It is no accident that the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 disaster should fall on a Sunday where the readings are on the practice of forgiveness.
Can we forgive the destruction and death wrought 10 years ago that was so unthinkably devastating?
We are told that resentment and anger are "foul things, and both are found with the sinner" in Ecclesiasticus. The writer further reminds us that if we wish to be forgiven ourselves, we must choose to forgive others. For God always forgives, His covenant with us a sign of His unending mercy
While Saint Paul reminds the Romans that "the life and death of each of us has its influence on others" and to therefore "live for the Lord" and "die for the Lord", for we "belong" to Him.
Finally Jesus himself tells Peter that we must forgive not seven but seventy-seven times. In other words, always.
This teaching on forgiveness is hard to swallow and even more difficult to carry out when we come face to face with evil or suffering.
In instances of extreme evil or destruction, whether natural (today is also the six-month anniversary of the tsunami that devastated Japan) or human-induced, we even question the existence of God, which interestingly enough is what convinces Aquinas that God exists.
God does not cause evil directly but He allows evil in order to bring good from it.
We are created good (being created in His image) and by virtue of this goodness, the human spirit has the capacity to triumph over evil.
The human capacity to love, to hope and to believe is infinite. This is what propels us forward: to pick up the pieces and rebuild something good out of what evil has reduced to rubble.
To go beyond fear, despair, bitterness and anger; to find healing and to find a way to live with peace and inner joy.
To forgive is to find new life by letting go of the past and not let it control our future actions in ways that diminish us.
It invites us to define how suffering has changed us and to discover how we can rise above our suffering and ourselves: to make limoncello out of lemons.
In the Linns' book Don't Forgive Too Soon Extending the Two Hands That Heal, they offer an enlightening interpretation of what Jesus means when He tells us to "turn the other cheek" (Matthew 5:38-42).
Rather than accepting violence submissively, turning your other cheek signals that you are "reclaiming your dignity" and communicating "that you refuse to be humiliated". How so?
In ancient times, the left hand was reserved for unclean tasks. Hence when a master were to strike his slave, he would backhand the slave with his right hand and hit the slave on the right cheek. Backhanding people signified a position of power and superiority.
When one presents the left cheek, ass Jesus advised, the person who is striking you would have to punch you to hit you again with his right hand.
Punches are thrown only among equals so in receiving the punch of your attacker, you are saying I will not resort to your violent ways but I am equal in dignity to you.
Non-violent engagement in dealing with evil requires forgiveness which is a process the Linns see as similar to Kubler-Ross's stages of dealing with death: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance.
It demands of us creative ways of stopping the evil by resorting to means that communicate we will not cooperate with evil but that we are reacting in a life-giving manner that will not perpetuate violence but rapprochement.
We must never forget that evil does exist and that our lives will invariably be touched by its insidious malevolence.
We can, however, honour the past by choosing goodness, and deal with evil actively in the way Jesus exhorts us to - by turning the other cheek and saying no to oppression, hate, "dissolution and death".
Can we forgive the destruction and death wrought 10 years ago that was so unthinkably devastating?
We are told that resentment and anger are "foul things, and both are found with the sinner" in Ecclesiasticus. The writer further reminds us that if we wish to be forgiven ourselves, we must choose to forgive others. For God always forgives, His covenant with us a sign of His unending mercy
While Saint Paul reminds the Romans that "the life and death of each of us has its influence on others" and to therefore "live for the Lord" and "die for the Lord", for we "belong" to Him.
Finally Jesus himself tells Peter that we must forgive not seven but seventy-seven times. In other words, always.
This teaching on forgiveness is hard to swallow and even more difficult to carry out when we come face to face with evil or suffering.
In instances of extreme evil or destruction, whether natural (today is also the six-month anniversary of the tsunami that devastated Japan) or human-induced, we even question the existence of God, which interestingly enough is what convinces Aquinas that God exists.
God does not cause evil directly but He allows evil in order to bring good from it.
We are created good (being created in His image) and by virtue of this goodness, the human spirit has the capacity to triumph over evil.
The human capacity to love, to hope and to believe is infinite. This is what propels us forward: to pick up the pieces and rebuild something good out of what evil has reduced to rubble.
To go beyond fear, despair, bitterness and anger; to find healing and to find a way to live with peace and inner joy.
To forgive is to find new life by letting go of the past and not let it control our future actions in ways that diminish us.
It invites us to define how suffering has changed us and to discover how we can rise above our suffering and ourselves: to make limoncello out of lemons.
In the Linns' book Don't Forgive Too Soon Extending the Two Hands That Heal, they offer an enlightening interpretation of what Jesus means when He tells us to "turn the other cheek" (Matthew 5:38-42).
Rather than accepting violence submissively, turning your other cheek signals that you are "reclaiming your dignity" and communicating "that you refuse to be humiliated". How so?
In ancient times, the left hand was reserved for unclean tasks. Hence when a master were to strike his slave, he would backhand the slave with his right hand and hit the slave on the right cheek. Backhanding people signified a position of power and superiority.
When one presents the left cheek, ass Jesus advised, the person who is striking you would have to punch you to hit you again with his right hand.
Punches are thrown only among equals so in receiving the punch of your attacker, you are saying I will not resort to your violent ways but I am equal in dignity to you.
Non-violent engagement in dealing with evil requires forgiveness which is a process the Linns see as similar to Kubler-Ross's stages of dealing with death: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance.
It demands of us creative ways of stopping the evil by resorting to means that communicate we will not cooperate with evil but that we are reacting in a life-giving manner that will not perpetuate violence but rapprochement.
We must never forget that evil does exist and that our lives will invariably be touched by its insidious malevolence.
We can, however, honour the past by choosing goodness, and deal with evil actively in the way Jesus exhorts us to - by turning the other cheek and saying no to oppression, hate, "dissolution and death".
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