The Embrace at Reims Cathedral

On July 8, 1962, two old men stood side by side in the great cathedral at Reims, France — the very city that German shells had nearly destroyed in the First World War. Konrad Adenauer, Chancellor of West Germany, and Charles de Gaulle, President of France, attended a Mass of reconciliation together. Then, on the steps outside, they embraced.

The weight of that moment is hard to overstate. Three wars in seventy years had soaked the soil between their nations with blood. Millions of families on both sides carried wounds that still ached. Every impulse of justice demanded that old grievances be remembered, old debts repaid. And yet here stood two leaders choosing a different path — not pretending the past had not happened, but declaring that the future would not be held hostage to it.

The Psalmist saw this kind of moment with the eyes of faith: "Mercy and truth have met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other" (Psalm 85:10). That verse is not describing a world where justice is abandoned or where truth is swept aside. It describes the holy mystery where full honesty about what went wrong meets full commitment to restoration. Neither cancels the other. They embrace.

This is what the God of Israel does. He does not choose between truth and mercy. In His hands, they walk toward each other — and when they meet, the land itself begins to heal.