THOUGHTS OF A MONK

Forgiveness Sunday

February 18, 2007

Scripture: 28: 2-12; Ep 5:1-2, 8-20; MT 6:14-21

We in the Orthodox tradition do a lot of talking back. The priest says something and the people respond. He can’t get away with anything without the people also putting in a word. We have to have the last word.  One might say that liturgy was interactive before interactive came into our vocabulary.  So, if the Priest says: “Peace be with you” the people respond: “And with your spirit.” If the priest says: “Let us bow our heads to the Lord” the people respond: “To you O Lord.” If the priest says: “Let us pray to the Lord” the people say: “Lord have mercy.” Then there are the well-known exchanges; Glory be to Jesus Christ – Glory forever; Christ is born – Glorify him; Christ is risen – Truly risen; Christ is in our midst – He is and ever will be. But there is one that is said before the priest’s communion and at Vespers tonight that can be puzzling.  The priest says: “Forgive me” and we respond: “God forgives.”  What’s going on here?  It’s as if a person asks for forgiveness and the response is “don’t ask me for forgiveness, ask God. God forgives; don’t expect me to!”

As I was thinking about this conundrum I recalled a personal experience from the summer of 1970. Returning home from my junior year abroad in Tunisia I went on a 3-week tour of Europe with my parents. One of our stops was in Baden Baden, Germany.  My mother wanted to see Baden Baden because her grandmother was from there.  One afternoon we were walking in a park on the edge of the Black Forest and we happened upon a small Orthodox Chapel.  We were looking around the closed building and were about to leave when a seminarian came up to us and asked if we would like to see inside. Of course we replied “yes” and he showed us around the church.  During that brief encounter one of his comments made a lasting impression with me. It was about the Orthodox understanding of God’s compassion. He gave an example of a married couple in which one of the spouses was unfaithful but confessed this to the other spouse and asked for forgiveness. He said, in such a circumstance God would forgive and we could do no less. 

God is the ultimate judge and source of forgiveness. God shows us what an unreserved act of forgiveness looks like and it is the example we are to follow. It is what the Gospel today is telling us to do. It is what Christ said on the Cross: forgive them for they know not what they do. It is a dual reminder: first: that the most important source of forgiveness is God and second: that we are called to do likewise! In this light our response “God forgives” makes sense, even though genuine forgiveness is no easy thing to accomplish.

John Cassian, a monastic writer who lived in the 4th and 5th centuries, may give us an insight into understanding forgiveness. The centerpiece of his “theology” if you will, comes from the Beatitudes, which includes the phrase: Blessed are the pure in heart: they shall see God. To see God in Cassian’s view is the goal of monastics. To reach that goal requires a lifetime of struggle to purify one’s heart, to clear away all the obstacles that clutter the path to God.  And what are those obstacles?  One might call them our earthly treasures.
Remember the rich man who asked Jesus “What must I do to gain eternal life? And Jesus tells him: Sell everything you have and give it to the poor and come and follow me. Sell everything you have is just another way of letting go. For that rich man it meant letting go of all that he possessed but he was too attached to all those things to let them go and follow Jesus.  Forgiveness is another dimension of letting go, but in this case it is not so much letting go of things but of stuff that is even closer to the heart: all the slights, hurts, grievances, grudges, gripes that I have against others.  Letting go of that need for people to always notice me, praise me, think of me, congratulate me, because by holding on to all these treasures I anchor my relationships in reference to me.  When that is the case, it doesn’t take much for the reference to me to turn sour if what I expect of others is not fulfilled: So much for purity of heart, so much for forgiveness.  My forgiveness is not real if interiorly I still hold on to all the hurts. I may say the words I forgive you, but the emphasis on I. It says notice me. Forgiveness is about me, but it is about changing me. It is about conversion and repentance: the very essence of the season we are now entering.

The path to the goal of this season is to strive to become “pure in heart.” Chances are we will never fully achieve purity of heart but if we try to look and listen to what is going on inside us when the moment of forgiveness arrives we will begin to locate areas in our life that we can work on to bring us closer to that goal.  Every time we get upset with someone, ask what is going on there? Even if the person did something that might justify these feelings, true forgiveness doesn’t abide that justification. If we feel hurt by what someone may have said or done, what is that feeling all about? If we hang on to that feeling then we are off the path to purity of heart. And if we continue to bear grudges, not to mention seek revenge against others, then we are far from being pure in heart, further still from laying up treasures in heaven.

During our retreat I happened to come across a collection of homilies by Jean Corbon, a French priest who spent most of his life serving the Greek Catholic (Melchite) community in Beirut. These are Eastern Christians in communion with Rome. He was there for 41 years, through good years as well as the 17-year Lebanese Civil War and after. His personal call was to preach peace and forgiveness at a time and in a place that was consumed by war, hate and revenge. Not many of us would choose such a life, but he did.  And in one homily he reminded his listeners that this time of Great Lent is about our return to paradise. This Sunday the church marks the expulsion of Adam and Eve from paradise and it is the beginning of the period when we can make a special effort for our conversion and repentance, to bring us back to paradise.  To bring us back to that path to heaven where we store up treasures that will not erode or fade away, which is to cultivate purity of heart or as another writer put it: “The Lord educates the human heart to desire and work for what is eternal: forgiveness, love, adoration, praise…. These are the precious stones and the gold that are the earthly symbols of permanent treasure.” Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.  Strive for these gems and discover the heavenly treasure that God is calling us to.

Christ is in our midst!