Day 363: Forgive Us Our Trespasses (2838-2845)

• It’s Day 363!!

• “AND FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES, AS WE FORGIVE THOSE WHO TRESPASS AGAINST US”

• AND FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES…

• …AS WE FORGIVE THOSE WHO TRESPASS AGAINST US

• Paragraph 2838 says, “This petition is astonishing. If it consisted only of the first phrase, ‘And forgive us our trespasses,’ it might have been included, implicitly, in the first three petitions of the Lord’s Prayer, since Christ’s sacrifice is ‘that sins may be forgiven.’ But, according to the second phrase, our petition will not be heard unless we have first met a strict requirement. Our petition looks to the future, but our response must come first, for the two parts are joined by the single word ‘as.’”

• Fr. Mike was thinking about how PILLAR 3: HOW WE LIVE is very challenging for a lot of people 

• We have our things that we don’t want to surrender to the Lord

• Maybe we don’t understand how a teaching like this can be lived out

• There might not be a more difficult teaching as, “...forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us…”

• It asks a lot of us

• It not only asks the Lord God to forgive us fully

• It demands a lot of us

• It demands that we are forgiven TO THE DEGREE THAT WE ARE WILLING TO FORGIVE THOSE WHO HAVE HURT US

• This teaching sometimes goes under the radar in our lives

• We often glaze over this teaching

• Or maybe we are convicted by this teaching

• This teaching can be painful every time we pray it 

• Maybe we don’t know if we can do this

• So let’s pray…

Prayer by Fr. Mike: “Father in Heaven, give us your help. Father in Heaven, you are the God of mercy. You are the God who has revealed your mercy to us in your Son, Jesus Christ. You have extended your mercy to us in your Son and by pouring out your Holy Spirit to us. You not only have made us new. Not only have you taken away our sins. You also have given us the strength to be like you. You have given us the strength to pray like your Son, to love like your Son, and to forgive like your Son. Lord God, you have invited us to pray that you forgive us the way we forgive others. Lord God, this is dangerous, this is high, this is daunting, this is difficult. And yet, this is how you have told us that we are to pray. And so Lord God, please help us to not only pray this way, help us to live this way. Help us to not only live this way with our outward actions, but help us to love this way. And when we do that, Lord God, we pray like your Son, Jesus. When we do this, we live like your Son, Jesus. And when we do this, we love like your Son, Jesus who prayed for His persecutors even as they were killing Him. Lord God, give us that same heart. Give us the heart of Jesus this day and every day. That we can pray for those who hurt us, that we can forgive those who hurt us, and that we can truly trust in your forgiveness in our lives. Lord, forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. We make this prayer in the mighty name of the one who taught us this prayer, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen”

• So there we have it!!

• One of the greatest challenges…

• SQUIRREL!! 😉

• Let’s listen to Fr. Mike talk about C.S. Lewis…

• C.S. Lewis said in Mere Christianity, “I declared that chastity was the least popular of all the Christian virtues, but I do not think that is right. I think that forgiveness is the least possible. Everyone thinks that forgiveness is a lovely idea until you have something to forgive. And then to ask for forgiveness or to require forgiveness, you are met with howls of people getting mad at you, because you are essentially saying, ‘How dare you ask me to forgive the person who hurt me?’”

• Lewis also says later in that same chapter in Mere Christianity, “People would ask me, ‘How would you feel if you were a Pole or a Jew and had to forgive the Gestapo?’ I wonder too, I wonder very much. I don’t know what I would do if I I had that much to forgive, and yet we cannot escape this.”

• We cannot escape the command of Jesus that we pray this

• Paragraph 2838 says, “This petition is astonishing. If it consisted only of the first phrase, ‘And forgive us our trespasses,’ it might have been included, implicitly, in the first three petitions of the Lord’s Prayer, since Christ’s sacrifice is ‘that sins may be forgiven.’ But, according to the second phrase, our petition will not be heard unless we have first met a strict requirement. Our petition looks to the future, but our response must come first, for the two parts are joined by the single word ‘as.’”

• We live in this broken world and we are so quick to break each other

• We are so quick to turn away from God

• We turn away from God so easily

• “Forgive us our trespasses…” begins with a confession

• I am confessing that I have fallen short, Lord God

• I have failed

• When it comes to Confession, people may face the temptation to confess other people’s sins

• It is much easier to note the sins of others than it is to recognize my own sin

• Inherent in the Lord’s Prayer is the reality that I need to confess that I have trespasses

• Paragraph 2839 says, “With bold confidence, we begin praying to our Father. In begging him that his name be hallowed, we are in fact asking him that we ourselves might be always made more holy. But though we are clothed with the baptismal garment, we do not cease to sin, to turn away from God. Now, in this new petition, we return to him like the prodigal son and, like the tax collector, recognize that we are sinners before him. Our petition begins with a ‘confession’ of our wretchedness and his mercy. Our hope is firm because, in his Son, ‘we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.’ We find the efficacious and undoubted sign of his forgiveness in the sacraments of his Church.”

• Do I believe that I have wretchedness?

• We live in a culture now that would tell us that we are not a wretch

• That it’s not healthy to think so poorly of yourself

• BUT…

• If we are honest with ourselves, we can look at ourselves and say that there is plenty of wretchedness in my heart and soul

• There is plenty of ugliness in my heart and soul

• Let’s listen to Fr. Mike tell a story about his student…

• The lies that have some degree of truth to them are like hooks with barbs

• They stick

• Sometimes we get assailed by lies from the Evil One or even lies that we tell ourselves

• The truth is that we are wretched

• BUT…

• We are not FULLY wretched

• We are not FULLY corrupt

• We are deprived of that fullness

• BUT…

• We are not depraved

• Here is the TRUTH…

• I am wretched AND I am loved

• I am broken AND I am blessed

• There are shadows AND there is light

• We need to confess our wretchedness AND we need to confess God’s mercy

• We need the conviction of I am a sinner AND the Lord is merciful and He loves me

• HE LOVES YOU!!

• DO NOT BELIEVE THE LIES!!

• Don’t give that barb of truth more power than it deserves

• Yes, we have to acknowledge the barb of truth

• BUT…

• That does not mean that the rest of it is true

• When you go to Confession, you KNOW that the Lord God has forgiven you through the ministry of His Church

• You don’t need to FEEL it, you KNOW it

• Paragraph 2840 says, “Now-and this is daunting-this outpouring of mercy cannot penetrate our hearts as long as we have not forgiven those who have trespassed against us. Love, like the Body of Christ, is indivisible; we cannot love the God we cannot see if we do not love the brother or sister we do see. In refusing to forgive our brothers and sisters, our hearts are closed and their hardness makes them impervious to the Father’s merciful love; but in confessing our sins, our hearts are opened to his grace.”

• THIS TEACHING IS SO IMPORTANT!!

• Let’s listen to Fr. Mike recount the Parable of the Merciless Servant…

• What is it to forgive from the heart?

• It is not, “I feel fine.”

• It is not, “I am no longer hurt.”

• It is not, “I trust you now.”

• It is not, “We are reconciled.”

• There is a difference between FORGIVENESS and RECONCILIATION

• There is a difference between FORGIVENESS and RESTORATION OF THE RELATIONSHIP

• Forgiveness can be very very simple

• God is just

• What is justice?

• Justice is giving someone what they are owed, giving someone their due

• God is not ignoring justice

• The call to forgive those who have sinned against us is not a call to be a doormat

• It is the call to say, “This person has hurt me. They have cost me something. They owe me something. Justice would declare that they owe me something. I release them from their debt.”

• This is the heart of forgiveness

• When it comes to forgiveness, “Ok I have these bad feelings towards this person because they have hurt me.”

• But what have they cost you?

• That is the big question

• Take that situation, that wound, into the Church in front of Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament and in front of Jesus on the Cross and say, “Ok, let me add up what they have cost me.”

• Not for a vendetta or revenge

• They may owe me my innocence

• They may owe me the ability to trust

• Fr. Mike is using lending a car to someone as an example so just remember because I’m not going to write down every allusion he makes because I’ve been doing this for 363 days and you are smart enough to get his point, no matter how fast he’s talking 😉

• If you were to forgive them, you are not saying it’s no big deal

• If you forgive them, you are not going to make them pay you back

• It doesn’t mean you trust them again

• It doesn’t mean you’re best friends

• Forgiveness means you are not going to wait for them to pay you back

• This can only be done with the strength of Jesus Christ

• Paragraph 2843 says, “Thus the Lord’s words on forgiveness, the love that loves to the end, become a living reality. The parable of the merciless servant, which crowns the Lord’s teaching on ecclesial communion, ends with these words: ‘So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.’ It is there, in fact, ‘in the depths of the heart,’ that everything is bound and loosed. It is not in our power not to feel or to forget an offense but the heart that offers itself to the Holy Spirit turns injury into compassion and purifies the memory in transforming the hurt into intercession.”

• The first step is adding it all up, what you are owed

• The second step is releasing them from their debt

• The next step is transforming the hurt into intercession, because Christian prayer extends to the forgiveness of enemies

• We are actually COMMANDED by our Lord to pray for those who have hurt us

• That is a high call as well

• Paragraph 2844 says, “Christian prayer extends to the forgiveness of enemies, transfiguring the disciple by configuring him to his Master. Forgiveness is a high-point of Christian prayer; only hearts attuned to God’s compassion can receive the gift of prayer. Forgiveness also bears witness that, in our world, love is stronger than sin. The martyrs of yesterday and today bear this witness to Jesus. Forgiveness is the fundamental condition of the reconciliation of the children of God with their Father and of men with one another.”

• LOVE IS STRONGER THAN SIN!!

• You have seen this love lived out

• You have seen this love depicted on the Crucifix

• You have seen that love lived out above all in the Eucharist

• What does Jesus do?

• He comes to us sinners with His love 

• God’s love for us is stronger than sin

• We have to love with the love with which we have been loved

• It is impossible without God’s grace and without God’s help and without prayer

• Pray for those who have hurt you

• Fr. Mike is praying FOR YOU!!

• Please pray for Fr. Mike and for each other!!

• CRY, EAGLES, CRY!! ON THE PATH TO MISERY!!! 🤣