The Repairer of the Breach

Isaiah 58:9-12

And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday:

And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.

And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.

“The repairer of the breach.” How nice to be known as “The repairer of the breach, The restorer of the paths to dwell in.” It brings to mind another scripture in Matthew 5:9:

Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.

Isaiah has some beautiful little surprises in his language and rhetoric. The scripture above is another of those IF…THEN constructs that signal a covenant that the Lord is willing to make with us. Isaiah tells us that IF we help the hungry, sick, downtrodden, estranged, or weak of testimony, or those in need of comfort, THEN we will be greatly rewarded, as will those to whom we offer comfort, assistance or reconciliation.

These verses are most often used in relation to fasting and fast offerings. They help us understand that assisting the poor and needy are part of the gospel plan for us. Assisting those in need is an integral part of the gospel, but for purposes of this discussion, I will focus on verse twelve.

In my mind, poor relationships and estrangement for whatever reason are “waste places.” They are a breach in our hearts and minds. They can be as big as the Grand Canyon or as small as a tiny crack in the rock of a relationship.

The problem is that the Grand Canyon was once small, but is still growing today. The Colorado River continues to erode and deepen the rift. The tiny crack in the rock will grow larger as the forces of nature work on it. The forces that cause relationships to crack and split are no less effective. The adversary uses them well. Animosity, resentment, jealousy, and misunderstanding fester and erode with perhaps more permanent effect than does the ice in the crack in the rock. When we allow these emotions to enter into a relationship, we can create a breach so wide as to appear unbridgeable; usually at least two people collaborate, often unwillingly, to make the rift.

It is the adversary that plants these feelings in our hearts and minds. It is he that gloats as he sees us act upon base impulses. It is he that suffers and gnashes his teeth when we work to heal a breach in any relationship.

The wonderful news is that the atonement gives us the ability to mend a breach as wide as the Grand Canyon. Repentance and forgiveness can close the chasm without even a scar. The Savior suffered not only for our sins, but for our hurts and pains too. He knows when we are suffering and would gladly have us repent and be relieved from that pain, but there is something that we must do to be consoled and comforted by the atonement.

To be forgiven, we must forgive. It’s as simple as that. We must cleanse our own souls before the Lord is willing to help us heal the rift. In the JST, Mark 11:27-28 we read:

And when ye stand praying, forgive if ye have aught against any; that your Father also who is in heaven, may forgive you your trespasses.
But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father who is in heaven forgive your trespasses.

When we choose to forgive, the next step is obvious. We must humble ourselves and since we have forgiven the wrong in our own hearts, we are ready to “restore the breach” as defined in 3 Nephi 12:24:

Go thy way unto thy brother, and first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come unto me with full purpose of heart, and I will receive you.

If you have forgiven, you have the right to ask the Lord to provide help and guidance as you approach the person with whom there is a breach. There are always two sides to any rift. The Grand Canyon and the tiny crack both have two sides. You stand on one side and your collaborator in the breach stands on the other. Both feel wronged. Both feel pain. Both would like to repair the breach, but neither can make the first step. The following story comes from Fasting and Food, Not Weapons: a Mormon Response to Conflict, by Eugene England, BYU Studies, vol. 25 (1985), Number 1 - Winter 1985, pg 141:

I wish to share with you … two images. On 13 May 1981, in St. Peter's Square in Rome, I was reaching over a barrier to touch Pope John Paul II's outstretched hand as he circled through the crowd in his Jeep-like "Popemobile" at the beginning of his weekly public audience, when I saw the bullets hit him, one squarely in the front below the heart.

The second image comes from Christmastime, 1983. That same pope, making his yearly visit to Rome's Rebibbia Prison, turned aside to the cell of Mehmet Ali Agca, the man who had shot those bullets, and visited with him alone in a corner of that bare, white-walled room for twenty minutes. He held Agca's hand, whispered to him, seemed almost to be receiving his confession, reached out to take his arm. As he left, Agca lifted the pope's hand to his forehead in the Muslim gesture of respect. The pope later said that he had told Agca he forgave him for the shooting, that he fully accepted him as a brother.

If we hired all the dump trucks and backhoes in the world, we could not begin to close up the Grand Canyon before they wore out. Yet Pope John Paul repaired such a breach in his and his shooter’s hearts with twenty minutes of consolation and forgiveness. I have no doubt that the Savior knew what passed between them and ratified their acts.

Family and friends are eternal. Anything that creates animosity or distress is not of the Lord. Anything that heals and brings renewed friendship and love mends temporal hurts that keep us from the path to eternal happiness.

Take the first step. Soothe your aching heart by forgiving. Take the second step. Soothe the hurt felt by your collaborator in the breach through expressing your desire to reconcile. Be the peacemaker. Be the “repairer of the breach.” If we truly want to be “Children of God” then, once again, the means to do so is clearly and unambiguously stated in 3 Nephi 12:24:

Go thy way unto thy brother, and first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come unto me with full purpose of heart, and I will receive you.

We choose the path we will tread. Choose to ignore the perceived wrong/s you think you have suffered at the hands of another. Don’t collaborate any longer. Forgive and forget. Help “they that shall be of thee” (including you) to eliminate “the old waste places” and restore your souls to full fellowship with the Lord. No progress can be made toward eternity and eternal family units until all breaches are repaired and only good feelings remain as part of our relationships. The way to forgiveness and reconciliation can be difficult, but is eternally rewarding.