Following one of the themes of my homily this morning (based on the Cycle C readings), was the idea of God's remembrance. I was sent this quote from Fr. Richard Rohr, which is so pertinent to the same ideas:
Our remembrance that God remembers us will be the highway into the future, the straight path of the Lord promised by John the Baptizer (Luke 3:4). Memory is the basis of both pain and rejoicing: We cannot have one without the other.
Do not be too quick to heal all of those bad memories, unless it means also feeling them deeply, which means to learn what they have to teach you. God calls us to suffer (read “allow”) the whole of reality, to remember the good along with the bad. Perhaps that is the course of the journey toward new sight and new hope. Memory creates a readiness for salvation, an emptiness to receive love and a fullness to enjoy it.
Strangely enough, it seems so much easier to remember the hurts, the failures and the rejections. It is much more common to gather our life energy around a hurt than a joy, for some sad reason. Remember the good things even more strongly than the bad, but learn from both. And most of all, “remember that you are remembered by God.”
I mentioned that I thought God's word to us would be THANK YOU--for God remembers better than we do what good we have done (or even tried to do). We forget the good and hold on to the bad (our human curse: it haunts us)--God remembers the good and forgets the bad (the divine blessing: it eliminates our sins). Thanks be to God that GOD is God, and we are not!
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TO THAT I SAY: AMEN...
ReplyDeleteWe will all be held accountable before the Lord. How could He possibly forget the atrocity of abortion, or those (catholics?)that by their votes are drawn into, or are part of that grievous sin. when we do not stand up for TRUTH/Christ, we in fact, by way of doing nothing, become a part of that sin, or, are an accessory to it. God is perfect Love, Knowledge, Forgiveness, etc., but He can do nothing when of our own Free Will(s) we continue to choose satan/evil.
ReplyDeleteGranted all you have said, we know (and the Church teaches) that ALL sins are forgivable for those who repent--then, their sins are forgiven and they cease to exist (Jer. 31:31-34). The key, of course, is our rejecting our choices for evil and turning to Him. Forgiveness cannot ever be forced on a person, but neither will God withhold it from a person who converts/repents.
ReplyDeleteWhat about reparaton and penance? Aren't we required to make some sort of raparation in an effort to dilute or diminish the sin. If the Body of Christ is in a state of grave disrepair, or gravely ill (so to speak), due to the actions/inactions of many/some within that Body, what can the rest do in an effort to repair and/or bring healing to the Body/Church? It seems to me that the actions/inactions of some effect all.
ReplyDeletethe following, today's Gospel reading comes to mind and seems to fit.
Matthew 5: 17 - 19
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17 "Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfil them.
18 For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished.
19 Whoever then relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but he who does them and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
From my point of view, surely authentic repentance implies willingness to make reparation. In some cases reparation cannot be made (how does one make reparation for an abortion? yet the sin can be forgiven); God's mercy is greater than we are (see I John 2:1-2, 3:19-20). God can do what we cannot--that's why God is God and we are not...
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