Bishop James rightly alluded to the various beautiful themes emanating from last Sunday’s readings. From the gospel reading alone, there are many: “Sunday Worship,” “Upper Rooms of Fear,” “Peace,” “The Joy of His Presence,” “Doubting Thomas,” (of course we find something of Thomas in all of us), and so on.
In verses 22 and 23 we meet with the powerful theme of forgiveness. Oh yes! “Receive the Holy Spirit” Jesus said to all of us when he breathed on the disciples. Then He added; “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained”
Hold your thoughts there! Let me share this story with you.
Once upon a time, a man, attempting a bank robbery, shot and killed a young woman who was a teller. He was a worthless man, a drug addict, an abuser of women, a cruel, vicious, evil gangster. The young woman's family was Catholic. They hated the man. They could hardly wait for the trial. They sat in the courtroom, their eyes filled with hate throughout the trial. When the jury found him guilty they cheer. When the judge sentenced him to death, they yelled with exaltation and exchanged high fives. They waited impatiently for the day of his execution. They told the media that they would experience "closure" to the tragedy only when they watched the lethal chemicals flow into his body and his face twist in death agony.
They waited years for all the appeals to be exhausted. In prison the man went through a conversion experience and begged for forgiveness. The family refused to grant it. It's a fake they said. He just wants to save his rotten life. He asked for forgiveness from the execution chamber. They spit in his direction. They cheer again when he died. As they were leaving the prison, the dead woman's sister said to her brother, I don't feel closure, do you? No, he said, I don't either.
Why couldn’t they find closure? You and I and the church are in perspective here. It seems to me that on this lies the abundance of PEACE in our lives and relationship or a lack thereof. I came across a saying that “to forgive is not a right to be jealously guarded, but an obligation to be exercised generously.” Why? Is it not simply because we do not earn our own forgiveness by forgiving others? Rather we manifest the generosity and implacability of God's forgiveness of us.
It is only true to conclude that it is impossible to find closure when we fail to forgive. This is true of any relationship. Don’t you think so?
