The forgiveness business

This past weekend’s readings at Mass were about forgiveness. I didn’t plan on it, but I blurted out in my homily that I learned about forgiving others when I started to go to Confession regularly in college. The experience of being forgiven seventy times seven by God started to soften my heart when I had to forgive big stuff or the frequent sins of another. I guess you could say that I liked forgiveness so much that I went into the forgiveness business (as a priest)!

I preached yesterday about being forgiven by God who forgives and forgets. We can’t forget, but we can remember through forgiveness. Compassion is the critical first step in forgiving others. One thought that I’ve had since yesterday is, how do you forgive yourself? It must be the same process of compassion, forgiveness, intercession (praying for another or in this case, yourself). So, yes, to forgive yourself – the hardest type of forgiveness – involves compassion. Show yourself a little understanding of what led you to hurt God or someone by sinning. Part of that understanding is that we are all sinners and none of us is perfect. God wants us to be humble and let go of our sins because He has (when we confess to Him).

I do love being in the forgiveness business. There are nights here that I hear confessions for an hour straight. It’s usually serious matter with several different people. It’s such a joy to help bring Christ’s freedom from sin and guilt to people longing for it that I hardly even notice being uncomfortable or drained. It’s truly a supernatural event. ‘To err is human; to forgive is divine’.