For-giving, Thanks-giving

I would fain introduce you, Beloved Reader, to aleteia.org. The Greek word means "truth," and this website is all about the search for truth in numerous domains of the human enterprise.

As the Year of Faith concludes, Pope Francis has been tweeting on the topic of forgiveness, among others. Aleteia's Brantly Milligan presents seven such tweets along with a brief preface on the connection between forgiveness and salvation.

For many people the topic of "salvation" seems too distant or remote for immediate consideration. Indebted to our Jewish forebears, we may consider shalom (peace, well-being, health, wholeness) as the sneak-preview, or mortgage payment, of salvation. You can inhabit a house on which you are making mortgage payments!

The forgiving person knows what it is like to be offended. Perhaps, for a time, the offense may beleaguer his emotions; for what human being would not spontaneously feel the pain caused to him or one he loves, or feel the indignant smart of ego? But the merciful one (blessed is he!) does not allow offenses to control his understanding and freedom. Mindful, too, of the times he himself has offended others, he therefore proceeds to forgive--that is to say, to allow the offender the opportunity to regain (or gain for the first time) peace.

To "for-give" is to extend oneself so that another may grow through the disorder and disease caused by his offense. This certainly applies to the curious activity/process of "forgiving oneself," a topic about which several people have sought clarification from me in a very short time. Forgiving oneself is allowing yourself not to be defined by, limited to, the sin in question. You may have committed an unspeakable offense with unforeseen and grave ramifications. You may have expressed sorrow and regret, the wish to undo the action or unspeak the word if it were possible. You may have heard the irretrievable word of mercy from Christ's priest, and, when possible, from the offended party. Without "forgiving yourself," however, it's like trying to catch a fastball without a mitt.

Then there are traumatic occasions when one isn't guilty of an actual sin, or where the guilt is compromised by pressures from within or without. Here the ambiguity causes palpable torque in the unforgiving subject. The unforgiving subject has difficulty projecting outside of himself, even for just a moment, to see himself from a different, more compassionate perspective. Here an objective voice can provide helpful clarification and encouragement. Even so, if unforgiveness persists (and, if it persists, it also intensifies), the personal application of mercy can be delayed indefinitely, creating the feeling that "everyone else out there" has received the passcode or the owner's manual to a joyful life!

Where begin to permit oneself the relaxation and vigor of a second chance? In acquiring the habit of gratitude, however contrived and nauseating it may seem at first. To choose gratitude is to project outside of one's own inhibited interiority long enough to notice the goodness of someone or something outside of oneself. For the chronically ungrateful, bitter, or depressed, this often can be a most difficult endeavor. It takes courage and persistence.

Some people make a point of writing down, or at least mentally itemizing, persons, things or situations that inspire gratitude. As one becomes more capable of "living in the moment," he can become acutely aware of motives for gratitude and respond with seemingly impulsive delight. Public displays of gratitude need not be gushing or saccharine; upturned lips or raised eyebrows would suffice.

Somewhere you can find the obvious results of an expensive study, to the effect that physical expressions of happiness result in an increase of the appropriate favorable chemicals in the brain. I'd bet that the same chemicals can be found in the brain of the person in the act of granting forgiveness, as this act, like the choice of gratitude, is a mental exercise that strengthens one's capacity to affirm goodness. To forgive oneself is to recognize the existence of interior goodness as a quality that survives and indeed transcends any harm. Just as the mental discipline of unforgiveness is reinforced with persistence and increased intensity, forgiveness likewise thrives.

Pope Francis speaks for all sacramental conduits of mercy--all priests--when he tweets of the Church as "a place where everyone is welcomed, loved, and forgiven." For the moment, and only with God's eager extension of mercy, resolve to sit in, and walk in, the truth that "you" are a subset of "everyone."

Source: http://www.bartleby.com/122/47.html

Loathe Nothing That God Has Made

I don't think I've had a "membership drive" for this blog in a long time, if I ever did. Anyhow, I have no mugs, t-shirts or any other swag to dole out. Just recommend the blog if you think that it may help someone.

In today’s passage from the OT Book of Wisdom, written only 100 years before the birth of Christ, the sacred author praises God’s mercy: a truth so profound, so fundamental, so easy to ignore. “For you love all things that are and loathe nothing that you have made; for what you hated, you would not have fashioned.” It is worth repeating.

         It is not only worth repeating, but it is also worth writing down and sticking to your medicine cabinet or somewhere else where you can look at it regularly. Why? I can invoke the news stories of bullying, suicides, addictions, assaults, murders, and so much more that goes on in this world—this world that urges us to conclude the opposite of what the scriptural sage affirms. “What kind of world are we living in? In the midst of it all, where is the ‘loving God’ of the Bible?”

         God customarily keeps silence in the face of human wrongdoing. We consider this unbearable, as well, and to an extent we may be right. Raise your voice to God in objection to the world’s evils; shake your fist at Him if you wish. Yet it doesn’t help us or help the cause of divine mercy if we don’t soon move through that, in faith, toward acceptance of what we cannot change and repentance of our own wrongs.

Perhaps the best form of repentance is forward-looking. While it may seem to some people that every generation is worse than the one before it, we can say for sure that every generation is younger than the one before it; younger, and therefore in need of a formation in things divine, like mercy, and repentance, and justice, and generosity. They yearn, as much as their elders do, to believe that God loves all things and “doesn’t make junk,” including themselves!

For us rational creatures, that divine love exercises certain demands upon our attitudes and conduct. We can’t bask in the love of God and at the same time hurt ourselves, treat our bodies or others’ bodies as playthings, or care little for worship, praise, and contrition. When people start to indulge in things that oppose the love of God, they are really shooting themselves in the foot--denigrating their God-given dignity. We know that well, and shouldn’t be afraid to share our experiences with those who might learn something from them.

Naught else but love would motivate such an outreach—a love like Our Savior’s love for Zacchaeus. Here’s a man who has dealt in extortion for most of his adult life, and here’s Jesus who sees in his heart an inkling of distaste for the way he’s been living. And here’s Jesus calling Zacchaeus to join His company! Calling him out of his prison of self into a freedom and joy he couldn’t have begun to consider before! That’s the kind of love that motivates people to look out for each other amid the realities of life, to become involved before there’s a problem so that, when there’s a problem, they—or we—have someone we can go to in order to hear from human lips that God loathes nothing that He has made.

Show someone today how the loving God of the Scriptures is relevant in their world. Even if you are gently inviting them to repentance, you are showing them more love than they might have experienced before: someone cares enough to suggest that there’s a better path for their lives. At the proper time, they may thank you for it; but even if they don’t, you’ll have a little more peace in your life, because, like Jesus, you have “come to seek and to save what was lost.”