A HOMILY FOR THE SUNDAY OF FORGIVENESS
About the Fall, the Rite of Forgiveness, and the Yearly and Eternal Journey
Brothers and sisters!
Today our Holy Orthodox Church commemorates the expulsion of our first parents Adam and Eve from Paradise, when the human race was orphaned by sin and banished to a realm distant from the light of Christ. As exiles on earth, we perpetually mourn the loss of our homeland: the pure, bright Garden from which we have estranged ourselves because of our transgression.
Adam’s lament continued for thousands of years, having been taken up by his descendants, who joined him in crying out to God, begging the Lord to return them to His favor and to permit them to bask once more in His love. But in fact, the merciful Lord never deprived our race of that love, of that friendship; only we, in our hardness of heart, were deaf to His voice when He beckoned us back by various means, especially through the holy prophets. Finally, Christ the Lord Himself descended to earth and our God walked among us, as of old in Paradise. People encountered Him on the roads, and met Him in town and country. They heard Him speak and saw His face. Their hearts were warmed and their minds illumined by His words, yet they failed to comprehend Who He was. And so it happened that the Son of God, Who in His extreme compassion for us had become the Son of Man, was in the end rejected by the people and suffered outside the gate[1] of the Holy City: the place which He had dedicated to His own worship, as a sort of shadow on earth of Paradise. Nevertheless, God’s love for us remained unshaken even by this; and through His very death at man’s hand, the Lord lifted from our race the curse we had brought down upon ourselves, enabling us to resume leading the life of Paradise to some degree.
The thoughtful person feels deeply mankind’s fall and thus his own fall from sinless innocency and purity before God: he feels deeply man’s estrangement from his natural homeland and the Father’s house. Since cognizance of our woeful, unnatural state is the very first precondition to return to Paradise, for the rest of us, heedless ones, hardened in soul, the Holy Church has dedicated this final day before the Great Fast to the remembrance of our loss of the Garden. By this she hopes to warm our hearts, focus our minds, and fill them with both humility and zeal as we set out on the path of return.
In olden times when a subjugated people were released from bondage and exile, they would assemble together before setting out on the journey to their homeland. What did these people have in common? Often not much, especially if they had been living for many years as slaves in a foreign land. For the most part, they shared only a common desire to escape servitude. Doubtless, some were at odds with others. But all understood that in order to make the long, difficult journey, during which they were certain to face many threats and dangers, it was essential that they make peace with one another. Ancient Israel wandered for forty years in the wilderness before entering the ancestral homeland. To reach the common destination, it was imperative that every Hebrew put aside his own petty concerns, his self-will, and his unsparing opinions of others.
Likewise, we are now about to set out together on a long, difficult journey, the journey of Great Lent, a journey of return to our lost homeland. If we are to find true freedom, we must leave behind many things to which we are attached; we must abandon our petty concerns and aims. With respect to our fellow-travellers, we must be united to them by a bond of love. We must have compassion for them, and be willing to sacrifice and humble ourselves for their sake. This is why, to the commemoration of Adam’s lament, the Church of Christ adds the rite of mutual pardon, so that we can make our journey in a state of peace and harmony with our fellow-travellers, having asked forgiveness of them and put aside old scores.
Besides entreating forgiveness of our immediate earthly companions on the way, we must also ask it of our heavenly guides and protectors, Christ the Saviour and His immaculate Mother; and we must beg their benediction for the journey. We ask Christ to save and bless us; yet it was we, the children of Adam, who crucified Him on Golgotha and continue to crucify Him by our sins. Therefore, the Holy Church will repeatedly remind us of the Cross during the weeks ahead, so that through it we may recognize the profundity of Christ’s love for us and may find in our hearts love for Him. Inspired by this love, we will hopefully take up our own cross willingly and gladly for His sake.
Likewise, as I said, we beg the Queen of Heaven’s blessing for the Lenten journey. So doing, we must again acknowledge that it was our race that brutally put to death her Son, and that we continue to crucify Him by our sins. Besides this, we must realize that behind our every spoken supplication to the All-Holy One for help and guidance must lie another: a request for pardon. Asking her to save us by her all-powerful prayers, we must silently entreat her, “Mother, forgive! For if thou forgivest, who will condemn me, though I am a deicide, one of the slayers of thy Son?”
Finally, besides seeking forgiveness today from the Lord, His Mother, and those present here, we ask it from those near and far who are not present, including the reposed. Many whom we have grieved or wounded have passed over to the next life. There they have forgotten our offences, and their wounds have been healed, if they have attained the Kingdom. Standing before God, they now fully understand how weak and blind all of us are, and that every one of us repeatedly grieves and wounds others. They comprehend that only love is worthy of God and the people that are His handiwork. Let us ask the forgiveness of our relatives, friends, and acquaintances departed before us, so that when the hour of our departure arrives, we may leave this life peacefully, in the hope of an eternity in the land of perfect love. At the same time, let us forgive the reposed who have wronged us, so that we may join them in peace in the land of perfect peace.
As for those in a place of torment, we must also pardon them lest – God forbid! – we join them in the realm of darkness, because of our blind hardheartedness.
Having made peace with Heaven and earth in all sincerity, we shall set off now with a light step on the path from earth to Paradise, from slavery to freedom. We shall be loosed from our fetters and follow Christ wherever He goes, whether into the Garden of Gethsemane to sweat blood in agony, or to the court of the High Priest to endure spitting and buffeting, or to the Praetorium to be judged by Pilate, or to dread Golgotha. Yet we must not halt there, but continue on to the Tomb of life, to blessed Emmaus, and to the locked room which could not keep out the All-Powerful Risen One, never stopping before we attain the mount of glorious Ascension, but proceeding onwards from glory to everlasting glory.
Having besought and granted universal forgiveness, may we all successfully complete the yearly and eternal journey together in peace and love, under the protection and with the blessing of the Lord and His immaculate Mother. Amen.
[1] Heb. 13:13
