Homily on the Sunday of Forgiveness
On Forgiving Offenses
By Archimandrite Kirill Pavlov
(Delivered in 1963)
On Forgiving Offenses
By Archimandrite Kirill Pavlov
(Delivered in 1963)
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit!
Beloved brothers and sisters in the Lord, from tomorrow we enter upon the great feat of holy fasting. What is the best way to begin this great feat? The Holy Church guides us on the holy path of fasting and repentance with the Gospel commandment about reconciliation with all our brethren in Christ Jesus, about the remission and forgiveness of all their sins against us. "For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you," says the Lord Himself in the Gospel read today, "but if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses" (Matt. 6:14:15). This is the first and necessary condition for our reconciliation with God, cleansing and justification from sins.
Without this wholehearted reconciliation with everyone, without this extinguishing of mutual grievances and enmity, one cannot approach the Lord, nor even begin the very path of fasting and repentance. Why? Because, first of all, the Lord our God Himself is the God of peace, and not of discord (cf. 1 Cor. 14:33). How can one appear before His face who harbors enmity and malice in his heart, who does not have peace and love with everyone and holiness? "Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord" (Heb. 12:14).
Secondly, because the Kingdom of God is the bright society of the sons of God. The Holy Family of the Heavenly Father is the kingdom of peace, love and unanimity, the kingdom of goodness, mercy, meekness, humility and long-suffering. Can he belong to it who harbors in his heart grief, vexation and rancor against his brother, who does not have unanimity and peace with his neighbors - co-heirs of this Kingdom? Peace is the highest good, which the Lord Jesus Christ bequeathed as a precious heritage to His disciples when He departed from them to suffer: "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you" (John 14:27). Peace is the highest happiness, which He first of all bestowed on His friends, greeting them after His Resurrection from the dead, standing in their midst and saying to them: "Peace be with you!" (John 20:19).
He who deprives himself of this spiritual treasure through enmity and vindictiveness deprives himself of the eternal inheritance, the Kingdom of God, which the Lord bequeathed to those who love Him.
Peace is a grace-filled gift of the Holy Spirit, and therefore its presence or absence in the heart of a person testifies to who dwells in it: the Spirit of God, or the evil spirit. And since the latter is primarily a spirit of malice and enmity, then the place of a person who harbors malice and ill will towards his brother is not in the Kingdom of Peace, but with all rejected spirits.
It is obvious that without a sincere, wholehearted reconciliation with all our brethren in Christ, the grace-filled field of holy fasting will be fruitless for us, even if we try to observe the fast according to the rules of the Church Canons. What good will come of fasting when we, strictly abstaining from bodily food, with our anger and obstinacy devour the souls and hearts of our neighbors; when, fearing to defile our lips with some forbidden food, we are not afraid, however, that from these same lips, like foul smoke from a furnace, continue to flow words of condemnation, slander and backbiting, caustic mockery, full of infection and spiritual temptation.
The Lord through the Prophet Isaiah says, "Is this not the fast that I have chosen: Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes. Cease to do evil, learn to do good" (cf. Is. 58:6; 1:16–17 ). Not only no fast, but even the most martyric feat will not replace true love for one’s neighbor, that love that "suffers long and is kind; does not envy; does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things" (1 Cor. 13:4–7).
"And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses" (Mark 11:25).
Otherwise, what is the use of prayer, when with the same lips with which we glorify the Lord, we curse our brother, when we call God our Father, and slander, hate and trouble with rancor our neighbors, whom the Heavenly Father called His children? What is the use of prayer, when outwardly we humble ourselves, calling ourselves the last, but inwardly we say, like the Pharisee: "Not as other men are extortioners, adulterers, or even as this publican" (Luke 18:11); when with our lips we pronounce the prayer of Saint Ephraim the Syrian: "Grant me to see my own sins and not to condemn my brother," but in fact we make ourselves inexorable judges of everyone and everything, we notice a speck in our brother's eye, not noticing a beam in our own eye?
The Lord spoke about such prayer warriors long ago through the Prophet: "These people draw near to Me with their mouth and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me; in vain do they worship Me" (Is. 29:13). And He Himself said in His Holy Gospel: "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord!' will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in Heaven" (Matt. 7:21).
What is the use, finally, if we repent before the Throne of God, asking for forgiveness of our sins, but with a hardened heart, have not forgiven our neighbor and have not reconciled with him? "If you forgive men their trespasses," says the Lord, "then your Heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive men their trespasses, then your Heavenly Father will not forgive your trespasses" (Matt. 6:14–15). What is the use of repentance, when some fall on their faces in the temple, asking for forgiveness of sins, and upon leaving the temple, are ready to persecute their neighbors, offering repentance with their lips, but harboring malice and vengeance in their hearts? They ask forgiveness of the Lord without humbling their pride, without trampling on their vanity and conceit, and without asking forgiveness from their offended brother!
He who wants his repentance to be accepted as a sacrifice pleasing to God must not only forgive his neighbor's sins with all his heart, so as not to remember them, but must also try to dispose his neighbor to the same forgiveness, to make him from an enemy into his brother, in agreement and of one mind with himself. Without this, no matter how much our spiritual father absolves us in confession, our spirit, bound by enmity, will not be absolved and the Heavenly Father will not forgive us our sins.
The Lord says: "If you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift" (Matt. 5:23–24).
If we dare to approach the Mystery of Holy Communion, the Sacrifice that was offered primarily out of the love of the Only-begotten Son of God for the human race, without true love for one another, will this not be an insult to the highest love of God? Having a spirit of malice, revenge, hostility towards our neighbors, we trample the Holy Place and regard the Blood of the Lord as nothing.
Dear brothers and sisters, the ancient Christians had a good and pious custom on this Forgiveness Sunday to ask each other for forgiveness. Let us follow this good custom at the call of our Mother the Church and ask forgiveness from each other, especially from those whom we have offended in some way. Due to the weakness of our nature, due to the circumstances of life in our conditions, clashes and griefs are inevitable, and therefore let us try to soften our souls and mutual relations through mutual forgiveness.
Once upon a time, in the Kiev Caves Monastery there lived two monks, bound by close bonds of mutual love and friendship. Due to the envy of the devil, this friendship between them disappeared, and in its place such enmity and hatred reigned that they did not even want to look at each other: in church, one did not cense the other, but passed by.
But one of them, the priest Titus, fell seriously ill and, feeling the approach of death, began to ask forgiveness through messengers from his brother, the deacon Evagrius, but he did not want to hear anything. Then he was forcibly brought to the bed of the dying man. Titus rose from the bed and said: "Forgive me, my brother, perhaps I have somehow offended you as a man." But Evagrius answered: "I will not forgive you either in this life or in the future life." And with these words he fell down dead, and the brethren could not even bend his arms or straighten his mouth, so quickly did his body become stiff. Titus immediately rose up healthy. And when the brethren asked how this event happened, he answered that when Evagrius said these words, the Angel of the Lord struck the unfortunate man, and raised him, Titus, from his bed of illness.
Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, let us forgive everyone with all our hearts and with a reconciled heart let us enter the arena of the holy fast, asking the Lord to forgive our sins. Let us always remember the words of the Holy Apostle Paul: "If it be possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men... and the God of love and peace will be with you" (Rom. 12:18; 2 Cor. 13:11). Amen.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
