Cheesefare – Forgiveness Sunday
Start of Great Lent 2022 March 6, 2022, Matt. 6: 14 – 21
The Church in her wisdom has given us very carefully considered Gospel readings all during the year. On this Sunday – known as the Sunday of the Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise – we are always given the passage we just heard from Matthew. Our Lord is explaining to His disciples what is expected of all who wish to follow Him. He starts with Forgiveness putting it very simply; “if you forgive, then I forgive. If you do not forgive, then I do not forgive” A very direct and clear instruction which is pretty hard to misunderstand – although we do our best to do so.
Christ then moves on to Fasting. He does not say: “if” you fast but starts with “when” you fast, and He then explains that you should do it very quietly and secretly and not draw any attention to the fact that you are fasting. The sin that caused the expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise was disobedience to God by refusing to fast; and eating from the tree which God asked them not to eat of. Fasting struggles have been with us from the start. The Father’s are fond of saying that we should not just fast from meat, dairy and other foods, but it is far better to fast from devouring our brothers and sisters, and fill the time you gain from fasting by feeding on the Word of God and prayer.
This Gospel reading then concludes with some simple instructions for a great eternal investment plan that is risk free and guaranteed to yield huge gains. Invest in God’s Kingdom; in feeding and clothing the poor, in building and beatifying His Churches, in supporting His work here upon the earth, your rewards will be exponentially and permanently multiplied in the Kingdom of heaven. Here on earth with peace and joy, and in God’s Kingdom with solid returns that can not be wiped out by the economy. So as we start every Great Lent, the Church gives us the same advice – for close to 2000 years the advice has been the same. Practice: Forgiveness, Prayer, Fasting, and Almsgiving.
Now this obviously doesn’t apply only to Great Lent, but is the advice that Christ gives to his disciples everywhere, always and unto ages of ages. But, the Church has given us the Lenten season to enable us to re-focus. To help us to start to wake up once again to what the real purpose of our short time on planet earth is really all about. We are so easily distracted. I count myself as first in this department as those who know me will be happy to confirm. There is just so much going on, so much to get involved with, so many diversions – work, play, the kid’s activities, all good and blessed things. These days add in social media, which certainly isn’t always a blessed and good thing. Somehow our prayer, church, and devotional time, often seem to take a back seat as life gets in the way.
I do know better, and I really look forward to getting another chance to get my spiritual priorities and discipline back on track during Great Lent. I then really count on God’s forgiveness and grace as my great intentions end up being a whimper compared to what I had hoped to accomplish. Thank God He is always faithful to forgive, and sets us back on the path He has prepared for us when we turn to Him in repentance. The more we accept and experience God’s forgiveness, the more we can in turn, pass forgiveness on to those whom we struggle with.
What did we just hear Christ say about God’s forgiveness in today’s gospel reading? Christ did not say God wouldn’t forgive us if we didn’t fast properly, if we struggled with our prayer rule, or with greed. Christ wants what is best for us even more than we ourselves do! He knows that we will be hurting ourselves, limiting our growth and limiting His joy and peace in our lives if we wimp out in prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. They are blessed gifts that allow the Kingdom of God to grow in us.
However, He puts forgiveness in a completely different category. “Forgive others and you will be forgiven.” There is a direct link. This is a very simple statement that should be pretty much impossible to misunderstand, but we want to throw a few exceptions into the formula. We reason, “I can forgive – up to a certain point – but let’s not get carried away here. I’m done! After all _ _ _was really just too much. I’m sure there must be some exceptions and this one certainly qualifies. I mean after all I’ve done for that guy to have him treat me like this. He really hurt my feelings. I heard what so and so said to whatz his name about you know what… and I resent it! No-one has the right to treat me like that.”
This may be very true, but we often might be reacting to a finger stuck into our pride. Criticism can be a great friend. Nothing makes us squirm more than having our pride exposed, and a good “undeserved” insult can certainly show us very quickly if we have a healthy worm gnawing away at our heart. Forgiveness doesn’t mean we just roll over and play let’s pretend this didn’t happen. We never want to fall into fantasy and delusion. Truth and reality demand that we need to see what is good and what is evil very clearly. We may have to actively pray to God to help us forgive someone, while actively doing everything we can to have them locked up. Healing requires light and the Father of lights will be exposing every deed and thought to light at the last judgement. God already knows everything, so it’s a bad idea to try to keep our sin hidden. However, the Fathers also tell us that love covers a multitude of sins and exposing what we perceive as others sins publically would seldom be advised unless they are putting others in danger.
We have the precious sacrament of confession in the Church. It is very healing, when being tortured with the crazy thoughts that the enemy of our souls tries to fill our mind with, to hear our Father confessor say; “Now, having no further care for the sins which you have confessed, depart in peace.” This is why it is a normal practice in the Orthodox Church to do a serious self examination during Great Lent and come to confession.
This teaching on forgiveness from today’s gospel follows immediately upon some very familiar verses. Matt.6: 9-13 is the Lord’s Prayer. The Lord chose to emphasize immediately after giving us this precious prayer, that forgiving others was not optional.
Christ then went on to demonstrate true forgiveness by giving His very life for us on the cross. As they nailed Him to the cross He said: “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Listen to a phrase from the beautiful Anaphora prayer in the Divine Liturgy “…in the night in which He was given up – or rather gave Himself up for the life of the world …” Christ’s entire life was about forgiveness. Forgiveness for us. Forgiveness for our rebellion. Forgiveness for our sin. Forgiveness completely undeserved. Forgiveness is at the heart of every stable and lasting marriage and relationship. We all give each other lots of opportunities to practise, and without it our relationships are doomed.
When Saint Porphyrios was asked: “Can I have your blessing to receive communion tomorrow?” he replied, “Do you hate anyone?” “No Elder.” “Good, Go and receive communion.” Christ’s Saints lived forgiveness through God’s grace, starting from the very first Martyr St. Stephen. As he was being stoned to death he says: “Lord do not charge them with this sin.” Today after lunch we will come back and get a fresh start, a brand-new beginning as we start Great Lent by forgiving all in the service of mutual forgiveness!
Forgive me the sinner: my brothers and sisters in Christ; May God forgive us all.