While on my study abroad semester at the University of Siegen in Germany, I have fallen in love with this hymn, which helps us to imagine reconciliation with God through a litany of concrete commonplace experiences.. Along with the lyrics, I have provided my translation and a brief reflection.
Ref.: So ist Versöhnung,
so muss der wahre Friede sein. So ist Versöhnung,
so ist vergeben und verzeihn. (2x)
Wie ein Fest nach langer Trauer, wie ein Feuer in der Nacht.
Ein off'nes Tor in einer Mauer, für die Sonne aufgemacht.
Wie ein Brief nach langem Schweigen, wie ein unverhoffter Gruß.
Wie ein Blatt an toten Zweigen, Ein Ich-mag-dich-trotzdem Kuss.
Wie ein Regen in der Wüste, frischer Tau auf dürrem Land.
Heimatklänge für vermisste, alte Feinde Hand in Hand.
Wie ein Schlüssel im Gefängnis, wie in Seenot - Land in Sicht.
Wie ein Weg aus der Bedrängnis, wie ein strahlendes Gesicht.
Wie ein Wort von toten Lippen, wie ein Blick, der Hoffnung weckt.
Wie ein Licht auf steilen Klippen, wie ein Erdteil neu entdeckt.
Wie der Frühling, wie der Morgen, wie ein Lied, wie ein Gedicht.
Wie das Leben, wie die Liebe, wie Gott selbst, das wahre Licht.
Refrain: So is reconciliation, so must the true peace be.
So is reconciliation, so is pardon and forgiveness. (2x)
Like a feast after long sorrow, like a fire in the night.
A gateway in a stone wall, left open for the sun.
Like a letter after silence, like an unhoped-for “hello”.
Like a leaf on dead tree-branches, an I-love-you-anyways kiss.
Like rainfall in the desert, fresh dew on dried-out land.
The tongue of homeland for the captive, old foes now hand-in-hand.
Like a key inside a prison, like, in a tempest, land in sight.
Like a path out of affliction, like a radiant, friendly face.
Like a word spoken from dead lips, like a look that wakens hope.
Like a torchlight shone on steep cliffs, like a new-discovered world.
Like the springtime, like the morning, like a poem, like a song.
Like life, like love, like God himself, the one true light.
“The transition from the good man to the saint is a sort of revolution; by which one for whom all things illustrate and illuminate God becomes one for whom God illustrates and illuminates all things. It is rather like the reversal whereby a lover might say at first sight that a lady looked like a flower, and say afterwards that all flowers reminded him of his lady.”
Sometimes, when we get too used to saying that God is Beauty and Goodness, we can forget that He is also beautiful and good.
Anticipating heaven, I myself can end up imagining a boundless space filled with white light in which all the saints are floating around. Likewise I can imagine God the Father to be some sort of big bright cloud exuding things like Righteousness and Holiness. The result is that I end up feeling vaguely disappointed about the prospect of Heaven, of Eternal Communion With God, because I know in all honesty that I would get bored of this imagined Paradise.
In reality, however, God is neither abstract nor vague. On the contrary, all the best and most beautiful things that we encounter in the physical world are themselves vague in comparison with the intensity and reality of God’s goodness and beauty. When we make the switch which Chesterton describes, when we recognize that all pleasures we experience really, truly pale in comparison with God, that He is sweeter than the most mild spring evening, that He is more lovely than the most delicate rose, then can we truly begin to “taste and see that the Lord is good; happy are those who take refuge in Him” (Psalm 34:8).
God has created this physical world to be the medium through which we experience everything. Once we are in our resurrected bodies and the veil is taken away from our eyes, what we now “see in a mirror dimly, we shall then see face to face” (1 Corinthians 3:12). The God whom we now know through the veil of Scripture and sacraments we will then experience more intensely than any sensation on earth.
Allow, therefore, the sensations that we do experience on earth to be little gospels, promises of that great reconciliation which is to come. I love the hymn “So Ist Versohnung” for many reasons; the music, the simplicity of the language, but most of all because it is not afraid to reveal God in the mundane experiences that make up our physical lives. “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things” (Phillipians 4:8).