Forgiveness

Forgiveness. It's a hard thing to do. Yet, it is a necessary thing. The topic of forgiveness has been on my mind the past couple of days. It seems to keep coming up. It all started when I was reading the bible yesterday during prayer. I'm in Matthew, reading the Sermon on the Mount. I read the first half of chapter 6 yesterday, with the passage about the Lord's Prayer. Normally when I read this passage I just gloss over it, thinking: "Yeah, yeah. I know this one. Let's just move along. Nothing new to see here." Not this time. I was halted dead in my tracks (which is why I only got through half of chapter 6).

What struck me about what I read was not the Lord's Prayer itself, but what came right after the prayer:

If you forgive others transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions. ~Matthew 6: 14-15

I've never really thought much about this passage. I guess I've dismissed it just as I have dismissed the Lord's Prayer itself. But here I was, immensely struck by the implications of what Jesus is saying, "...neither will your Father forgive your transgressions." I immediately called to mind a situation with an extended family member with whom I'm having difficulty forgiving. I'm having a difficult time forgiving this person for a "transgression" that occurred several months ago.

Forgiving someone who has hurt us is sometimes a difficult thing to do. I have, we all have, deep wounds cut into us from wrongs that have been done to us. I don't want to forgive this family member. He hasn't forgiven me, so why should I forgive him? However, if I am unwilling to forgive this family member, or anyone else for that matter, then our loving and merciful Father will not forgive me for all the wrong I have done to Him. God did not say "forgive others when they forgive you." He simply said to forgive.

Forgiveness is an integral part of our journey to salvation. We must be willing to forgive those who have hurt us. We must be willing to ask for forgiveness from those we have hurt. If we can't forgive, then God can't forgive us. We need to see beyond our anger, our fears, our insecurities. There is an eternal component to forgiveness. If we cannot forgive, then we cannot enter the gates of heaven. It's that important.

Lord, Jesus. Thank you. Thank you for your love, your mercy, your graces. Heavenly Father, give me the strength to forgive those who have hurt me. Give me the grace to humble myself, to let go of my anger, and to forgive. Amen.

Becoming Wheat

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Therefore, every tree that does not bear good fruit, will be cut down and thrown into the fire...He will clear the threshing floor and gather his wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire. (Matt. 3:10,12)

Why did John the Baptist have to be so harsh towards the Pharisees and Sadducees? Perhaps he saw through them. He could see their self-righteous pious attitudes. He could see that their words did not reflect their actions and that they were knee deep in their own sin.

John the Baptist speaks these same harsh words to us. If we don't bear good fruit, we too will be thrown into the fire. If we live our lives as chaff, as the inedible casing of wheat, then we will "burn with the unquenchable fire." Why don't we, why don't I, take take this warning seriously?


It seems as though we don't take hell, the unquenchable fire, seriously anymore. We've watered down Christ's message so much that we now believe that everyone is going to heaven. If you profess Christ as your Savior you've been saved, and you're going to heaven, right? And that's all you need to do, to profess Christ as your Savior. If only it were that easy.


The fact of the matter is that, come the end of the world, God will separate the good fruit from the bad fruit. He will separate the wheat from the chaff. That means that some of us--you and I--are going to be wheat and some of us are going to be chaff. 


Am I going to God's barn, or am I going to burn with the unquenchable fire? Well, that depends on more than professing my belief in Christ. The Pharisees and Sadducees professed belief in God. Yet, John the Baptist warned them that they might go to hell if they don't start bearing good fruit. Making it to heaven involves much more than saying you believe in God or professing that Christ is your Savior. You need to bear good fruit in this life.


How does one bear good fruit? By action. What do your actions say about your belief in Christ? Are your actions, all of them, Christ-like? I can honestly say that I fail miserably when it comes to living a Christ-like life. Does my life bear good fruit? In some respects, yes, but in others no. I'm a youth minister. I spend every week with a group of teens teaching them how to live their faith. I hope--I pray--that what I do bears good fruit. Then I go home. My youth group teens only see me a couple of hours a week. My family sees the real me: impatient, irritable, selfish. Do my actions at home bear good fruit? Sometimes, yes. Sometimes, I'm a wonderful father and husband. Other times...not so much. I fall. We all do.


It's a good thing that God is so merciful! When we do fall, when we do fail to bear good fruit, God is there for us. He is there to pick us up and show us how to bear good fruit. He is there in the Sacrament of Reconciliation to forgive us of our sins. So, when I fall, I seek out God's mercy. I beg for His forgiveness. I ask Him how to keep from falling again. And He forgives. He teaches. He loves. He helps us to be wheat for the world.

Are You Judas or Peter?

You are one or the other. We all are either Judas or Peter. Judas betrayed his Savior. Peter denied Him. They both fell from grace. They both sinned. We are not either Judas or Peter in how we sin. Lord knows, I have both betrayed and denied our Savior. We are either Judas or Peter in how we react after our betrayal or denial.

Let's take a look at Judas first:

Then Judas, his betrayer, seeing that Jesus had been condemned, deeply regretted what he had done. He returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, "I have sinned in betraying innocent blood."...Flinging the money into the temple, he departed and went off and hanged himself. (Matthew 27:3-5)

 Judas handed over his Savior to be crucified. How many times have we done that ourselves? Each time we sin, each time we willfully hurt another, we crucify Christ. As soon as Judas handed Jesus over, he realized the error of his ways. I know that oftentimes when I sin, I immediately recognize the error of my ways. But, how did Judas react to the recognition of sin? Judas' life had become so depraved that he could not see that Jesus still loved him, despite what he had done. You see, God's love is perfect and unchanging. God continues to love us no matter how far we stray from Him, no matter what we do. Judas did not see this. He felt that his sins were so bad that God couldn't love him anymore. His despair was so deep that the only option he saw was death. Judas completely rejected Christ and His love by hanging himself.

Now we move on to Peter:

He began to curse and to swear, "I do not know this man about whom you are talking." And immediately a cock crowed a second time. Then Peter remembered the word that Jesus had said to him, "Before the cock crows twice you will deny me three times." He broke down and wept. (Mark 14:71-72)

Peter denied Christ. How often do we deny Christ? Each time we do not stand up for our faith or our beliefs, we are denying Christ.  Each time we fail to defend our Christian values, we deny Christ. Peter's reaction to his own sin is vastly different from Judas'. Peter, unlike Judas, knew that Jesus still loved him despite his sin. Peter was deeply saddened by his own sinfulness, but he did not despair. He knew that God's grace was present. He knew the love of the Father.

Who are you? Are you deep into sin and despairing, like Judas? Have you lost sight of the fact that God loves you, that He will continue to love you? Is your sin causing you to fall deeper into sin, like Judas?

Or, are you like Peter? Do you pick yourself back up after you fall, knowing that God loves you? Do you allow the forgiving grace and love of the Father wash over you?

The bottom line is this: We all betray Christ. We all deny Him. But we all must realize that God's love for us is unchanging. God loves us no matter how much we sin. God loves us no matter how far we wander from Him. We need to be sorry for falling. We need to pick ourselves back up after we fall and ask God for forgiveness. We need to be Peter.