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Reflection for February 19, 2006

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FORGIVENESS

They were all astounded, saying, "We have never seen anything like this."

Which is easier - to say, "I forgive you" or to restore a paralytic's ability to walk with a snap of your fingers? Or to put it another way, which is harder - to say, "I forgive you" or to restore a paralytic's ability to walk by the mere snap of your fingers?

Judging by my own experience relative to my own and other people's behavior and judging by human history in general, the harder thing to do is to say "I forgive you." One would think it easier compared to pulling off some kind of miracle. But we've pulled off a lot of miracles over the course of time, especially in modern times - like flying thousands of miles in aircraft heavier than air or landing on the moon or curing polio or navigating around the world under water or generating enough light to make the night disappear. The list goes on and on. And yet the words "I forgive you" still get stuck in our throats.

We gag on them. We continue to cherish grudges. We're quick to detect a put down even when there isn't any. We get politically entangled to the point where we're absolutely unforgiving if anyone confronts us with a different opinion. Indeed, there seems to be a philosophy current throughout the world that if you forgive somebody, you're a wimp, a threat to society. The preferable reflex nowadays (as it was back in the days of Jesus) is to criticize, blame, find in the imperfection of another the foundation of one's own righteousness. And I call it a reflex because we do it without really knowing anything in depth or detail about the other. All it takes is an impression to chalk someone else up as "wrong" or beyond the pale. And so our world - locally and everywhere - is arranged.

So once again, which is easier - to say, "I forgive you" or to fly or cure cancer? Well, I'm of the opinion that we'll find a cure for cancer long before we clear up that throat problem we have relative to the words "I forgive you" - as well as the words "I forgive myself"! We just can't do it; it's too hard. After all we have "principles" that must take priority over mutual forgiveness. Of course, I'm not sure whether we ever fully analyze what these "principles" are that we rely on. They must be very important - although a deeper analysis of them may reveal them to be not "principles" at all but simply excuses, a mere "rationale" not to forgive somebody.

And so who is the paralytic in today's Gospel account? It's you and me - tied up in knots, bound in some straightjacket by impressions or how we feel today or "principles" that impede our ability to walk and talk like Christ - to forgive one another. We're paralyzed with a defensive righteousness that won't let our bodies reach out, our arms enclose, our legs take that first tiny step toward reconciliation. When I say tiny step, I mean the practice of forgiveness at least within our own horizons, at home, in our community. As for the application of forgiveness in the realm of national and international politics, don't get your hopes up. At those levels Christ is no more taken seriously today than he was by Pontius Pilate, King Herod or Tiberius Caesar. But at least here in Capharnaum, may we not make a break through?

It took Christ - God himself - to come into this world and teach us how to get those words out. It's as though he were saying to you and me in today's reading, "Do you find it hard to say, 'I forgive you'? No it isn't. Just watch and repeat after me: 'I forgive you'. That wasn't hard, was it? Try it again and then - for God's sake, pick up your pallet, shed your spiritual and emotional paralysis and WALK!"

-- Geoff Wood