Break the chains of pain…
(01-10-2010)
If there is one topic about Jesus that I speak to the most, whether in homilies, counseling, confession, or anywhere, it is that of forgiveness. It is one of the few main themes that is foundational for the gospel—his GOOD NEWS. Forgiveness takes on life and breath in the Spirit of God. It is a belief that is taught to us in every instance of the example and life of Jesus and his gift of Baptism into His Spirit. His miracles rest upon forgiveness.
How often do we hear Jesus preface his command get up and walk, or to open one’s eyes and see again, or to open one’s ears and hear again, or to open one’s heart and love again?
How often does Jesus say these things with the great consoling words “your sins are forgiven you.” And as he told the scribes and Pharisees over and over, there is more joy to be had from forgiveness towards others than from a lifetime of self-righteousness.
Today’s GOOD NEWS is no different. Our Patron St. John the Baptist proclaims that the Christ is “…will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”
What does that mean? Our Baptism is connected directly to the Holy Spirit in the life of Christ—his teaching and his righteousness—that fires us up to live a certain way. The word righteousness has many meanings—related to living moral lives. Includes—responding to injustice—wrongdoing. All of what Jesus teaches us is connected to eliminating wrongdoing—and is the meaning of baptism—the forgiveness of sins.
God is planning to set humans right with God, to restore the relationship broken by our sin through the gift of the Christ—and in the cleansing of Baptism with the Holy Spirit. We are submerged into the divine life and expected to live as such. Through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, God the Father will bring about such holiness in us. The foundational key, stated once again, is reflected in our relationships with family and friends extending God’s life of mercy and forgiveness. True forgiveness goes beyond justice, beyond what is due to the other person by their actions.
We don’t try to get even when we forgive— we try to live Jesus when we forgive. Not always perfect at that—it takes work and time and awareness.
For, we know the pain and suffering we receive or cause when we don’t try to forgive.
Harboring the bitter hurts, stuffing them in conscious or subconscious pockets in our minds or hearts poisons our lives and keep us in the past --we miss out on life in the present. Carrying around the heavy pain can reduce our joy for living –keep us in wounded darkness.
We need to break the pain-chains that bind us by saying “yes” to our baptism through Jesus in the Holy Spirit—yes to a different future in our relationships, or be humble enough to ask forgiveness for what we have done to someone, even if the person needing forgiveness is ourself or with those who have hurt us.
I am not talking about tolerating patterns of continued abuse that would be foolish. That is not what Jesus meant when he said “turn the other cheek.” He was talking about an interior forgiveness toward the abuser in order for us to move on—to let go rather than harbor hatred. We are set free through such forgiveness, even if the other person refuses to acknowledge the wrong.
True and just forgiveness is such a key to life; it breaks the darkness and brings in light and joy. That is what Isaiah is telling us when he describes the coming of the Messiah.
“I, the Lord, have called you for the victory of justice, I have grasped you by the hand; I formed you, and set you as a covenant of the people, a light for the nations, to open the eyes of the blind, to bring out prisoners from confinement, and from the dungeon, those who live in darkness” (Is 42:6-7).
God wants us out of those dark dungeons of harboring—he tells us forgiveness is his light in our baptism; it is the hallmark of the mission of the teachings and healings of Jesus’ ministry.
The meaning of OUR baptism into JESUS is based on submitting to the Holy Spirit of God, going into the depth of our humanity and finding the goodness that is there within each one of us—the light of God’s grace at work in our goodness. Guilt, shame, and harboring resentment disappear by his love shining in us.
And our Mass is a journey of forgiveness and healing—into the light and goodness of Christ with us. It begins with the penitential right where we ask the Lord have mercy, it includes the Lord’s Prayer to remind us of how we are to forgive others, and just before the Lord heals us with the gift of his Real Presence, in Eucharist, we offer the Sign of Peace to one another to show we are reconciled and one in him. And we are sent out to live in that oneness so God will declare about us—these are my beloved children with whom I am well pleased.
Live your Baptism, Fr. Gordon
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