FORGIVENESS IS THE HEART

Before we begin, let us pray. (pause) ―Most High, Glorious God, cast Your light into the darkness of my heart, and grant me a right faith, certain hope, and perfect charity, sense and understanding, Lord, so that I may know and do Your holy and true command."

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Jesus said to His disciples: ’In praying, do not babble like the pagans, who think that they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them. Your Father knows what you need before you ask him. This is how you are to pray: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed by Thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. If you forgive others their transgressions, Your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions

.’ (Matthew 6:7-15)

In this passage, Jesus gives us perhaps the most prayed words in Christianity – the Lord’s Prayer. We talk about this prayer a lot, but we all know that there is one part of this prayer that is harder than all the rest

forgive us as we forgive others.

 But forgiveness is the heart of this prayer. Forgiveness is the heart of our faith. Forgiveness is the heart of Francis, and it is of necessity, the heart of our fraternity – the very center of our life together as brothers and sisters. If we want our fraternity to flourish, to grow, to be a place of prayer and love – it must have forgiveness at the core. In fact, this key Franciscan characteristic is just what we need to truly be free to love ourselves and others.

But what exactly is forgiveness? Perhaps the simplest definition comes from Mohandas Gandhi: ―

Forgiveness is choosing to love. It is the first skill of self-giving love. Forgiveness is a choice, not a feeling or emotion, which we make through a decision of our own will, motivated by obedience to God and his command to forgive. ―Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. (Colossians 3:13) We forgive by faith.

Forgiveness goes against our fallen nature, which causes us to feel we cannot or will not forgive. We need to trust that once we choose to forgive, God will do the work in us that needs to be done us that the forgiveness will be complete. He will complete the work in His time; it is our job to persevere and continue to forgive, by faith, until the work is done in our hearts. But how will we know when that work is done?

Corrie Ten Boon, a Christian woman who survived a Nazi concentration camp tells us: ―Forgiveness is to set a prisoner free, and to realize the prisoner was you. Forgiveness takes away the anger, the bitterness, and the ill-will which can be so corrosive to our souls. But how do we go about forgiving someone?

Prayer is one of the best ways to break down the wall of un-forgiveness in the heart. When you begin to pray for a person who has wronged you, God begins to give you new eyes with which to see that person, and a new heart to care for that person. See that person as God sees them, and realize that they are precious to the Lord, and Our Savior died for them, as He died for you. You may also see yourself as in need of forgiveness, guilty of sin and failure as well. If God does not withhold His forgiveness from you, why should you withhold forgiveness from others?

Forgiveness is not a one-time choice; it is a whole way of life. As L. Gregory Jones, professor of theology and dean of the Duke Divinity School, said, ―

Forgiveness involves us in a whole way of life that is shaped by an ever-deepening friendship with God and with other people. The central goal of this practice is to reconcile, to restore communion – with God, with one another, and with the whole creation."

Our Seraphic Father Francis wrote the following to a Provincial Minister who was having problems with his brothers, and who wanted to resign and retire to a hermitage rather than continue in his post: "…there should not be any brother in the world who has sinned, however much he may have possibly sinned who, after he has looked into your eyes, would go away without having received your mercy, if he is looking for mercy. And if he were not to seek mercy, you should ask him if he wants mercy. And if he should sin thereafter a thousand times before your very eyes, love him more than me so that you may draw him back to the Lord. Always be merciful to brothers such as these."

But why did Our Father Francis advocate such radical forgiveness? Francis knew what Jesus knew – that forgiveness is liberating. It can free us from anger; it can free us from the need to change others; it can free us from the dissatisfaction with the way things are and free us to be open to the presence of God even in the midst of difficulty. Forgiveness is joyful as well. It is the freedom to be the person that God has created each of us to be – an image and a likeness of the unconditional love that God has for each of us, unimpeded by the faults and failing of ourselves and of one another.

Forgiveness is the heart of the Lord’s Prayer and the heart of who we are as Christians, and as followers of Francis, who followed in the footsteps of Jesus. We forgive out of obedience to the Lord. It is a choice, a decision we make, However, as we do this forgiving, we discover the command is in place for our own good, and we receive the reward of our forgiveness—peace, joy, and freedom, and we discover our place in community as a forgiving and forgiven people.

From a Formation Talk given by Patricia Johnson, OFS

February 2010