Fr. Robert Miclean
Holy Archangels Orthodox Church
Sunday of Forgiveness 2012
Epistle: Romans 13:11-14.4
Gospel: Matthew 6:14-21
We’ve arrived at the very doorstep of Great Lent. “Our salvation is nearer at hand than when we first believed,” says St. Paul (Rom.13;11). If we’re to cross over the threshold into a holy Lent, Christ teaches us that we must love as He has loved us, and learn to forgive and love our neighbor. “The fast without mutual love,” says Metropolitan Kallistos, “is the fast of demons!”
We cross into Lent with a desire for a clean conscience, seeking freedom from bitterness, envy, anger, judgment, pride, lust—all the sins that defile us and cause us spiritual sickness, and yes, death. Christ calls on us to interject into our brokenness—the brokenness of ourselves and our relationships with others—this act of grace, loving, forgiving one another.
We often don’t realize that the act of forgiving is a uniquely Christian, Christ-centered grace. Those of us who have grown up in a culture with Christian roots—however lapsed—often take forgiveness for granted. But being forgiven, asking forgiveness, is certainly not universally known throughout the world or in other religions, or even in our own culture today.
For this reason, forgiveness is often a struggle for us; the ability to forgive involves both love and humility; where pride reigns in our lives, forgiveness and love will both be lacking. Likewise, if we are quick to judge others and find faults in them, we’ll have a hard time loving them, let alone forgiving them. As we enter Lent, we remember the parable of the Publican and the Pharisee. And, we remember and carry with us St. Paul’s words to us today, “Who are you to judge another’s servant. This is a hard teaching for us in our self-righteousness.
Against the background of this teaching, Jesus speaks to us in today’s Gospel, reminding us: “If you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
As with everything Christ God teaches us, there’s nothing arbitrary here in what He says. When we ask forgiveness, we’re recognizing that we’re sinners too, that my sins, my fallenness, affects others; our sins dim the light of Christ which is meant to shine through us and illumine the world around us; our sins are a spiritual form of pollution; they mar the beauty and goodness of creation and darken the image of God and His likeness in us.
Sometimes we offend people even when we’re unaware of having done anything wrong against them. Once a perceived offense is discovered, it’s still better to ask forgiveness for any offense we’ve caused. This gives us an opportunity to practice humility—hard as that struggle is. If someone sins through oversensitivity, accusing us, being quick to take offense, leave it for them to discover or correct them in mercy. Other times we know we’ve sinned against someone and then we have the opportunity to directly ask forgiveness for our sin against that particular person.
Forgiveness is truly a work of the Holy Spirit. This is why so much of the world doesn’t understand it; in our fallenness, we naturally nurse grudges. In a twisted sort of way, we think we somehow feel better holding on to our bitterness, our hatred, our enmity.
Tragically, in the end, it’s we who suffer for our bitterness. Whatever harm has been done to us, real or imagined, we suffer twice over and more, when we allow ourselves to build resentment. Once we begin to nurse a grudge, it gnaws at us like some spiritual cancer of the soul.
In this way, those who have been particularly affected by trauma, an abusive or broken relationships, or bitterness, can often end up suffering even after the initial hurt is over.
God loves us and because He loves us, He desires our freedom and healing from such bitterness and pain; they’re the natural consequence of living in a world of sin and evil, which we by our own sins contribute to. Yes, we are in part responsible for the darkness and evils we see around us. But, we can also be a means of healing as well, as we repent and strive to love and forgive others as God loves and forgives us.
Sometimes this journey to healing and growth is painful; it always involves struggle because the coping patterns and habitual sins we’ve become accustomed to are so ingrained in us. They’re part of the fallenness around us and inside us.
Forgiveness is a big part of this healing, which is why it’s not an optional part of our life in Christ, our life in the Church. Christ commands us to forgive because forgiveness is a necessary part of that healing, that life in Christ, our participation in the communion of the Holy Trinity, and Christ would never have us be a hypocrite.
While forgiveness isn’t always easy, it’s also not always instantaneous. Forgiveness can sometimes necessitate an active and ongoing decision and attitude, e.g., “I want to want to forgive. Help me, Lord!” We love because God has first loved us. We can love because God has first loved us. We come to know true love by knowing God.
So it is with forgiveness: we can know forgiveness because God has first forgiven us and reveals to us the ministry of reconciliation through Christ. When we actively forgive, we become more like God Himself, more fit to be with God, to commune with Him. Jesus is asked, “How many times must we forgive?” Christ’s response? 70 x 7—in other words, perpetually.
When we find ourselves struggling to forgive, the key is to pray for humility and the ability to let God judge. It may be a real offense or it may be something inside of us perceiving an offense through pride and oversensitivity. Either way, we must be quick to forgive. Just as we ourselves hope to receive forgiveness from God (and others), so we must actively struggle—even on an ongoing basis—to forgive even those difficult to forgive.
Forgiveness is the path toward freedom—both for ourselves, our Church family, and the world. Fr. Alexander Schmemann says: “The triumph of sin, the main sign of its rule over the world, is division, opposition, separation, hatred. Therefore, the first break through this fortress of sin is forgiveness: the return to unity, solidarity, love…” (Great Lent)
If we fast, pray, attend all the services of Lent, but don’t practice mutual love and forgiveness, we’re deceiving ourselves and possibly doing ourselves grave harm. But when we actively forgive—even if we can’t forget—we’re able to grow and heal. Then our fasting and prayer yields much fruit. We’re given a new opportunity, a new beginning in Christ. We can find freedom from our sins and from the sins and evil done against us.
With this objective in mind, I invite you, I encourage you, to participate in the Rite of Forgiveness we’ll experience at the end of Forgiveness Vespers this day. My prayer for each of us is that we may each see Lent as a new beginning, a new opportunity to take steps forward in faith, to grow in the knowledge and love of God, to cooperate in bringing the healing of Christ into ourselves, our relationships, our Church. With the renewed spirit of mutual love and forgiveness, we can abide with Christ, we can make the most of the spiritual hospital of Lent as fellow pilgrims on our journey with Christ to a holy Pascha. May we all find increased freedom and healing from our sins and growth in Christ’s divine grace this Lent.
