Last Sunday (Forgiveness Sunday) Dn. Brad/Joseph gave the homily at St. John’s. I think he did a really good job, and he received several appreciative comments about his remarks on forgiveness. So, in Fr. Michael Reagan’s tradition, I thought I would go ahead and post his homily as an encouragement for others.
Years ago Fr. Thomas Hopko gave a talk at a secular university. He packed the place out. After the talk, during the question and answer time one student stood up and asked Fr. Hopko this question.
”Do you really believe what you just said?” Fr. Tom who is quick-witted and down to earth responded,
”At least someone actually heard what I said.”
If we think about it, the teachings of Jesus are radical and revolutionary. The dictionary defines radical as ” going to a root or source, fundamental, basic.” The word revolutionary has as it`s root the idea of turning, or revolving. The teachings of Jesus are radical because He is always calling us to the fundamental basic things. The teachings of Jesus are revolutionary because He is always calling us to turn back to God and away from the ruler of this world - away from, as Paul puts it,
“the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience”. We were all born into a world that is oriented away from God. As Christians, as followers of Jesus we are called to be revolutionists. I am not talking about social reform in this temporal, fallen and dying world. I mean that we are to revolt against Satan and turn back to God. The only true revolutionist is a saint and by saint I mean that person who takes their faith seriously at all times. There is no issue on which Jesus is more radical- more revolutionary-or more demanding than the issue of forgiveness.
Let`s take a minute to review some of His words about forgiveness. “For 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.” Peter asked Jesus, “Lord how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” Jesus said,” I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.” Again, “Whenever you stand praying. if you have anything against anyone forgive him.” And again, “I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. Should you also not have had compassion on your fellow servant just as I had pity on you?”
Well, to me this is extremely difficult. To be honest it is not my favorite part of being a Christian. To be forgiven yes. To forgive, that is another matter. If you are anything like me when you don`t like something you look for loopholes. How about this one. Why listen to Jesus anyway? We might say to ourselves,
“I am so angry at so and so for , fill in the blank,” we might ask, “why do I have to listen to Jesus anyway?” Simply put, the answer is, if we look at this world, all of its problems, pain, misery, suffering and death we are driven to look for a solution. Frankly, the only one who has a solution, the only one who is the solution is Jesus. He is the Resurrection and the Life. He is the great reconciler. Jesus prayed for us that we would be one. Paul put it this way,
“For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God thru the death of His Son, much more having been reconciled we shall be saved by His life.” There is no one like Jesus. No one who has ever lived can be remotely compared to Christ or be called His equal. So if Jesus says that I have to forgive and He came to destroy the works of the devil and to restore all things, then I have to forgive. What is forgiveness?
Maybe I can find a loophole here. The dictionary says,” to excuse an offense- to pardon without
harboring resentment.” Well maybe we don`t like that definition. We might go back to the Greek word and see if we can tweak it more to our liking. Maybe we have some friends who are lawyers and we talk to them in order to find a technicality. Eventually, however we will find that the only satisfactory definition is simply, “whatever we want God to do for us.” When we ask Him for forgiveness that is what we must give to others. We can OPT to do this or not.
I would like to use the word OPT to make three points:
O = offer judgement to God.
P= power.
T= time.
“O” offer judgement to God. I think one reason people have difficulty forgiving is because we feel like it violates our sense of justice. We want justice to be done to the person who has offended or injured us. We are made in the image and likeness of God. God is just, and we derive our sense of justice from Him. I think we struggle when we want to judge. We might think that God needs help judging. He might forget something and we want to be sure to remind Him. Emotionally it seems that if we let go of the anger we are excusing the wrong. The truth is, when we let go of the anger we are offering judgement to God and keeping the door open for reconciliation. In a few weeks time we will sing,
“Let us call brother even those that hate us. Let us forgive all by the Resurrection.” James the brother of the Lord was nicknamed “camel knees” because he spent so much time praying that his knees became very calloused. He helped me when he wrote,
“There is one Lawgiver who is able to save and to destroy, Who are you to judge another?” And
Paul, “Each of us shall give account of himself to God, therefore let us not judge one another any
more”…”because Jesus Christ will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His Kingdom.”
There will be justice. Has some one injured or offended you? Or worse yet, injured or offended
someone that you love? Peter said,
“They will give an account to HIm who is ready to judge the living and the dead.” In the meantime we should pray for them. Why? Because we follow Jesus and He prayed,
“Father forgive them.”
“P” Power. I have a friend. A beautiful young woman who has two failed marriages. She was and as far as I know is still extremely angry with her father. Her father did some bad things. She held on to that anger and turned it on her first husband and them her second. She would agree, and both of her ex-husbands would agree, that her resentment toward her father ruined both marriages. By holding on to her anger and not placing it at the foot of the cross, she gave her father`s sin power. She did far more damage to her life than her father ever did simply by not forgiving. Fr. Hopko teaches
that all of us without exception must forgive our parents, because there is no such thing as perfect
parenting. If you are engaged to be married I would encourage you to make sure to forgive your parents before you wed because you will have a better marriage.
“T” for time. Forgiveness can take time. We need time to work through things. My parents were divorced when I was nine. At fourteen I became a Christian. About five years ago I was talking with a friend of mine and he said,
” You are still mad at your old man aren`t you?” I was somewhat embarrassed and shocked by my friends comment, but I had to tell the truth that I had not completely forgiven my father. I thought to myself, Dad lived through the great depression, his father was an alcoholic who died of liver disease, he fought in two wars, he had a rough marriage, as an a adult he converted to Christianity and he is doing the best that he can to follow Jesus. Just let it go. To be honest I took too much time. I should have dealt with it sooner. The point is, that some things take time. Forgiveness is serious. I in no way want to trivialize anyone`s pain or injury. It is so serious that Jesus endured the cross for the sins that we have committed and for the sins that have been committed against us. The good news is that we are not on our own. We have help. Paul wrote,
“The Spirit helps us in our weaknesses, He makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered” “We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.” A wise priest said ” In order to
enter Paradise, one must have a heart as wide as the heavens, a heart that embraces all men. If a heart
excludes just one person it will not be accepted by the Lord because He will not be able to dwell there.”
Fr. Schemann wrote,
“The triumph of sin, the main sign of it`s rule over the world is division, opposition, separation and hatred. Therefore the first break through this fortress of sin is forgiveness; the return to unity, solidarity and love. To forgive is to put between me and my enemy the radiant forgiveness of God Himself. It is to reject the hopeless dead ends of human relations and to refer them to Christ.
Forgiveness is a” breakthrough” of the Kingdom into this sinful and fallen world.”
As we begin our journey to Pascha let us offer judgement to God, stop the power of sin by forgiveness, invest the time it takes to forgive. Let us OPT to forgive all by the resurrection.
