sadly, Joey took a turn for the worse and died in the night. It was Joe who survived. After several weeks in the hospital, he was finally able to come home, empty-handed.

Joe, overcome with guilt and unable to work, slipped into depression. The house seemed deathly quiet with just he and Jan. He often wished he could have been the one who died.

Joe knew that most couples who have lost a child end up divorced. After losing Joey, he couldn’t bear the thought of losing his wife too. Jan didn’t want to blame her husband for the death of their son, but she couldn’t help wondering how things might have been different if only Joe had left for the walk a little sooner, or a little later, or if only he had taken a different route. She was angry at Joe.

What can I do? Joe implored his wife. “What can I do to make things right?

How would you answer? Is there anything Joe could do to restore the relationship they once had?

As men and women who have – each one of us – turned away from our creator God, in a way, we stand in the same position as my friend Joe.

Alienated from Holy God, we stand helpless, but very much aware that something is not the way it is supposed to be. Burned into our consciousness is distant memory of a better life – way back – generations before in the garden.

There should be peace, but peace seems unattainable.

What can we do? We ask. Someone tell us what we can do to be reconciled with the creator and judge of the universe.

There is no lack for people who will give you a handy list of things you must do to be reconciled.

(Observe Lent) One group will tell you to fast from meat for forty days. Go to special church services. Stay away from entertainment, like movies and nightclubs for forty days. Give a tenth of your income to the church. Say prayers to Father, Son and the Blessed Virgin every day. Do works of charity as often as you can. And maybe God will let you back into the family. Maybe then you will get into heaven and be reconciled to God. And many follow these teachings with religious zeal.

(Islam) Another group says, “No, you must go to our meetings instead. Pray three times a day, bowing down on your knees, facing east. Make a pilgrimage to the holy city. If you are brave enough to fight in a holy war and if you should be fortunate to die a martyr, then you may  be reconciled to God. And many follow their teachings with religious zeal.

Another group says, “No, all those religious groups have it all wrong.” Here’s what you do. Just convince yourself that there never was a garden. Imagine there’s no heaven. There’s no God; no need to be reconciled. Your existence is nothing more than a collision of time and chance anyway.

Remember Joe and Jan. When I last talked with them, it had been about ten years and they’ve stayed together. Joe did all he could do, but of course, there’s nothing he could do to make things right. Ultimately it depended on Jan’s ability to forgive and she chose to forgive. There was no replacing little Joey, but God has blessed them with another son and a daughter.

When you have experienced God’s grace and you have been reconciled to God, you want to become a grace-giver yourself.