FORGIVENESS FOR DUMMIES
The title of my homily for this feast of Pentecost is, “Forgiveness for Dummies.”
I want to preach on the last line in today’s gospel, “Whose
sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.”
That’s John 20:23.
That’s “Forgiveness for Dummies.”
Simply put: we have the power to forgive and we have the
power to retain - to let go of or to
hold onto hurts, mistakes, disasters, dumb moves in our past - whether we did
them or they were done to us.
Come Holy Spirit. Don’t let us be dumb - refusing to accept
forgiveness and to forgive each other - as we pray in the Our Father each day.
JOHN 20:23
John 20:23 has been understood in various ways down through
the centuries. For starters Jesus is telling his apostles in that Upper Room
that he is bringing peace and forgiveness and healing to them. Then he is sending
them out to do the same thing to others. They are to bring peace to those
outside that room - to bring peace to our world. He is telling them to receive
the Holy Spirit - especially the Spirit of forgiveness from God and from others.
The apostles and disciples had locked themselves up in that
Upper Room. They had run from Jesus. They were filled with fear. And into that
mess - into that death - into that chaos of losing their leader and their hope
- who was crucified - the Risen Lord
Jesus came back from the dead. He comes into their center - into that shut room
- and breathes new life into them.
This is a post- resurrection story. As St. Paul will put it, if Christ didn’t rise
from the dead, we’re still dead in our sins. [Cf. 1 Corinthians 15:17]
Just as Jesus had died - so too the disciples had died in
their own way. Jesus comes and does what God the Creator did in Genesis: remolded, reshaped, refashioned
them, breathing new life into them.
This story in The
Gospel of John mirrors the scene in the first book of the Bible, Genesis - when God creates Adam out of
the clay and the mud of the earth - and breathes life into him.
Both moments are a new beginning in human evolution - told
in Biblical ways.
This story in The
Gospel of John also mirrors the second book of the Bible, Exodus, when the Israelites escape,
exit, run, leave their lives as slaves in Egypt and head down the road towards
the waters - to escape through those waters to the other side - to become a new
people - heading towards the Promised Land - getting past their past. It’s a Passover. [Cf. Exodus
13: 17 to 15:21.]
So too the apostles in that Upper Room escape - head out of
there - make an exit from Jerusalem - and start new communities - called
Christians - people renewed from their
past by the waters of Baptism and
working towards making this world a Promised Land for all.
Many people get stuck in the past - in personal tragedies.
Christianity is about the promise of a new life - to Passover the Past - over
and over and over again - and live a new Promise.
And one of the keys is the ability to forgiven and accept
forgiveness.
So the disciples did just that: bringing forgiveness to
people.
It started with Baptism - the ritual washing - cleansing -
of people - from their past. If any of you have received the Sacrament of
Baptism as adults, you know you heard that Baptism washes and cleans us of our
sins - all the sins of our past - and we don’t have to go to confession for
starters.
You have also learned what Catholics know - we have the
powerful Sacrament of Penance - the Sacrament of Reconciliation - when people
can be forgiven - cleansed of mistakes - after Baptism.
Don’t we all? Don’t we all? Don’t we all? Don’t we all make
mistakes and commit sins after our baptism?
Different Christian Communities accept the sacrament of Baptism
but they have had problems with the Catholic Church’s teaching about the
Sacrament of Confession or Reconciliation. [1]
Where are you with your Sacraments of Baptism and
Reconciliation? What are your needs? What’s in your wallet? What’s in your
past? Where do you need to be washed and showered with forgiveness? What do you
want your future to look like? What do you want to see as promising?
IF NOBODY ELSE
WOULD FORGIVE ME
When we were studying the Sacrament of Confession in the
seminary I was struck by an insight our Dogmatic Theology professor gave us one
day. He said, “It’s important, it’s wonderful, if we could go up to each other
and say, ‘I’m sorry! I made a mistake!’ And we confess our sins to each other
and it would be great if the other forgives us.” [Cf. James 5: 16]
Then he added: “What happens if the other won’t forgive
us? What happens if we told the other
what we did and it would destroy everything? It’s in situations like that, that the
Sacrament of Reconciliation - Confession - is really, wonderfully, powerful.”
I heard that in a classroom before I became a priest. Then as
priest I have discovered that to be very true.
As priest I have heard people in confession breathe out a sign of relief
- after confessing a sin. I’ve also heard them repeat that breath of fresh air
when they hear the words of absolution - as their sins are forgiven.
Today is the Feast of Pentecost. Today - or any day -
breathe. Pull fresh air into your being, into your upper room. Take in the Spirit,
the Spirit of Life, the Spirit of Courage, the Holy Spirit of forgiveness. Call
to the Spirit for a rush of air, resuscitation, resurrection, and peace.
As we heard today’s gospel and in today’s readings, we heard how the Holy Spirit is the one who brings forgiveness of sins and connections and reconnections.
The Spirit gets us talking to each other - no matter how
divided we are - no matter what language we speak. We’re all in this together. We’re all parts of one body - so we all need
to work together to make this life work.
Come Holy Spirit.
Pause. Breathe. Feel the Fresh Air of God in your life.
Meditate on breathing - a practice very much part of many
religions.
Breathe: “Come Holy Spirit.” Pray: “Come Holy Spirit.”
Breathe: “Come Holy Spirit.” Pray: “Come Holy Spirit.”
The word for the “Spirit” in Hebrew is
“RUAH”. It’s the rush of the Spirit - into our life. It’s one of those
onomatopoeic words. Remember those from
English literature classes - words that sound like what they suggest - words like hiss - splash - crash. So too the
Hebrew word, “RUAH.” Hear the sound of breath - wind - and air in that word.
Have you ever been at the beach in the summer and someone
has been pulled out of the waters - almost drowned. You see life guards or
paramedics pushing down on that person’s lungs - trying to get them to breathe
again - giving them mouth to mouth resuscitation - trying to bring them back to
life.
When you want God to forgive you, lay there on your bed and picture God leaning over you - pushing you.
Picture God putting His lips to yours and giving you spiritual resuscitation.
That image is not far fetched. It’s a powerful Biblical
image from Genesis with God forming
us from the beginning - as well as the great scene of resurrection and a new
beginning in the Book of Ezekiel -
Chapter 37 - in the great vision of the
field of dead bones being called back to life.
The title of my homily is, “Forgiveness for Dummies.”
Pentecost is a call for forgiveness - for new life.
The priest, the Church, all are called to scream out over
the people of this planet who are often like a valley of dead bones, “Dry
bones, hear the word of the Lord. The
Lord God says over these bones: I am now
going to make the breath enter you, and you will live.” And the whole valley of
the dead bones come back to life.
Isn’t that also the message of today’s second reading from 1 Corinthians when Paul sees everyone
separated? He then calls upon the One Spirit - to help all the parts of the
Body of Christ to see their connection - through baptism - becoming one Body -
no matter where Jews or Greeks, slaves or free persons, and we were all given to
drink of one Spirit.
CONCLUSION: ONE
STEP DEEPER
The title of my homily is, “Forgiveness for Dummies.”
I want to go one step deeper to something that is more
fundamental - something more primal. It’s something we all know very well.
We’ve experienced it right here in our upper
room - called our skull, called our mind. [POINT
TO SKULL] We can be stuck in here.
As today’s gospel puts it - we can be all blocked up with fear - all locked up
- because of failures. It’s in here where Jesus comes and says to us, “Peace”.
It’s in here that Jesus can breathe his Holy Spirit into us.
Come Holy Spirit.
Each of us can go to confession 100 times - each of us can
forgive another 1000 times - or be forgiven by another 1000 times.
Wonderful!
Then surprise, hasn’t this happened to all of us. Something
happens. Someone says the wrong thing. Someone
pushes the wrong button - and we discover the other hasn’t really forgiven us.
Or more significant, I have noticed this in myself many times - and I’ve also noticed it in listening to
others as a priest - we don’t forgive
ourselves. We really don’t believe God could forgive us. We hold onto our side
of the trapeze and we can’t fly through the air to the next bar of our lives.
We’re dummies. We hold onto our dumb mistakes - our sins - the ways we’ve been hurt - and holding onto that stuff - retaining that stuff weighs us down.
Today - this Pentecost Sunday - take off those retainers.
Every kid who wears retainers - knows the day those retainers come off - today -
this Pentecost Sunday - take off those retainers - those restrainers - and be
set free.
NOTES
[1] Raymond Brown, The Anchor Bible, The Gospel According to
John XIII-XXI, Doubleday and Company, Garden City, New York , 1970, page 1041
Picture on top: From on line
Picture on top: From on line
