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March 17: Memorial of St. Patrick
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| "'The love of God and his fear grew in me more and more, as did the faith, and my soul was rosed, so that, in a single day, I have said as many as a hundred prayers and in the night, nearly the same.'" [Catholic Online] |
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THIS MAN WELCOMES SINNERS AND EATS WITH THEM
God welcomes every prodigal child who returns to him… The acceptance of God's forgiveness leads to the commitment to forgive our brothers and sisters and to be reconciled with them.
By Pope John Paul II
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Let us forgive and ask forgiveness! While we praise God who, in his merciful love, has produced in the Church a wonderful harvest of holiness, missionary zeal, total dedication to Christ and neighbour, we cannot fail to recognize the infidelities to the Gospel committed by some of our brethren, especially during the second millennium. Let us ask pardon for the divisions which have occurred among Christians, for the violence some have used in the service of the truth and for the distrustful and hostile attitudes sometimes taken towards the followers of other religions.
Let us confess, even more, our responsibilities as Christians for the evils of today. We must ask ourselves what our
responsibilities are regarding atheism, religious indifference, secularism, ethical relativism, the violations of the right to life, disregard for the poor in many countries.
We humbly ask forgiveness for the part which each of us has had in these evils by our own actions, thus helping to disfigure the face of the Church.
At the same time, as we confess our sins, let us forgive the sins committed by others against us. Countless times in the course of history Christians have suffered hardship, oppression and persecution because of their faith. Just as the victims of such abuses forgave them, so let us forgive as well. The Church today feels and has always felt obliged to purify her memory of those sad events from every feeling of rancour or revenge. In this way [it] becomes for everyone a favourable opportunity for a profound conversion to the Gospel. The acceptance of God's forgiveness leads to the commitment to forgive our brothers and sisters and to be reconciled with them.
But what does the word "reconciliation" mean to us? To grasp its precise sense and value, we must first recognize the possibility of division, of separation. Yes, man is the only creature on earth who can have a relationship of communion with his Creator, but he is also the only one who can separate himself from him. Unfortunately, he has frequently turned away from God.
Fortunately many people, like the prodigal son spoken of in the Gospel of Luke (cf. Lk 15: 13), after leaving their father's house and squandering their inheritance, reach the very bottom and realize how much they have lost (cf. Lk 15: 13-17). Then they set out to return home: "I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, "Father, I have sinned...'" (Lk 15: 18).
God, clearly represented by the father in the parable, welcomes every prodigal child who returns to him. He welcomes him through Christ, in whom the sinner can once again become "righteous" with the righteousness of God. He welcomes him, because for our sake he made his eternal Son to be sin. Yes, only through Christ can we become the righteousness of God (cf. 2 Cor 5: 21).
"God so loved the world that he gave his only Son". Here, in synthesis, is what the mystery of the world's redemption means! We must fully understand the value of the great gift the Father has given us in Jesus. We must keep the eyes of our soul fixed on Christ—the Christ of Gethesmane, Christ scourged, crowned with thorns, carrying the cross and, finally, crucified. Christ took upon himself the burden of the sins of all people, the burden of our own sins, so that through his saving sacrifice we might be reconciled to God. March 12, 2007
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Excerpted from Pope John Paul II’s homily, Sunday, March 12, 2000.
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| READER COMMENTS |
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05.26.04 alexander caughey says:
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| Hi Jonathan, Putting my point, a slightly different way. When I sin, then I reject my relationship with my Creator. When I recognise that I have sinned, I accept God back into my life. The sinning and the awareness of having sinned, is the learning process. Without learning, we cannot progress and grow, for without experience of living, which must include sinning, for we are sinful creatures, we are unable to grow into the image, that we are born to become. Life's school, is to make errors and learn from those errors by not repeating the same errors. Resistance training grows our muscles, likewise resistance to Christ's way, will enable us to grow when we realise that our error (sin) has denied us the food of growth (Christ). Mercy, is that acceptance that we all need forgiveness, for we are all the result of sin and through mercy we are the sinner in process of change, into the image that we seek, through mercy and learning from our sinning. Sinning should not equal a deliberate act of sinning, in order to redeem ourselves, rather, sinning is a consequence of living in a sinful world, of which we are its victims and its beneficiaries. |
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05.25.04 Jonathan Kinsman says:
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| Siena:Your point is well put, a bull's eye! We are all pilgrims following the Way, the Truth and the Light.Alex:Is sin is our "fuel of propulsion," or is it (as its Greek root, hamartia, indicates) a "missing of the mark," as in archery?"Go, and sin no more," to the woman in John. Don't miss the target: being perfect (Matthew 5:48) as our heavenly Father is perfect, is being merciful (Luke 6:36) as our heavenly Father is merciful. What a beautiful, balancing equation: mercy=perfection.Our perfection, in welcoming sinners (ourselves included) is in being merciful towards our failures (and as I hope I understand Alex correctly) and towards those who fail us.It is difficult to practice archery on the run, but practice will make perfect as long as mercy steadies the bow.Pax Christi,Jonathan |
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05.25.04 alexander caughey says:
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| In living to live, I am the one who has and will continue to sin, thus fulfilling my purpose to live my life to the fullest that I am able. That I grow into a better person, when I recognise that I have sinned and then avoid repeating that sin, is to propel me a little further along my road of life. That sin is my fuel of propulsion and therefore my way of learning that which is injurious for my physical and spiritual health, must indicate that to sin is to learn and progress. That the Prodigal Son became a great sinner and reduced himself to the pit of human misery, must instill in me my own awareness, that having sinned and hopefully learnt from my mistakes, I can now look up wards to where I can live once again in the knowledge that I will not allow myself to return to my self imposed pit of hell, for I have chosen to return to the loving embrace of Our Father, who continued to love me, despite my unwillingness to love myself. That some will never acknowledge their guilt, is not for me to understand or judge, but to be where I am, when those in need of my experience, seek me, for my own willingness to confront my own demons, accrued by my own indifference to Christ's love of all that I can be, when I dare to live and learn from my life of experience of whom I am becoming. |
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05.24.04 Siena says:
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| We have to remember to always hold on to the Truth, while also realizing that everyone we meet is on a spiritual journey. We meet them "somewhere along their way to God". We don't see the end product. Because of this, we can welcome the sinner... and praise be to God if we eat with him! The trick is to be a compassionate carrier of the Truth. Never compromise the Truth, but be patient and realize that everyone is on a voyage toward that Truth whether they realize it or not. |
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03.18.04 Godspy says:
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| God welcomes every prodigal child who returns to him… The acceptance of God's forgiveness leads to the commitment to forgive our brothers and sisters and to be reconciled with them. |
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