One of the beautiful and terrifying aspects of being a Catholic is the ever present level of accountability. As Catholics we are called on to live our faith every moment. We are to look out for and provide for those who God puts into our lives. We are called to share our faith through example every day. We are called to reflect on God’s grace and to work towards forgiveness and holiness each and every day.
The most dangerous and often underestimated prayer is The Lord’s Prayer. As Catholics, we pray this seemingly basic prayer at every Mass, many gatherings, and more. It is a beautiful prayer given to us by Christ himself. It is a statement of our faith and beliefs. It also contains a very dangerous line. We pray, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us”. Think about this line for a minute. It doesn’t say “forgive us and we’ll forgive others”, nor “forgive us even if we don’t forgive others”. It says clearly “forgive us AS we forgive others”. This is a serious statement because we are asking God to treat us exactly as we treat others around us. How many times have you been hurt by someone, supposedly forgiven them, yet held resentment or a subtle anger towards them for years. How would it feel for God to forgive us our sins and hold a grudge anyway? We make a powerful and conditional statement when we ask God to forgive us as we forgive others. We place a standard on ourselves to live exactly as Christ required. We are called to love our neighbors. It’s also stated that we can not truly love God if we don’t love our neighbors.
I cringe a little every time I pray The Lord’s Prayer for good reason. I am reminded daily that I must forgive others completely. This is a monumental task for us. We don’t have the strength of compassion and grace that God has. He doesn’t call us to be perfect though. We are human, and as humans, have the stains of resentment, jealousy, and hatred. Does this mean that if we slip and have resentment towards those we have forgiven, God won’t forgive us? Absolutely not! What it does mean is that we must strive to constantly re-forgive those who have wronged us daily. Resentment and anger will continue to arise from time to time, but we have the ever-present cup of grace from our God to help us work through that anger. I alone don’t have the ability to forgive others completely. I don’t have a mind capable of forgetting transgressions as far as the east is from the west. What I do have is a loving God who has given himself to me as a fountain of grace. I can use and focus on that grace to recognize my failings in forgiveness and work towards forgiving again!
Next time you pray The Lord’s Prayer, take a moment and truly absorb what you are saying. Do you hold a grudge in your heart towards someone who has hurt you? Lift up that pain and anger to the cross and let the hand of Christ show you his perfect forgiveness. No one could ever hurt you as badly as we have hurt our Lord through the ages. He came among us, loved us, and died for payment for those hurts! Imagine having the ultimate bill and the collector came and paid it for you out of love. When people hurt us, we need to try and act as Christ did. Forgiveness is a work in progress. It’s a work that was begun by the Almighty, and continues through Him, by Him, and for all of us!
