Dear Brothers and sisters!
The preparation weeks for lent have come to an end and lent begins. Today we heard a lesson on forgiveness. One of the virtues that we must acquire and is essential if we are to grow in Christ, is the virtue of forgiveness. When we think about Christ and who or what was incarnated when the word became flesh, we can get confused. The perfect prototype of man was born, even more perfect than Adam before he became ill. But in order for this man to be truly perfect and without sin, the prototype also had to be God.
It is like this. Think for a minute about an image of Jesus walking the Earth, healing, teaching, saving people. Now, think of that image as a living stone, with just its outline. Do you remember the two tablets of stone, the ten commandments? On them were written laws that govern how the righteous should live. Thou shalt not commit murder, lie, covet, steal, commit adultery, love the Lord your God and your neighbor as yourself. That is what Jesus Christ is, except He is a walking, talking, living stone. On this stone, is written all the virtues that ever existed and there is no virtue apart from this stone. Kindness, mercy, love, obedience and so on. All the virtues ever known to man, are perfected through this living stone. While the other stones had commandments written on them, this stone, showed and gave an example how to do the commandments and virtues. Now think of one of the virtues that we heard in the Gospel today. Forgiveness. “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” There is a tragedy in the world today and it has been infecting humanity, from the beginning of the world. It is that people think that they will be forgiven, even though they themselves do not forgive. They have convinced or deceived themselves that God will accept their sacrifice even though they have an unforgiving, unrepentant, hard as a stone heart. Dear Brothers and Sisters, Forgiveness is a gift from God to humanity, so that humanity may live once more. Humanity is dead without forgiveness. As I said before that Christ is the prototype of every virtue. He is the prototype or the perfection of the virtue of forgiveness. We can even say that when Christ was born and became incarnate, perfect forgiveness became born and incarnate. When we strive to live the life of Christ through faith in Him, we acquire this gift from Him.
I would just like to say a comment on a misunderstanding of what forgiveness is. Many people like to think forgive and forget. That after you forgive someone, it means that you have amnesia or something like that and never think about it again. That might be true about little offenses, but it is not true when it comes to bigger offenses. Believe me, there can be some pretty big offenses. The correct way to understand forgiveness is forgive and learn. Forgive the person, give it to God and trust in His grace, that He will give you the strength to be able to deal with it. And learn from this situation so it does not happen again. Don’t forget it. Those that forget history or try to subdue it, are due to repeat it.
Today we read the apostle Paul write to the Romans, “Receive one who is weak in the faith, but not to disputes over doubtful things.” When we learn from our mistakes, we begin to avoid having disputes over doubtful things and acquire another gift from God. The gift of peace. We acquire this gift from the richness of His treasure, which is inexhaustible. Our first prayer that we read before we start any service is, Heavenly King, Comforter True Spirit, Who art everywhere and fillest all, treasury of good things. This prayer is dedicated to the Holy Spirit. We are asking the Holy Spirit to go into His treasure and give us what we need to live a life for God. We can also stand in front of the icon of our Saviour and ask Him, just like you are talking to a friend and say. Jesus, may I receive from you, the gift and virtue of Forgiveness.
When we acquire this gift we begin to live differently. We begin to live like we have one foot here on Earth and one foot in heaven. Keep this in mind that, to where we are moving to, that is where we will ultimately end up. For instance, I want to go to my kitchen. I take my first step, my first movement and I end up in the kitchen. Or if I want to go to the store, I take my first step with the goal of arriving at the store. The same it is with heaven. You take your first step and if you took your first step with faith, the Lord takes you by the hand and helps you along the way.
Listen to what the apostle Paul described today, “Now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand.” Good bright people; salvation is not as far as you think. The night is our time here on Earth to work out our salvation and the day is the eternal time that we spend with Christ. It is at hand, right at the door. The apostle ties it in with, “Let us walk properly, as in the day.” Let us walk as a Christian. A Christian, who by Gods grace has started the forward movement and has one foot in heaven even though he has the other foot on earth. The night is far spent. The time of this life will come to an end. Some receive more time and some less. In the end, we will all reap the same final outcome. Our bodies will go into the grave, they will rot and decompose. It will be like the song that we sing during every liturgy, “As for man, his days are as the grass; as a flower of the field, so shall he blossom forth. For when the wind is passed over it, then it shall be gone, and no longer will it know the place thereof.” That in summary, is the existence of man. Who can be proud or boast in himself after reading or singing such a psalm. Only a Christian whose hope is, that God is able to make him stand in the end. Let us pursue the virtues and acquire them. Let us practice and live forgiveness.