The healing power of forgiveness

My audio of this reflection is podcast at:http://gnm.org/DailyReflections/podcasts/
Good News ReflectionTuesday of the First Week of LentMarch 3, 2009
Today's Readings:Isaiah 55:10-11Ps 34:4-7, 16-19Matt 6:7-15http://www.usccb.org/nab/readings/030309.shtmlAudio: http://ccc.usccb.org/cccradio/NABPodcasts/09_03_03.mp3
The healing power of forgiveness
In our holy walk following in the footsteps of Jesus, we make a difficult journey. Holiness means struggling to remain in the spirit of love even when others commit sins against us: It might be the spouse who divorced you, or an abusive priest, or the employer who fired you, or the friend who betrayed you with no desire to make amends.
In the "Our Father" prayer that Jesus gives us in today's Gospel passage, he puts the greatest emphasis on forgiveness. Oh no! This means that by asking God to "forgive us for our sins THE SAME WAY AS we forgive those who've sinned against us" we're taking our holiness very seriously. It means that the measure we give out mercy to others is the measure we're asking God to give us, but we prefer to receive mercy much more than we want to give it!
It's not that God withholds forgiveness from us — he already forgave us 2000 years ago when Jesus died on the cross on our behalf. The fact is, we separate ourselves from God's forgiveness whenever we refuse to forgive others. In this stormy sea of our unmerciful attitude, we find it hard to believe, deep inside, that we deserve to be forgiven any more than we believe someone else deserves our forgiveness.
Jesus is challenging us to take the next step in loving ourselves at a holier, healthier level. To receive all of the love that God has for us, we must enter into the world of forgiveness by forgiving those who have wronged us. He didn't say that we must wait until they ask for forgiveness. What he said was that if we don't forgive, neither will we be forgiven. Giving forgiveness frees us to enjoy life; it frees us from dependence on what others do or don't do to us.
To follow Jesus, we have to embrace our pain as Jesus embraced his. Embracing the wounds caused by others means that we make a decision to forgive. This then begins true healing — we're no longer controlled by the pain and the other person's hurtfulness.
It's okay to not enjoy this. Jesus wanted to avoid his cross, too. But the only way to resurrection is through the cross.
To feel the embrace of Jesus as we journey with him, we have to stay in his arms in both good times and bad, when his hands are reaching out with healing love and when his hands are nailed to the cross. By choosing to forgive those who show no remorse for hurting us, we're benefiting from the sacrifice that Jesus made for us: We are forgiven, we are saved, we are healed.
Identify the people you haven't really forgiven yet. Make the decision to forgive them, then meditate upon the pain that Jesus suffered in love for you. Realize how much compassion it took for Jesus to do that for you, even though you did not deserve it. Remind yourself that he continues to love you this much every day, no matter what, whether you're sinning or not.
Today's step on the Lenten journey: Spend time today meditating on the following question. Where does this awareness of his unconditional love lead you?
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