March 6/Second Monday of Lent
Remember not against us the iniquities of the past;
may your compassion quickly come to us, for we are brought very low! ~ Ps 79.8-9
Sometimes, when I am lying awake in the middle of the night, I begin to replay some of the sinful, shameful moments of my life: the times that I withdrew coldly from a relationship, or was less than honest, or let my ambition and competitiveness get the better of me. Those memories still have the power to bring me down to a low place. Similarly dashed by his memories of “the iniquities of the past,” the psalmist begs God to forget them and to bestow his compassionate forgiveness upon the one who has sinned. Like the psalmist, we too may pray for mercy, and God will grant it – not because we are good, but because He is good. We should rejoice in that forgiveness, and in the knowledge that God continues to love us despite our failings. But we should do more than rejoice: we should strive to extend the same compassion to others. Not only to those people we love who hurt us – an angry child, an irritated spouse, an inconsiderate friend – but to those we may not love who hurt us — the people who make us feel “less than,” who seek to thwart us, who scorn or dismiss us, those people, too. Nothing about this is easy. As the late Orthodox theologian and author Father John Garvey wrote, “To forgive the enemy, to love those who hate us, simply puts us in relation to one another the way God is in relation to us. It is radically difficult. But unless we learn to do this, we will be truly incapable of being forgiven. . . because we will not have learned something we need to know, will not have emptied the space needed for God to enter.” Radically difficult, yes. But this is the path we are called to follow.
Merciful Lord, Help me to forgive those who trespass against me, as you forgive me for my trespasses against you and others every day. Amen.
To hear the Tallis Scholars sing “Remember not, O Lord God,” by Thomas Tallis, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jVJLISh4TA
For today’s readings, click here: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/030623.cfm
