Jesus said to his disciples:
“Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
“Stop judging and you will not be judged.
Stop condemning and you will not be condemned.
Forgive and you will be forgiven.
Give and gifts will be given to you;
a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing,
will be poured into your lap.
For the measure with which you measure
will in return be measured out to you.”
Stop judging and you will not be judged. Stop condemning and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven.
This call is especially apropos for the time in which we live. Yet how are we are supposed to live out this illogical reality in our daily lives? It does not make sense, in our human nature, to forgive those who persecute us. But it is of extreme importance to remember that this is what God does for us constantly. God is perfect and has never done anything but love us completely, yet we sin against Him relentlessly, we hurt Him deeply, and in ways that we can not even understand. Yet He forgives us instantly, when we ask for forgiveness. It is completely undeserved, yet He does it anyway.
The devil on the other hand is the accuser, he is the embodiment of unrepentant sin, he is vicious and unrelenting in accusing and damning us for our sins. St. John Crysostom said it best… “But these are the wiles of the tempter. For he who severely sifts the fault of others, will never obtain acquittal for his own.” This is what hell is, constant torment for your sin, and constant accusation for having commited them. Heaven on the other hand, is the complete absense of sin, and offers total fogiveness, when you ask for it. Which sounds better to you?
Ricardo Sanchez once said: “The devil knows your name but calls you by your sin, God knows your sin but calls you by your name.” The dividing line betweed these two realities, heaven and hell, is contrition. Identify your sin, name it, confess it to a priest in the holy sacrament of reconciliation, and then forget it, because God already has. But then comes the hardest thing of all…, that is to recognize the same sinful nature in all those people around you, people no different from you, and forgive them for their sin too.
That is the call of this world, and especially this time. We must not allow sin to keep us from deep intimacy with God, and with each other. Let’s forgive today, move on, and share the love. Amen.
Oh lord, help me to know those persons that I have harmed, and those that have harmed me, so that I can forgive, and be forgiven. Amen.
