"PENTECOST: A CELEBRATION OF FORGIVING"

Sunday, May 27, 2007

Readings: Acts 2:1-11; John 20:19-23

After he rose from the dead, Jesus appeared to his disciples and empowered them with the gift of the Holy Spirit. And the first thing that power enabled them to do was to forgive sins. “Receive the Holy Spirit,” Jesus told them. “If you forgive people’s sins, they are forgiven them.” Today we celebrate the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon his friends who were gathered in prayer in that upper room. We celebrate Pentecost.

The power to forgive sins has often been thought of as a power that pertains only to a priest forgiving sins in confession. Jesus did give special power to forgive sins to his apostles and those they were to pass it onto. But we are all to forgive sins. Priests on behalf of God, in the name of Jesus, formally forgive the sins of repentant people they don’t know, who have offended other people they also don’t know. But those same priests in their private lives, as also every other human being, are all asked by God to forgive people they do know who have offended them personally. In other words, all of us in the likeness of Christ and of God our Father are to forgive all the people who have ever sinned against us. God forgives us, we are to forgive them.

I would like to look at the appearance of Jesus to his friends after his resurrection and their receiving of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost with that all-inclusive idea of forgiveness in mind – that all of us have been given the power to forgive. Maybe not all of us have accepted the power, maybe we do not use it, but we have all been offered the power to forgive.

When you received the Holy Spirit and you did receive him through Baptism, and then in his fullness through the Sacrament of Confirmation, you were given not only the power but also the commission to forgive sins. You were sent to forgive sins! “As the Father has sent me,” Jesus said, “so I send you. Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive people’s sins they are forgiven them.”

What better sign of being Christian than being a person who forgives sins? Wasn’t that the primary reason for the Son of God to come to earth? Wasn’t that the main reason for Jesus to die on the cross and rise – for the forgiveness of sins? God wanted to show us that he loves us and that he forgives us. And that he would like us to spread around that good news of forgiveness by our loving and forgiving others - thereby convincing people who have doubts that there is a God in heaven, that there is a God of goodness and mercy who cares for them.

Yes, God the Father has forgiven us - all of us without exception. Jesus notified the world of that forgiveness when he died on the cross, rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven. We are to continue that notification. We are to help spread the word of God’s forgiveness by being like God and doing what we find necessary to forgive all the people who have offended us in any way.
Do we do that? Or do we more often hold the sins of others against them? Do we hold grudges? Do we harbor thoughts of getting even? Do we withhold our mercy, which is supposed to be a sign of God’s mercy, from those who have offended us?

It we are people who willingly withhold forgiveness from those who have offended us, can we honestly call ourselves Christian? Can we truthfully say that the Holy Spirit is within us? Yes, we have been given the Holy Spirit, but have we really accepted the Holy Spirit?

Through Baptism and Confirmation Jesus has poured out his Spirit on us, but do we allow his Spirit to live and act, love and forgive within us and through us? Is Pentecost a day for us to celebrate? Or is it a day for us to feel guilty and ashamed? Well, that depends on whether we are forgiving people or not.

It isn’t easy to forgive others. You don’t need me to tell you that. It seems more natural to us to want to get even than to forgive. It sometimes even seems impossible for us to forgive; what the other person has done might seem unforgivable. That’s what makes Pentecost such a miraculous event. It makes the impossible possible. It brings the power of divine love not only from heaven to earth, it places that power within us who want it. The Holy Spirit empowers and enables each of us who accept him to forgive people we feel it is impossible for us to forgive, to forgive people we might judge are not even worthy of forgiveness. How does the Holy Spirit do that?

Well, by working from within us. The Holy Spirit gives us the idea to forgive, the desire to forgive, quite possibly even guilt feelings if we don’t forgive. He gives us the courage to step on our pride and humble ourselves, to reach out with our hearts to others as God has reached out to us - with understanding, with mercy, with love, with forgiveness.

But your forgiveness might sometimes fall on hard ground. Some people might refuse it. Some may go on hurting you - as people continued hurting Christ. Don’t expect to change everybody’s heart and their way of living.

But you are to offer your forgiveness anyhow, as did Jesus, even from his cross. However, and please listen to this, You are not obliged to remain in situations with people that are dangerous to your physical or spiritual health. Forgiveness doesn’t mean you have to keep putting yourself in positions of getting hurt again and again. Forgiveness is one thing, stupidity is another.
Forgive, but also learn to use some common sense. Human relationships can be very upsetting, some very dangerous. Jesus forgave everybody, he loved everybody, each person was special to him, but he sure didn’t live with them all. I wonder how many really intimate, trustworthy friends he had.

After Jesus rose from the dead, he appeared to his disciples and empowered them with the gift of the Holy Spirit. And the first thing that power enabled them to do was to forgive sins. He gives all of us that power. He asks all of us to continue his acts of forgiveness. “Receive the Holy Spirit,” Jesus said. “If you forgive people’s sins, they are forgiven them. If you hold them bound, they are held bound.” Let us hold no one bound. Let us forgive the offenses of the past and get on with our lives. Then and then only will there be peace in our hearts, then and then only will there be peace on earth.

May Pentecost be a celebration of our forgiving one another from the depths of our hearts!