Peace and Forgiveness

There are two things about this gospel

that have always stood out for me

and have somewhat troubled me.

The first is that the Risen Jesus retains the wounds of the Cross.

At first blush, it does not sound like a big deal

but when you actually think of it, it is a big deal;

that he holds the wounds of his crucifixion. Why?

Why is his Body not unwounded and in a more-glorified state?

Does that mean that when we raise from the dead

that we too will have the wounds of our life?

It is somewhat of a disturbing question to ask

but we have to dive into the text a little bit to really understand.

Would the disciples recognize Jesus without his wounds?

The first thing Jesus says is, “Look at me!

It is me, it really is me.

I’m the crucified one.”

And they recognize him and they say, “My Lord and my God.”

In other words, they recognized Jesus

as much by his wounds as by anything else.

Now, they are not bleeding wounds.

They are transformed wounds.

At the Resurrection a transformation takes place;

we would like to think that God rescued Jesus but he did not.

He redeems Jesus through the Cross.

And he will do the same for us.

He will not, in other words, rescue us from our suffering

but he will redeem us through our suffering;

and our wounds then will become,

well, transformed in some way, shape or form.

That is what we believe in: 

My Lord and my God.

That it was really Jesus that was risen from the dead.

The second thing that is disturbing about this gospel

is that he appears to those who betrayed him, those who ran away.

He first appeared to the women,

who did not run away and then he appears to the men, his closest friends,

who had walked with him for three years of his life

and knew him intimately.

At his weakest moment, they walked away.

That is not what is so stunning about this text.

Now if you or I had been betrayed by friends or loved ones,

our first response might not be what Jesus said

because Jesus’ first words were, “Peace be with you.”

He didn’t scold them.

He didn’t harangue them to say,

“Where were you at my weakest moment?

How could you have abandoned me?”

He didn’t question them.

He didn’t grill them.

He just says, “Peace be with you.”

And then he gives them the mandate, which is our mandate:

go and forgive others;

to the extent that you forgive others, their sins will be forgiven;

to the extent you retain them, they will be retained.

Of course, in doing that, he is saying

“I have forgiven you,”

because he starts out with “Peace.”

In there, there is a model for us;

that we are called to be forgivers of others.

This is where these two now come together;

to accept that we will have wounds

but that our wounds will be transformed

and how they will be transformed is

by God’s grace of love and divine mercy;

that he will always forgive us our sins and

thus the love that others share with us will heal our wounds.

But there is more than that:

we are called then to forgive others.

We tend go to those big sins first, right?

Those big whopper sins of somebody who has hurt us years ago

and we still have not let go of it.

We are called to forgive those big ones;

don’t get me wrong,

the big whoppers, yes we must forgive.

But the ones that we are called to forgive on a daily basis

is to forgive those who are closest to us.

This forgiveness can be truly transformative if we allow it.

For example, when I did the forgiveness series

I gave an example of one of the greatest challenges for people is

to forgive their spouse and their children for being who they are;

being imperfect.

Forgiving them for all the idiosyncratic behaviors that they had;

and yes, even for parents;

for children to forgive parents for being, well, imperfect.

And what I mean by that is to not just forgive them

as in like let it go on occasion

but actually love them maybe even more

because of their idiosyncratic behaviors;

that one thing

that they seem to do over and over again. 

You say, “Really?” 

And yes, really, that should be a call for us

to forgive them for being who they are.

And maybe even forgiving ourselves

for our own weaknesses and our own wounds.

To the extent that we forgive ourselves and each other

for the weaknesses and the wounds that we have,

will be to the extent that those wounds will be transformed.

If we continue to poke at the wounds,

continue to point them out and irritate the wounds,

they will not be transformed.

They will not go through the transformation

of the resurrection that Christ promises us.

In the end, in our own resurrection

the Lord promises that will happen to us

but what we do now is we participate in the resurrection ahead of time.

We participate in the resurrection when we come to the Eucharist

and we promise to do exactly what Jesus said in today’s reading;

it is to forgive the sins of others;

forgive the ordinary weaknesses and idiosyncratic behavior

of those who are closest to us.

If we can perfect that and even celebrate the fact of forgiveness

that “Ah yeah, there he goes again.”

That is my spouse; that’s the way he is.

I don’t just love him despite it; I love it because of it.

Because God’s grace has allowed me to do that.

You see these two things that bother me end up coming together.

We rely first and foremost on what we celebrate today

God’s Divine Mercy to heal our wounds

and then we participate in the transformation

of those wounds of those around us;

and allow and love by forgiving one another.

Today, may we celebrate God’s Divine Mercy

and his willingness to always forgive us

by forgiving each other and accepting

that the only way for our wounds to heal is by forgiveness and love.