June 16 Lk. 7:36-8:3
I have said repeatedly that the church could do a better job in definition and process on certain basic notions of the faith. I wrote my bible study on judge not out of this notion, I always use forgiveness as an example. I think we do better in a workshop format with the issue, but I will use this occasion to speak a bit more on forgiveness.We say we are in a hospital for sinners here, not a rest area for the righteous. If truth be told, we oftne think the prayer fo confession, in its vague statements, still applies to others and not us.
In her book Unbroken, we meet a miler, Louis Zamperini who fought in the Pacific theater and was terribly tortured and abused by his captors, after he survived harrowing weeks on a raft. The war ate him up inside, and only after finding himself able to forgive his captors was he able to stop having nightmares and find some peace.
Jesus uses an example of debt to get at the idea of amounts of forgiveness- who was forgiven more? Once again, Jesus shows great solicitude over a sinner as opposed to the righteous looking down their nose at sinners.
In the January Theology Today,the editorial makes a case that we should see forgiveness asa fundamental Christian practice, but we have to be careful about judging the time and process people may require to reach that point. We show a hard heart when we regard peoplewho do not forgive as we have decided they should. Yes, forgiveness is clearly a christian aspiration, but the route toward it may be varied and may well depend on the type of harm caused as well. Is the push to forgive , in effect, minimizing the damage caused by a wrong? Not every person receives the release that Mr Zamperini did. Let me give a personal example. Over time, I have worked on forgiving a priest’s refusal to grant absolution to my aunt. She had 9 children and her life became more threatened with each delivery. When she grew older, she was not expecting as regularly as she was when younger and the priest thoughts she was using birth control.
What makes it so hard for us to forgive? One reason is self-image. We see ourselves as the hurt party, as a victim. We use that as proof of our moral superiority. We like being one up, to feel that delicious sense of looking down on a moral inferior. To play the martyr is an attractive role. How we nurture grudges on top of a wound staying in the memory anyway. It’s a continuation of the issue in the elder brother of the prodigal. His dutifulness has created distance between him and his miscreant brother.Two, we tend to see that wrongs deserve punishments. We are afraid that forgiveness will make us doormats, people asking to be abused and taken advantage of.Forgiveness seems first to make a decision to relinquish retaliation. Second, if we don’t; we we can yet ofrgive, we may to well to pray for the willingness to begin to forgive.It does not seem self-interested. What benefit do we derive from forgiving? It should be noted how little we consider our need for forgiveness, we tend to see ourselves as the party hurt, but we do expect, even demand forgiveness, When we are in the wrong.Notice Jesus does not minimize her wrongs. He does not condone them. He is fully aware that she has seen many times. He does offer the gift of the open door to another chance,I think we know when we forgive.When it does not pain us that the person who hurt us is doing well,When we are able to pray for that person, we are on the road to forgiveness.
No comments:
Post a Comment