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9-11 Next Week at St. Vincent Ferrer

Posted by Fr. Bruno M. Shah, O.P. on 03 Sep 2011 at 02:58 pm | Tagged as: Events in the Archdiocese

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2 Responses to “9-11 Next Week at St. Vincent Ferrer”

on 05 Sep 2011 at 8:10 pm # fr. jerry wirth

Bruno,

Just read your thoughts on this coming Sunday’s gospel. You say that we don’t forgive the terrorists because “It has to do with the fact that I do not know them; I do not have a relationship with them… The attacks were not directed against individuals as such but against a public.” “ But none of our biblical sources suggest that the role of forgiveness is found in the more collective, structural domain of statecraft and war.”

What kind of relationship do you propose is needed for one to forgive others? Or how do you reconcile what you state with Jesus’ statement of forgiveness on the cross? He didn’t have a relationship with all of them who plotted and participated in a variety of degrees with the execution.

“So, whether they are remotely identifiable terrorists or deceased relatives, our consciences need not be troubled with forgiving them; however, this is in no way to say that we need not be troubled about their being forgiven. Let us rather commend them to the mercy of God.” It sounds as if we should leave the business of forgiving up to God since forgiveness does not apply to the “public” or to numbers of folks.

As of now, I don’t know understand you. Or maybe I understand you but I don’t agree with you.

Peace,

Fr.Jerry Wirth
on 06 Sep 2011 at 10:20 am # Fr. Bruno M. Shah, O.P.

Dear Jerry,

Thanks for your comments (in reference to a reflection published elsewhere).

The clear emphasis in biblical passages regarding forgiveness is on the number of times we need to forgive our brother – not the universe of brothers and sisters we need to forgive. The premise in Matthew is that the brother has asked for forgiveness. Elsewhere, we are encouraged to seek reconciliation before offering worship by leaving our gift at the altar and seeking the one against whom we have a grudge. Typically, exchanges of forgiveness require that one believe one is in need of it and has asked for it. The one who has been offended can lead the other to recognize his offense and need for forgiveness, but he must be in a position to receive it. Overall, the situation is on concrete personal relationships between living persons. (The rather specific context is members of the same Jewish-Christian community.)

To put it another way, it ought to be a situation in which the offender is actually capable receiving our letting him go, our release of the debt that is owed to us. When a person has finally passed from this earth, our relieving a person of the debt that is owed to us no longer effects anything for that person–he has already met his individual judgment. (This is not to say that we cannot pray and merit for deceased persons… but this is a different issue.)

Of course, for the sake of our own pscyho-emotional health, we may need to “move beyond” some violence suffered in our past and let the offense and offender “go.” But we should not confuse Christian acts of forgiveness with those that are more generally about the self and focused in leading a person to deal with accepting his or her past, recent or remote. Forgiveness should be therapeutic for oneself, but it is not a therapy of the self–it is a therapy for the other; a healing of the other. Forgiveness is an interpersonal exchange that, by Christ’s infinite merit, fulfills and transcends the natural order of justice with the renewing wonders of supernatural love. It is quite possible to have forgiven another while continuing to deal with emotions of anger and bitterness. So, if that resentment represents and manifests the way in which I believe I need to be paid back, we must forgive again and again. But the act of forgiveness ought not to be confused with passions of resentment.

Jesus, in fact, has a personal relationship with all men and women … because he is also God, he is our Creator. The Incarnation is the key. All of humanity, in Adam per Original Sin, and in our individuality per personal sins, places us against God and one another. In his humanity, Jesus loved God perfectly. This is represented in his loving obedience unto death. Since this is a supreme and perfect act of worship, untainted by Original or personal sin, Jesus effectively petitions that this act of sacrifice be received unto his brothers’ and sisters’ redemption. As the innocent head of humanity, Christ asks the Father to forgive “them.” He alone has this representative role and capacity. And it is his poured-out blood that is offered for the forgiveness of sins, and that establishes the new and everlasting covenant. Through Jesus Christ’s human offering of love, he is able to reconcile God and man as the one who perfectly fulfills the greatest/twofold commandment — love of God, love of neighbor. Through Jesus Christ’s divine power, the work and effect of this love is able to reach out to the whole world.

But again, this is objectively. People still need to receive the potential effects of the Redemption into their lives. Only one of the 2 thieves makes it into Paradise, even though it was there for both.

God bless!

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9-11 Next Week at St. Vincent Ferrer

2 Responses to “9-11 Next Week at St. Vincent Ferrer”

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