Forgiveness & Gratuitous Love

Forgiveness is a beautiful thing.

There are perhaps no words more freeing than these:

"God the Father of mercies,
through the death and resurrection of his Son
has reconciled the world to himself
and sent the Holy Spirit among us
for the forgiveness of sins;
through the ministry of the Church
may God give you pardon and peace,
and I absolve you from your sins
in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit."

Here at Notre Dame confession is offered at least 2x daily, every day of the week except Sunday.
While I don't go as often as I should, I try to go when I can.

The other day I had to preach a homily (for a practice run of the "Sunday Celebration in the Absence of a Priest" for my Liturgical Celebration class) about the Gospel where Jesus cleanses the ten lepers, and only one comes back to say thank you. In my homily, I took the approach that Jesus is good to all - even the ungrateful. I argued that although Jesus asked, "were not ten cleansed? where are the other nine?" He was not saying this because he was 'hurt' that they didn't come back to thank him. God needs neither our thanks nor our praise; God is entirely content and happy in Himself. He said it to demonstrate His gratuitous, unconditional love for us. God's willingness to heal us - is  not dependent upon our receiving his gifts with gratitude. The wisdom literature says that God causes the rain to fall upon the just and the unjust.

I ended the homily with a poem by Hafiz:

"Even after all this time,
the sun never says to the earth,
"You owe me."
Look what happens with a love like that.
It lights the whole sky."


I recently got into a tiff with someone in my life, and was feeling quite vindictive. This was the second or third time that this sort of thing has happened, and I was losing my patience and feeling more than a little bit annoyed. Then this person called me and apologized profusely, in a way that showed understanding of how serious the offense had been. All day long I had been praying about how to handle this conversation, and had toyed with different options in my head - one from being forgiving, and the other- well, letting this person have a piece of my mind. 


In the moment I went with being forgiving, but I wondered whether I was letting this person off the hook a bit too easily. I had a good conversation with them, and felt like we had a bit of a new beginning. Forgiveness felt good, but part of me still questioned whether it was the wise choice. 


I went to hall mass last night, and right before communion, suddenly a scripture passage came to me-- you know, the Gospel in which the bad steward begs forgiveness from his master for a huge debt he owes, and the master graciously forgives the debt. Then, not very long afterwards, a man who owed that same steward a small amount came to steward begging forgiveness, and the steward demands repayment and refuses to forgive the debt. ... 


Needless to say, it's often easier to receive forgiveness than to give it. 


"But look what happens with a love like that. it lights the whole sky."


This week, I want to recommit myself to living and giving - forgiveness.