Unexpected forgiveness

A reflection om the 11th Sunday after Pentecost

O Lord my God, I confess that I have sinned against You in thought, word and deed. I have also omitted to do what Your holy law requires of me. But now with repentance and contrition I turn again to Your love and mercy. I entreat You to forgive me all my transgression and to cleanse me from all my sins. Lord, fill my heart with the light of Your truth. Strengthen my will by Your grace.

Teach me both to desire and to do only what pleases You. Amen.

“Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold was brought to him. Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt. “At this the servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ The servant’s master took pity on him, cancelled the debt and let him go. Mt 18:23-27

We as Orthodox Christians know that the mercy, compassion and forgiveness of God is truly immeasurable. However, we in this life, can not totally comprehend the exact measure in which God pours out these graces upon us. Such will be made known on the day in which the sheep will be separated from the goats and the just will rise from their graves in the resurrection! Mt 25:32-33 - 1 Cor 15:20-23

“But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins. He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded. “His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.’  “But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. Mt 18:28-30

Our Saviour reminds us to live a life as humble as a child. To have faith as a child. To have love, hope and resilience as a child. - “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven". Mt 18:3

This has been made clearer to me by watching my own children interact with others in a school setting; for example.

There have been several instances in which my girls have come home from school; heartbroken and in tears because another child has been rude to them or has excluded them from group activities.

Therefore, after speaking to them; trying to calm them down, Presbytera and I would suggest to perhaps find a new group of friends to play with. Thus, the following day the children would patch this up and pick up from were they left off pre argument.

However, how many of us as grown adults can say we forgive and forget as children do when we or someone we love have been mistreated? I will now share another personal account from my past.

Thus, my Mum and I were wronged by my uncle (her brother) around eleven years ago. For me, the hurt was so immense that I decided to cut him out of my life all together. He missed out on all milestones of my life. My wedding day, the birth of my three children, baptism's, birthdays and so on. Any time my family would suggest to forgive him and give him a second chance, I would become quite angry and think to myself - How can I just forgive all the pain that was caused?

However, last year he asked my Mum to deliver me a message saying that he was truly sorry for what he did and that he would love nothing more in life than to start to make right what he had wronged. Further saying that because of it and other personal issues, he had fallen into a dark place.

Therefore, I bit the bullet so to speak and agreed to meet him at a family lunch. Thus, before the meeting I prayed long and hard because I wasn't sure how it would feel to come face to face with him after all those years. May I say that God and only God expelled, exercised and cleansed me from every ounce of anger that I harboured in my heart towards my uncle.

When we saw each other we embraced so hard that we had to hold our breath. It was an intense moment and such a heavy burden was immediately lifted off of my shoulders. But it was only through God's grace that such forgiveness was made possible.

Thus, it has now been one year that the family is reunited and how lovely it is to be all together to sit down and share a meal; to joke, laugh and be in each others company. I too, like many fell into the devils trap. This goes to show that we the clergy are not exempt from falling short to our Christian obligation to love one another!

When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened. “Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I cancelled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed. “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.” Mt 18:31-35

In the coming days, Presbytera will give birth to our fourth child. I humbly ask for your prayers that she and our child are kept safe and watched over by our Blessed Lady Theotokos and we look forward to presenting our child at the foot of the alter to the All-Holy-Trinity with our family the Church.

Through the prayers of the Holy Theotokos, Lord Jesus Christ our God have mercy on us and save us. Amen