Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. —Matthew 5:7
Father Richard names how forgiveness creates opportunities for growth:
The Spirit within us creates an unrelenting desire toward forgiveness and reconciliation. The entire gospel reveals the unfolding mystery of forgiveness; it is the beginning, the middle, and the end of the gospel’s transformative message. The energy of being forgiven—in our unworthiness of it—first breaks us out of our merit-badge mentality. The ongoing experience of being forgiven is necessary to renew our flagging spirit and keep us in the infinite ocean of grace. Toward the end of life, a universal forgiveness of everything for being what it is becomes the only way we can see and understand reality and finally live at peace.
Zechariah said that God would “give God’s people knowledge of salvation through forgiveness of sin” (Luke 1:77). Forgiveness given and forgiveness received are always the pure work of uncreated grace. Such unearned and undeserved forgiveness is necessary to break down the quid pro quo world that I call meritocracy. Only when we experience undeserved love does this inward and outward flow begin to happen. Before that, we are dry, dead cisterns. Before that, we are into “religion” perhaps, but we don’t really have any dynamic notion of God or even our self.
Grace re-creates all things; nothing new happens without forgiveness. We just keep repeating the same old patterns, illusions, and half-truths. Sometimes grace does not come immediately, but like Job we “sit in the ashes scraping our sores” (Job 2:8). Sometimes neither the desire nor the decision to forgive is present. Then we must grieve and wait. We must sit in our poverty, perhaps admitting our inability to forgive the offender. That is when we learn how to pray and how to “long and thirst for righteousness” (Matthew 5:6).
True Spirit-led forgiveness always frees and heals at least one of the parties involved, and hopefully both. If it only preserves my moral high ground—as a magnanimous “Christian” person—I doubt if it is true forgiveness at all. In forgiveness, we live up to our true and deepest dignity. We then operate by a power and a logic not our own.
At the New Jerusalem Community in Cincinnati, I had “70 x 7” painted over the main doorway [see Matthew 18:21–22]. New mail carriers thought it was the address! It was our address, in a way. It’s the distinctive hallmark of a people liberated by Christ. Community is not where forgiveness is unnecessary or unneeded. It is where forgiveness is very free to happen. And if it doesn’t happen on a daily basis, at least imperfectly, there will be no community. Without forgiveness the logic of victimhood and perpetrator rules instead of the illogic of love.
Reference:
Adapted from Richard Rohr, Near Occasions of Grace (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1993), 102–104.
Image credit and inspiration: Riho Kitagawa, Kintsugi pottery (detail), 2021, photo, Unsplash. Click here to enlarge image. Kintsugi is the artform of repairing a break with gold; we allow the pottery to move forward in grace and beauty, not by discarding or erasing, but by transforming the break into art.
Story from Our Community:
I’m grieving after realizing how much hurt I have caused others and myself. In the midst of this grief, I am choosing to embrace universal love and grace—like the one Jesus models for us. I continue to turn toward love and kindness for others in my life and for myself.
—Sherry K.
