It's time!

 

Forgiveness is a gift from God.

The prophet Ezekiel lets us know that God’s judgment of us is an instantaneous, on-going activity.  God doesn’t keep a balance sheet of our good deeds and evil actions like your friendly bank keeps a record of debits and credits.  We often times reason that as long as we keep the good deeds (credits) ahead of the evil deeds (debits) we ought to be God’s special chosen ones for eternal glory. This is the human way of reasoning which people believe would be the fairest.  It might be true in the human way of justice but it’s far from God’s plan of mercy.  “’Do I indeed derive any pleasure from the death of the wicked?’ says the Lord God. ‘Do I not rather rejoice when he turns from his evil way that he may live?’” (Ezekiel 18:21-28)

Simply put, God’s way says that if a person rejects his life of evil and he turns back to the Lord that person will live.  And if the virtuous man turns from his way of virtuous deeds and accepts the way of evil, he will surely die.  This is why the Lenten Season is so important in the plans of God.  It should convince us of what a tremendous grace he provides for us by asking us to participate in the Lenten observance.  Lent is the season of God’s mercy.  It’s God’s way and the fairest way to welcome back any of us who have allowed our lives to stray from him in careless ways or by unfortunate tragic turns.

It’s easy to get angry, to let hurtful words fly or commit hurtful actions.  Then we’re caught in a web.

"You do forgive us and for that we revere you...for it is with Yahweh that mercy is to be found" (Psalm 130:1-8)

God, who loves us unconditionally, can easily forgive us.   We, though made in God's image, have a hard time forgiving one another.  It’s really God's grace in us that enables us to forgive.

I remember reading a book a few years back that was a powerful testament to the gift of forgiveness.  Immaculee Ilibegiza of Rwanda tells a powerful story of horror and forgiveness in "Left to Tell".  Tutsis had murdered her parents and brother and thousands of others in 1994.  For 91 days she and 7 other Rwandan women hid in a sheltered bathroom of a Hutu Pastor.  She could hear the murderers of her family searching the Pastor's house looking for her and others.  She felt deep anger and hatred in her heart.  She prayed for hours.  In the darkness, she dug deeply into God within her and found the compassion to forgive them.  It’s fitting that she now travels the world telling her story of anger turned to forgiveness through God's love.

With whom are we angry?  Do we want to forgive?  Or do we have a need to hold a grudge?  Do we "want to be right or be happy"?  To be happy, one has to let go of old angers and forgive.

Forgiveness happens in layers, especially when it’s a huge or deep hurt.  We can forgive him, or her, or them and years later a triggering event happens, and the old wound resurfaces.  Again, we pray to forgive, and it happens---until the next similar hurt.

Our hurts remind us that we’re fragile human beings.  We need God's love in our hearts that creates an openness to see and say, "I am/was wrong".  We need God's love to open us to forgiving and being forgiven.

When I read the Gospel of Matthew today, I found it to be full of dire warnings of the punishment that will be meted out to those who break the peace with their siblings, and, presumably, other family members and friends.  One could easily focus entirely on this threatened punishment, and thereby lose the beginning words of the passage, words of Jesus to His disciples.  He says: "I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the Kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 5:20-26)

Jesus is quite explicit in calling for a righteousness that goes beyond the requirements of the law, and the law as interpreted by the teachers of the times.  Jesus uses the example in the setting of the religious worship before God’s altar of sacrifice.  “Do not presume to offer your gift if your heart is turned away from your brother or sister.  First go and be reconciled.”

The recognition that we’re all sinners, coupled with the development of the sacrament of Penance as the ordinary means of being reconciled with the church, is an invitation for us all to enter into the season of Lent with penance on our minds.

Jesus says that our righteousness must be beyond the formal, public, accepted standards-those that are expressed in the common tradition of the faithful.  Instead, Jesus cites the example of a truly personal recognition of one’s need to have a conversion of heart with regard to one’s neighbor.

What a wonderful invitation to each of us to leave our gift at the altar, to suspend our self-righteousness, and to pursue a true reconciliation with whomever: brothers, sister, friend, co-worker, boss, or the anonymous stranger whose eyes touch your conscience.

Is it time to forgive or to ask for forgiveness?  This is Lent.  It’s a good time.