THOUGHTS OF A NUN

Forgiveness 

March 5, 2006

The reading from Ephesians, as well as last week’s readings, has a whole litany of do’s and don’ts. The last admonition this morning is “be kind to one another and to forgive one another.” In my last homily I talked about forgiveness being voted the most difficult thing Jesus told us we must do. We all know that LOVE encompasses all virtues, but in order to love, we must learn to forgive. Forgiveness is mentioned both in the epistle and the gospel - You will be forgiven as you forgive others.

Making a concentrated effort to put into practice anything on the list of do’s and don’ts will be sufficient to fill our days. Become a new self - take on the likeness of God. This is a very difficult order indeed. Be kind and forgive. There are many meanings and aspects to this other injunction - be kind-krestos in Greek. Generous is one meaning, compassionate; gracious are some of the others. It is most difficult to forgive others as well as ourselves if we are not compassionate, generous, kind.

Lent calls for conversion, and true conversion involves flexible selves, selves ready for change. The unmaking and remaking of self, the constant conversion to which the Christian life urges us, is now felt more keenly.

Any invitation to spiritual transition can be fraught with peril. We may fail to heed the invitation. We may hear it but, busy about the thousand things we are always busy about, we may fail to engage at all. We may confuse God’s call to us, assuming that our Lent should look like someone else’s. We may think that our unique challenge can be answered with a generic response, doing what we have always done-giving up this or that, candy or movies or whatever. How often do we allow the opportunities for change to slip away while we hold on to the past?

Small moments of change fill our lives. Transforming opportunities come our way every day. Possibilities await us each new morning. We have to be fully alert and ready to see startling, surprising, and mysterious people and events as the Christ continues to show up in our lives.

The question becomes, “Can we see them?”

Do my actions or thoughts drag another down or do they lift another up? Do they enable another to be wiser, or happier? How often do my thoughts and actions spread the bread of sincerity and truth?

An aspect of forgiveness not mentioned this morning is being accountable for our own errors. How difficult it is to say and mean “I’m sorry,” or, “It’s my fault” or “I apologize.” Some time ago a local newspaper claimed that Americans are proficient at believing and saying that it is the other person’s fault. When or if that attitude creeps into our life, we are in trouble. We’re in trouble because it is then that we no longer recognize our ability to stumble, our ability to sin. Our consciences no longer tickle us. We can become really good at justifying our actions or our lack of action. We can become numb, almost as though we’ve received a shot of novocaine.