Today we’re celebrating the feast of the Dedication of our Oratory. It’s a feast that call us back to reflect of the core of our faith and our monastic life. Every year it seems to offer me something from the core of our faith to reflect on. This year I’m reflecting on the gospel’s call to forgiveness:
It’s a call that’s full of challenge and that has to be at the heart of any life that involves human relationship. It’s impossible for us to be in relationship with one another without discovering both our need to forgive and to be forgiven. That makes the call to forgive one of the most essential and practical ones we need to respond to.
It’s not an easy call. To forgive we have to both acknowledge the pain of our hurt, and be willing to put it aside. It can be tempting to refuse forgiveness, it gives us a superficial feeling of control when we are vulnerable and brought low.
Forgiveness asks more of us than that. It doesn’t remove the pain we experience. It asks us to acknowledge the pain, and still risk to risk trying again. That leaves us exposed to the risk of more hurt.
Yet to refuse forgiveness imprisons us and ties us to the past. If we want to build the Kingdom together our only hope is to embrace this challenging and risky call as much as we can.
Where are you being called to consider forgiveness today?