[1]The Lake Washington Disciples was an interdenominational partnership of 12 faith communities. Catholics, Presbyterians, Lutherans, Methodists, Baptists, Episcopalians, and other non-denominational churches partnering to build 15 Habitat for Humanity houses in South Brevard as part of Habitat’s “More Than Houses” campaign. On July 31, 1999, the volunteers arrived on their current project site to find a rock had been thrown through the front window. It was the first vandalism the group had experienced.
At first the volunteers expressed anger, disappointment and frustration.
They began to wonder why anyone would not be supportive of an effort to build
affordable housing in a neighborhood that had been sadly neglected for
decades. Some volunteers even muttered
that maybe their efforts were being done in vain. Others left never to return.
When morning devotion was offered, the group prayed for the
protection of the house, “My Spirit remains among you. Do not fear” (Hg
2:5), for the lifting of the spirits of the volunteers, “Do not be overcome
by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Rom 12:21), and for the vandal, “He pardons all our
iniquities, heals all our ills” (Ps 103:3). While sweeping up the glass, a volunteer noticed, within
the window frame holding the remaining pieces of the pane together, the shape
of the hole left by the rock. With very
little imagination, they could see the outline of a dove with wings
spread. The news of this discovery
quickly buzzed through the work group.
Frustration gave way to wonderment.
As if their willingness for pray for and forgive the vandal, God,
through this image of the Holy Spirit, had entered the house in a very special
way, enriching the lives of the volunteers, the staff, and the family purchasing
the home.
You’ve heard it said, “To err is human; to forgive
divine.” In today’s Gospel we hear to
forgive is fully human—and therefore divine.
God is passing on the mystery of His impossible, unconditional love from
himself to all of us. We remind
ourselves of this mystery every time we pray as Jesus taught his disciples in
the Our Father, “…forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors” (Mt 6:12).
So, we’ve been treated badly, hurt in some way, someone broke
your window. We may have good reason to
feel wounded or hurt and we don’t have to apologize for it. But for a moment, let’s put aside what the other
person did and look at what anger (unforgiveness) can do to us.[2] If you’ve ever nursed a grudge for a long
time, you know how resentment can eat you up, and I’m not just talking about
feelings here, it can take a physical, psychological and spiritual toll on
us. Don’t ask me how I know this. What we must try to do is get beyond the
offense and reject the temptation to wish ill on the person or to seek revenge. For “the vengeful will suffer the Lord’s
vengeance, for he remembers their sins in detail.” (Sir 28:1)
What we hear consistently through scripture is that God loves
all of us in an unearned way, this is forgiveness. Today’s Gospel draws attention to the
emotions that either facilitate or impede one’s forgiveness of another. Refusing to forgive, is risking not being
forgiven. This is the warning at the end
of the Gospel. Where God, in his anger,
will hand over the unforgiving servant “…to the tortures until he should pay
back the whole debt” (Mt
18:34). This is a bit scary and can leave
us somewhat conflicted. Did we not just
repeat, several times the psalm response, “The Lord is kind and merciful, slow
to anger, and rich in compassion.” Would
our compassionate and merciful God turn us over to the torturer?
What I believe this parable is teaching is, we will be handed
over to the torturer, and the torturer is our own mind, heart, and spirit. Jesus is talking about a kind of self-torture
and we’re good at it. It’s not God who
tortures us; humans most assuredly torture themselves and one another—and then
project that onto God. The longer we
hold on to the wrongdoing, the evil or the injustice we’ve experienced, our blaming
someone else, we do ourselves and everyone else no good. Let it go!
Forgiveness is love in an unearned way.
Forgiveness reveals three goods: First, we must grant the
offending party some degree of dignity and goodness. We must not demonize them. We must honor the divine presence in them,
even with the mistakes they’ve made and/or hurt they’ve caused.
Second, we must recognize the capacity for goodness inside
ourselves. We must draw from a deeper
place, bigger than us, that is not so easily offended, in fact, it is
un-offend-able. It’s the soul, the place
where God dwells. When we draw from this
place, we don’t need to count the cost or measure the offense. We’re living inside such a bigger love that
little hurts really don’t matter and they’re not worth carrying around.
The third good, of course, is recognizing the total and
unconditional goodness of God, who has always shown us kindness and mercy. As the mystics and saints all realize, the
center of this universe is kindness and mercy.
This abundant unearned love unlocks everything. It frees reality so we no longer need to
count the cost, hate, blame, or attack anyone!
If God is kind and merciful, then we who are God’s children
can only, somehow, become the same. We
become the God we worship, the Christ we encounter in this mystery, who forgave
even those who were amid crucifying him, because God is forgiveness and love.[3]
While the Habitat family may have moved on, the lesson lives on: “Forgive your neighbors injustice and when you pray, your own sins will be forgiven.” Repairing a broken window is easy; repairing a broken relationship, priceless. It begins with unearned forgiveness.
[1] New American Bible, Saint Joseph Edition © 1986.
Scriptures: Sirach 27:30-28:79, Romans 14:7-8, Matthew 18:21-35.
[2] Sundays with Jesus,
Reflections for the Year of Matthew. by James DiGiacomo, SJ © 2007 Paulist
Press, Mahwah, NJ
[3] Naked, and You Clothed Me,
Edited by Deacon Jim Knipper © 2013. “Forgive your neighbor’s injustice” by Fr.
Richard Rohr, OFM
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