My beloved spiritual children in Christ Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.
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RESENTMENT AND FORGIVENESS (Part V)
By Hieromonk Damascene
The Law of Forgiveness
Our Lord Jesus Christ has given us a spiritual law: "If you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses" (St. Matthew 6:14-15).
Elder (Geronda) Sampson affirms that this Divine Law is absolute: "No virtue," he says "can atone for the lack of forgiveness. No ascetic undertaking, no almsgiving (charity) can atone for the refusal to forgive."
"And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors" (St. Matthew 6:12). That is the only condition for being heard by God, for salvation. You cannot buy off God with formalities. The Law of God is an absolute law! That is why it is so painful and difficult for us when we meet soul which are not Christian, that is, souls which have no intention, or even the desire, to forgive.
In the Lives of the Saints, there are many accounts which show that Christ's Law regarding forgiveness is truly absolute. For example, in the Spiritual Meadow we read the account of the Desert Father, Abba (Father) Isaac:
"Once," says Abba (Father) Isaac, "a demon approached me in the form of a youth. 'You are mine," the demon said. I asked him how he could say that. 'Because three Sundays running you have received Holy Communion while being at daggers-drawn with your neighbors,' he said. I told him he was lying. But he said, 'Are you not harboring a grudge against him because of a plate of lentils? I am the one who is in charge of grudges, and, from now on, you are mine.' When I heard that, I left my cell, went to the brother and prostrated myself before him in order to be reconciled with him. When I returned to my cell I found that the demon had burned my mat on which I prostrated myself, because he was so consumed with jealousy for our love."
An even more sobering tale is found in the Russian Lives of Saints for February 27: The Life of Saint Titus of the Kiev Caves, who lived in the 12th century:
In the Russian Monastery of the Kiev Caves there lived a hieromonk by the name of Titus. He and the deacon Evagrius loved each other very much and got along very well. Everyone marveled at their sincere friendship, but the devil then embroiled them so badly that they could not stand each other. When one of them was censing the church, the other one ran away from the incense; and even if he could not escape in time, the first one did not cense him. A long time passed and they lived constantly in this sinful darkness, and thus irreconciled they dared to take Hoy Communion. The brothers pleaded with them to make peace, but they would not hear of it.
It was God's Providence that the priest Titus should fall fatally ill. He then began to cry bitterly for his sin and sent people to ask the deacon Evagrius for forgiveness on his behalf. The deacon not only did not forgive him, but he cursed him with bitter words. The brothers, when they saw that Titus was already in agony, brought Evagrius by force to reconcile them. The sick man stood up with great difficulty, fell as the feet of the deacon, and begged him with tears in his eyes, 'Forgive me, Father!' But Evagrius callously turned his face away from him and said, "I do not want to forgive him, either here or in the life to come!" As he said these words, he tore himself from the hands of the brothers and fell to the ground. They wanted to lift him up, but they found him dead. At the same time, the blessed Titus was immediately healed. Everyone was terrified by the occurrence and began asking Titus what it meant. Then he told them what he had seen with his spiritual eyes: "When I was ill and I did not give up my anger towards my brother, I saw that the Angels were withdrawing from me and were crying over the death of my soul and that the demons were rejoicing at my anger. That is why I asked you to go to the brother and implore him for his forgiveness for me. When you brought him to me, and I bowed before him and he turned away from me, I saw an Angel who was holding a fiery spear and who struck the unforgiving one with it. Immediately, he fell dead. But to me the same Angel gave his hand and helped me up, and here I am healthy again."
In the book Strife and Reconciliation, Archimandrite Seraphim Aleksieve comments on this story:
"How often in life it happens that embittered and irreconciled Christians suddenly leave this world and set out for the Kingdom of Eternity with anger in their souls! What pardon can they expect from God if they themselves have not forgiven those who have sinned against them? It is terrible to live irreconciled, but it is even worse to die irreconciled! Bitterness and strife make the soul unfit to bear Divine Grace, and thus they destroy it...
Offenses as Blessings
If looked at in the right way, the offenses that come to us are actually blessings in disguise. They offer us an opportunity to forgive and thus receive God's blessings and Grace. As Saint Ignatius Brianchaninov affirms, "All the sorrows and sufferings caused us by other people never come to us except with God's permission for our essential good. If these sorrows and troubles were not absolutely necessary for us, God would never allow them. They are indispensable, in order that we may have occasion to forgive our neighbors and so receive forgiveness for our own sins...Let us force our heart to accept from our neighbor all kinds of offenses and injuries that they may inflict upon us, so as to receive forgiveness for our countless sins."
When we forgive, then our hearts, once darkened and weighed down by the sin of resentment, are made light and free. We receive the ability to attain true, pure prayer, undistracted by any cares or anxieties about ourselves, or by any fears and apprehensions. We live in simplicity of heart, free from care, for, as the Holy Scripture says, "perfect love casts out fear" (I John 4:18). This simplicity, this peace and lightness, is a foretaste of the heavenly blessedness that awaits all those who follow the commandment of our Lord Jesus Christ: "forgive."
I would like to conclude now with a poem by Saint Nikolai Velimirovich, entitled "Forgiveness," which well sums up everything that has been said thus far:
That God may forgive us, let us forgive men.
We are all on this earth as temporary guests.
Prolonged fasting and prayer are in vain.
Without forgiveness and true mercy.
God is the True Physician; sins are leprosy.
Whomever God cleanses, God also glorifies.
Every merciful act of men, God rewards with mercy.
He who returns sin with sin perishes without mercy.
Pus is not cleansed by pus from infected wounds,
Neither is the darkness of the dungeon dispelled by darkness,
But pure balm heals the festering wound,
And light disperses the darkness of the dungeon.
To the seriously wounded, mercy is like a balm,
As if seeing a torch dispersing the darkness, everyone rejoices in mercy.
The madman says, "I have no need of mercy!" But when he is overcome by misery, he cries out for mercy!
Men bathe in the mercy of God.
And that mercy of God awakens us to life!
That God may forgive us, let us forgive men,
We are all on this earth as temporary guests.
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"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!" - Saint John Chrysostomos
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With sincere agape in His Holy Diakonia (Ministry),
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+Father George