Day 9: Forgiveness

(Please purchase your own copy of Show Me the Way: Daily Lenten Readings.)

Friday of the First Week in Lent

So then, if you are bringing your offering to the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar, go and be reconciled with your brother first, and then come back and present your offering. Come to terms with your opponent in good time while you are still on the way to the court with him. Matt. 5:23-25

This morning I meditated on God's eagerness to forgive me, revealed in the words of Psalm 103: "As the distance of east from west, so far from us does he put our faults." In the midst of all my distractions, I was touched by God's desire to forgive me again and again. If I return to God with a repentant heart after I have sinned, God is always there to embrace me and let me start afresh. "The Lord is compassion and love, slow to anger and rich in mercy."

It is hard for me to forgive someone who has really offended me, especially when it happens more than once. I begin to doubt the sincerity of the one who asks forgiveness for a second, third, or fourth time. But God does not keep count. God just waits for our return, without resentment or desire for revenge. God wants us home. "The love of the Lord is everlasting."

Maybe the reason it seems hard for me to forgive others is that I do not fully believe that I am a forgiven person. If I could fully accept the truth that I am forgiven and do not have to live in guilt or shame, I would really be free. My freedom would allow me to forgive others seventy times seven times. By not forgiving, I chain myself to a desire to get even, thereby losing my freedom. A forgiven person forgives. This is what we proclaim when we pray, "and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who have trespassed against us."

This lifelong struggle lies at the heart of the Christian life.

 

The love of God is an unconditional love, and only that love can empower us to live together without violence. When we know that God loves us deeply and will always go on loving us, whoever we are and whatever we do, it becomes possible to expect no more of our fellow men and women than they are able to give, to forgive them generously when they have offended us, and always to respond to their hostility with love. By doing so we make visible a new way of being human and a new way of responding to our world problems.

Our Prayer

Bless Yahweh, my soul.

never forget all his acts of kindness.

He does not treat us as our sins deserve,

nor repay us as befits our offenses.

As the height of heaven above earth,

so strong is his faithful love for those who fear him.

As the distance of east from west,

so far from us does he put our faults.

As tenderly as a father treats his children,

so Yahweh treats those who fear him.

— Ps. 103:2, 10-13