WRESTLING WITH GOD’S FORGIVENESS

 

One of my fellow Oblates, who ministers full time in a federal penitentiary, shared the experience of a prisoner who has come to terms with his crime, “I can never be forgiven for what I have done!” The tremendous evil of his actions threatens to crush his life and future into the pavement. There is no hope! There is no future!

 

Is it true that there could be no forgiveness for the very wounded criminal?

 

What does our faith have to offer? 

 

So many born-Christians have never had to wrestle with this conundrum. Is there any glimmer of light to this struggle?

 

Probably most Christians do not recognize that truth of God’s forgiveness that they proclaim each Sunday in the Creed. These are the absolutely essential points of belief. You must hold to each statement of the creed or you are not as yet a Christian. The little phrase, “and he descended into hell,” smoothly sails by  the people on most Sundays. We need to confront the truth of this part of our Creed. 

 

The descent into hell has no historical evidence in the New Testament. Even though the Gospels and St. Paul do not mention such a historical event, we know that from the very beginning Christians have always understood that the effects of the cross are so great that the forgiveness of cross descends even into the depths of hell. Now, hell is the state of the rejection of God. Christians have said right from the beginning that the forgiveness wrought by the cross is so powerful, so universal, that it will descend and touch people who might live in a state of God-rejection. There is no evil so great that the forgiveness of Jesus Christ cannot touch.

 

Any human being that turns towards God for forgiveness can be forgiven. 

 

This is so radical! This belief is very difficult to live with on this earth.  We want a God who makes us comfortable and always makes us feel good. This is God who will lead us up the mountain of goodness, leads us into unbelievable healing and forgiveness, This is the God who will give new life to anyone who seeks forgiveness. 

 

Our prisoner must deal with the real God. When we turn towards God, God’s forgiveness will be turned toward us. No one can earn forgiveness. No one can demand to be forgiven! God comes to lift from us the evil and pain we have committed. God comes to reconcile us even when we have so deliberately rejected him. Rejection of God is the depths of hell.

 

Now, if this is the way that God acts towards the most evil of human beings, the mission of the church is to share in God’s great work of redeeming the earth. 

 

God’s forgiveness is our command to break the violence, lift the great suffering of resentment and hurt from the lives of others. This is all about bringing life to our fellow human beings. God’s forgiveness is to build new bridges. God brings new life out of the pits of despair and evil.

 

There will be many situations where born-Christians will struggle with the implications of God’s forgiveness.  This is an essential part of our faith. This is one of the most challenging aspects of knowing our God. Are we up to the challenge of the real God?

 

 

 

 

  

GOD ALWAYS FINDS US IN THE FACES OF THE POOR

 

 

No one can see God face to face. God is a god in hiding. Our task is to search for God as he /she reveals himself to us. We most commonly identify God as male, but we are very often surprised by the feminine face of God.

 

Too many of our born Christians do not accept that everything we say about God is always limited. We can only try to picture certain aspects of God – but there is so much more to knowing the very person of God.

 

Remember the great joy we had as children when we played hide and seek in that big farm yard. I remember fierce races across that big farm yard to touch home base. It was always enjoyable to go looking for one another and discover the ingenious places my playmates could hide. The old farm yards offered infinite possibilities for hiding. We did not have to stretch our imagination to find a place to hide.

 

The learned spiritual teachers (a learning that came from the rough and tumble world of serving God on a daily basis) of our Christian history tells us that we will often have our strongest encounters with God in and through the faces of the poor.

 

Jesus has taught us that the final judgement will consist of recognizing that whenever we gave food to the hungry of this world, we were not just doing a good human act, but we were actually sharing our food with Jesus himself. Jesus clearly identifies with the poor of this world in a very personal way.

 

I meet so many people who limit the God-horizon: they can only encounter Jesus in the parish church or in the time of personal prayer. They limit the presence of Jesus to specific religious activities.

 

Surprise! God come in ways we least expect – and ways that we can never control the divine power.

 

The poor are very close. It may be your accountant who cries every night that her husband has stage four cancer and will probably only last another six months. It is certainly your aged mother who is collapsing into her dementia. She no longer recognizes anyone familiar. No matter what age we are today, we are destined to poverty in our old age when almost all our functions have quit, all our friends have died and we need to have our basic hygiene needs meet by a care-aide in the nursing home. Our poverty then will be summarised in three words: loneliness, uselessness and boredom.

 

The poor have many faces. Poverty is not limited to an extremely weak cash flow. We are poor in so many ways.

 

This is where the Gospel gives us clear insights. When you see poor people who are so close to your house, look for the very face of Jesus. Ask the Holy Spirit to give you the insight you need to recognize the suffering of Jesus in the suffering of the poor, right here, right now.

 

When believers draw closer to the risen Jesus, they also draw closer to the presence of Jesus in the faces of the poor who live right around them. Just keep your eyes open. God will find you in the faces of the poor who live very close to you.

 

 

 

YOU ARE BEING DE-EVANGELIZED

How often I would like to go up to people and inform them: “You are being de-evangelized!”

 

They might give a blank look but church people would understand what is happening.

 

We have brought you up in the Christian faith but the way you are living is pulling you further and further away from the very center of our faith. You are being pulled away from the very person and mission of Jesus Christ. 

 

The very first way that you are being de-evangelized is to drop out of the church community. This is the third generation that has pulled back more and more from belonging to and being responsible for community. Now, community means belonging and being committed to our own family, our church, our school and the local civic community. Almost everyone has withdrawn from being part of the social group that works to promote the values of the country. If there are any social volunteer groups left, they are all grey hairs. 

 

Religious faith, whatever type it is, will only survive if it is lived in community. Christians lament that all their young people have dropped out. But our Moslem sisters and brothers share the same lamentation. Religious faith will not survive if it is isolated and not supported by sisters and brothers who are also trying to live the same religious commitment.

 

You are being de-evangelized by the magnetic attraction to individualism. You are strong and can make your way through this life as an individual. You rely very little on the support of other people. There is no institution, with firm beliefs and values, that is larger than the individual. If it feels right for you than it is the right thing to do! Period!

 

Too often when people describe their belief in God, it is a very self-serving idea of God. They have this nice, sweet divine person who is too good. This God will never make heavy demands on their lives or lead them through some very tough struggles. In this nice, sweet concept of God there is no room for a God who places clear expectations on our lives. There is no God who has a clear direction for what is right and what is wrong in this world.

 

Grandparents lament that their children never go to church anymore. This is true, but these grandparents need to observe that dropping out of church is only the first step of all the other groups that they have discontinued any commitment. They do not belong to any service group, they are absent in voting at civic elections, and the bonds to family are becoming more tenuous with each generation. 

 

Even though we have healthy values about our fellow human being we are experiencing the dying of our participation in the transcendent. We are great as Canadians.  Too many Canadians are not that connected to a living and demanding God.

 

The process of de-evangelization is to pull us away from the faith-commitment to living solely as a strong individual. I follow only my “own” values and commitments. We are very much into a time where the individual is the top of the human pyramid. We can live quite comfortably without the bother of a ritualized religion. 

WILL OUR VOLUNTEER AGENCIES SURVIVE?

The shutdown in our society caused by the coronavirus (as of mid-March 2020) has put a strain on every section of our society. We have closed down all public places, schools, churches, any gathering place and all sports games. But the shut-down has come at a very steep cost. 

 

Not only have several million people lost their jobs and businesses but all volunteer agencies are feeling the squeeze. In discussing the situation many people who are very involved in the volunteer sector calmly conclude, “About fifty percent of all volunteer agencies will collapse.” The future looks very bleak!

 

When volunteers are not involved they lose interest and drift away, some to other start-ups and some just cease their involvement. Financial contributions dwindle when any volunteer agency is not active. No one can do any good in this society without financial support. Finances are a very serious concern.

 

We need to examine what kind of commitment we can sustain if the agency is not active for a period of six months, one year or maybe two years? 

 

This season of unease spurs reflection about the contribution that all our volunteer agencies are making. This covers everything from sports programs for our kids, services to senior citizens, all forms of church service, refugee sponsorship and the welcoming people at our airports. What happens if you have no volunteers in our large city hospitals?

 

Government services and other forms of paid services are limited. We know that refugee families that are sponsored by churches and social groups do much better in this new Canadian situation than families that are strictly sponsored by a government agency. When it is a church or social group they take particular interest in the well-being and settlement of that family. Often, long term friendships develop. This moves from helping a new refugee family to a friendship that receives so many social supports from the new Canadian family.

 

Government services cannot support people in some of their deepest needs. This is where the volunteer, church or otherwise, will spend the extra hours and time in responding to people in their deep needs. How wonderful to see one of our parishioners take time from her busy morning to have tea with this very English grandmother who loves to serve tea with her good china. This moment of sharing is so important to our English grandmother.

 

We are also asking serious questions about the frontline services such as soup kitchens and the shelter programs in our big cities. Where do people who are homeless go when the shelter is closed? And the daily noon meal is no longer served? These people do not disappear into thin air. Their needs are just as great whether the shelter is operative today or not. What happens to them? 

 

When we stand in front of one of the shelters in mid-January we ask, “What would happen if these volunteers were not here?” What would happen if the church people who contact the shut-ins each week stopped doing this outreach ministry?

 

During the next few weeks we want to continue the dialogue about the importance of our volunteer agencies in our society, our Church and our families. They make a huge difference. What if they disappear?

WHY SOME PEOPLE DISLIKE POPE FRANCIS

                

 

The Church, which is worldwide, is composed of so many different peoples, cultures, histories and political positions. It is not homogeneous in its theological ad pastoral approaches to the  history  that we  actually live. 

 

When Pope Francis was elected pope in March, 2013, he captured the world’s imagination. It did not take long for the friendliness and simplicity of this man captured the hearts of the faithful. From time to time, we even had atheists affirming, “This is my pope!”

 

But not all is smooth. There are many pockets of resistance to the direction that Pope Francis is taking the Church. The opposition to the direction Pope Francis is steering the ship may be muted but it is very real.

 

Pope Francis is pushing the Church to be a Church of the poor. There is no doubt that he is calling attention to the poor and forgotten of this world. He wants us to become a ‘church of the poor for the poor.’

 

The role of leadership within the Church  will always be in tension. On the one side the bishops are to preserve and protect the doctrine, the teaching and the sacraments of the Church. This is their preservative role and the one that receives the most attention on the part of the faithful and the world media. 

 

The other side of the tension is to challenge and move the Church to stronger faithfulness and fervent living out of our Gospel faith. They are meant to be a force of renewal and new growth within the Church. 

 

Too often in the past there were very charistmatic people who began new apostolic movements that sparked new life within the national and international Church. This creative tension has always been a part of the Church. There were many instances when the renewal movements provoked strong tensions and resistance within certain parts of the church. But this is where real growth happened.

 

To become a Church of the poor will always upset a certain segment of the Church. In every national Church there are definite comfort zones. Please do not upset our apple cart! 

 

Pope Francis is speaking to the affluent West where there are big pockets of poverty in every country. The affluent and the people who benefit from the wealth of their particular country do not pay attention to the large segment of poor people living among them.

 

But in the Third World countries the Church is growing but also gaining power and respect in those countries. The challenge is equal to those churches not to neglect the poor who fail to benef from education, technology and food security that many of their fellow citizens already possess. He also challenges the growing power of churches in the Third World.

 

The challenge that Pope Francis is making will not take full effect until many, many decades into our future.  Use your imagination to what the Church might look like if it seriously embraces the concern for the poor and dispossesed in the world. Does this make you uncomfortable? Or challenged? 

 

Is Pope Francis a blessing or a point of resistance to your life of faith?