Forgiveness Sunday – Metropolitan of Strumica, Naum
~+~
In today’s Gospel reading, we see that the God-Man Christ teaches us, how to free ourselves of the three main types of passions:
– From vainglory – by forgiveness and asking for forgiveness;
– From love of pleasures – by fasting; and,
– From covetousness – by accumulating riches in heaven and not on earth.
The Church emphasises the struggle of forgiveness by creating both a graceful and psychological atmosphere for forgiveness on this very day before the beginning of the Great Lent; because, if we do not free ourselves of the passion of vainglory through forgiveness and asking for forgiveness, it is futile to adopt an ascetic approach against love of pleasures and covetousness. The devil has neither love for pleasures nor he is materialistic (covetous), but he is very vainglorious (loves glory).
Put simply: The one who forgives all who have transgressed against him, even his enemies, has the grace of God in him; and the one who will not forgive even one man, even if that one man was his greatest enemy, has a demon in him. Forgiveness is a testimony of the presence of God’s grace, and conversely the act of not forgiving is a testimony of the captivity by the demon. The same goes about asking for forgiveness. Forgiveness is a daily struggle, not just today (“Forgiveness Sunday”).
I talk of real forgiveness, not about fantasy. Real forgiveness happens when we pray for the one who has hurt us; when we do not gossip, judge and condemn the one who hurt us; and when we help him in reality, when we do him good, when he needs help.
But how can forgiveness and asking for forgiveness become our conscious struggle, and not just a struggle we do with faith and obedience to the Gospel? It becomes a conscious struggle when we realise that the criterion of our guilt, or not, is the God-Man Christ and God’s justice, and not man and human justice. What does this mean in practice?
When someone hurts us, we, at that point in time should not think at that moment about the justification or not of his action, but our attention is to be focused on whether our thoughts, words and deeds at that moment are in accord with Christs’ or not!? Are our thoughts and feelings at that moment in accordance with Christs’ or not !? That is, do we act lovingly just as Christ does towards those who hurt Him? And we will realise that we are very far from that.
This is where our guilt comes from – and even the guilt of those who are at the level of deification, and not from the justification or not of the harms caused to us by others … This is where the inexhaustible source of our repentance lies … Therefore never, not even in a single case do we have an excuse when we do not ask for forgiveness and when we do not forgive! By not forgiving we fall away from the God-Man Christ, Who on the Cross, forgave us all of everything …
Such is the setting in the spiritual life that every time we claim that we are not guilty, we blame God. Who is that insane to claim that God is guilty?
The words of the Gospel, “If you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father Who is in heaven forgive your trespasses” should not be understood as we literally read them, but these words mean that, if we do not forgive people their trespasses, does not mean that God does not forgive us, but that by not forgiving transgressions (trespasses) of others we separate ourselves from the grace of God and condemn ourselves and fall away from God.
By not fulfilling God’s will, we do not forgive ourselves.
Nobody said it was easy. Forgiveness is ascetic in the beginning – we are forcing ourselves …
I forgive all those who have transgressed against me. Please forgive me, too, in the Lord Jesus Christ and for His sake! And forgive yourselves by doing the will of God.
Most-Holy Bogorodica, save us!
Metropolitan of Strumica Naum
(14.03.2021 10:00)
