RBWords - Volume 21 - Number 2: February 2008
Something to Think About
During the season of Lent, I often preach a “mission” at parish churches that invite me. This is the Catholic equivalent of a revival, I suppose. Unless the parish requests a particular emphasis, I have a model that I follow. One of the services is always a “penance service.” That night is the night I preach about forgiveness! My experience as a confessor at those events (and elsewhere) has convinced me that the task most Christians find the most difficult is to forgive. And when I say “forgive,” I mean forgiving without exacting punishment or revenge! Where restitution is possible it should be done, but forgiveness in its true sense is not conditioned on restitution. That is why the gospel passage I choose for that subject is Matthew 18:21-35, the parable of the Unforgiving Servant, who receives pardon of a huge debt but refuses in turn to forgive a much smaller debt owed to him. It should remind us of what it is that we ask of God in “the Lord\'s Prayer”: Forgive us our trespasses as WE FORGIVE THOSE WHO TRESPASS AGAINST US! We ask God to forgive us TO THE EXTENT that we forgive others! Do we want God to take us seriously?
In challenging the congregation at the service to examine their consciences, I use a form of examination that avoids a list of actions and instead focuses on the people involved. The list includes spouses, children, relatives, professional people and self, too! This, in my opinion, “puts skin on” the reality of forgiveness. Otherwise the Sacrament of Reconciliation becomes an exercise in abstract sins in various categories without recognizing the true harm. We must be ready to forgive if we expect to be forgiven. It would be a terrible irony if we were to be very generous in giving food to the hungry and drink to the thirsty, etc., but be found to be very unforgiving in our lives. Jesus\' mission was about forgiveness. His last words were about forgiveness. If we learn that in Lent, we\'ll accomplish more than giving up something. IT\'S SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT!
It Has Been Said
“If I am to hope to hunger and thirst after righteousness, then my heart as well as my will must know forgiveness. There are still things I cannot remember without an upsurge of pain, which means that I have not yet completely forgiven, no matter what my intellectual self has said. Deep wounds must heal from the inside out, and this may take a long time, but I must be very careful to do nothing to slow or hinder the healing. Until the memory of a hurt no longer pains me, I have not forgiven the hurter.”
from THE IRRATIONAL SEASON by Madeleine L\'Engle