Bathing in Forgiveness

Once again, I had a college sophomore in my office looking for help with his career. He talked about dropping out of college after failing to complete last semester taking five incompletes. But he had another agenda in mind, which I did not hear about until weeks later.

He admitted that he had using marijuana daily for several years. Then he got involved with cocaine which he started using every other week. He was not only afraid of the law, but afraid that he get tossed out of school if he didn’t flunk out first.

This young man asked: “Supposing there is a God, would he accept a man like me?” I did not hesitate to answer him for I preparing a Lenten Penance Service homily on Matthew’s gospel, last verse. “For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners,” (Matt 9:13).

I shared this verse with him, but his mind was obsessed with all the sins he had committed, and so I countered with Matthew’s words again: “I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.”
No less than seventeen times did this student try to explain to me why he was unworthy to receive forgiveness. Seventeen times, I simple repeated the words, “I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.” I don’t know if I wore him down, but finally he bowed his head, cried a little and asked me, Would you hear my confession? I want to come home.

This young person is back in school trying to complete his degree and he got what he really did want: forgiveness, peace and a return to his true home. And there he was and all students of the Lord in my mind’s eye: at the table with Matthew, college students, professors, parents, colleagues, CEO’s, pilots, crewmembers, that greedy tax collectors, sinners---AND Jesus.

Sometimes I see humanity as a sea of people starving for affection, tenderness, care, love, acceptance, forgiveness…everyone seems to cry, “Please, love me.”

The story of Matthew says that there stands Jesus ready to do so. As Mother Teresa said of the lepers she treated, “We have drugs for people with diseases like leprosy, but these drugs do not treat the main problem, the disease of being unwanted.” And there stands Jesus who does want us, disease and all.

Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine friends who have felt the pain of rejection from their family and friends but NEVER from your arms and voice. Let us humbly bring our weaknesses before your altar and bathe in your Spirit of healing and forgiveness. Peace to all my Sonshine Friends.

Corrupted Files

Last night, I was downloading my memory card with some stunning winter scenes. Hpwever, an “error message” read you have “corrupted files.” This means I missed a step in downloading a new file. There’s no forgiveness in learning new software. However, thank God I have backup from Sonshine Friends Denise, Louis and Jen who patiently teach the ways of MAC and Nikon digital.

Luke’s version of the Sermon on the Plain Jesus teaches: “Love your enemies.” A moral teaching way outside our range of possibility. So I need your “corrupted brain” to put on the “Hebrew brain” to understand what these words actually mean, “to love your enemies, to do good to those you hate you, not to resist evil, if somebody slaps you on one cheek, offer the other?”

Last night, I challenged my college students that violence occurs on campus. There are incidents when a student is beaten up or raped. If one suffers a broken jaw or a victim of trauma, how does one “Love your enemies.” Does this mean not to resist people who are evil? If someone hits the right side of the jaw of a student, does he offer the left side of the face? Is that what Jesus meant for him to do?”

Before our Christian brain registers an “error message” about loving enemies you have to think like a Hebrew. You get into trouble if you take it literally. You have to understand Aramaic or Jewish slang in order to understand what was being said.

The key verse is this: “Be compassionate as your heavenly father is compassionate.” Be compassionate to evil and sinful people as your heavenly father is compassionate to you. All the verses from this section are to be interpreted through the lens of this key verse.

Slapping you on the right cheek was Hebrew slang for exchanging insults. If somebody insults you, don’t insult them back. Don’t exchange insults. Don’t trade insult for insult. Be compassionate to them. Be good to your insulters. That is what this Aramaic phrase means. It doesn’t have anything to do with exchange harsh blows to the face.

Jesus is inviting his disciples to be generously compassionate and forgiving as his heavenly father is generously compassionate and forgiving. Such an idea was very radical. Do good to those that hate you.

Lord, I pray for my Sonshine Friends who get an “error message” about their moral life that sound off pitch or an octive too high. You want us to look through the lens and set our sights on simply being compassionate, not cruel to other; forgiving, not holding grudges; generous, not selfish with our material gains; understanding, not nasty to our soldiers who defend our freedoms. As we begin another Lenten Season, may the Spirit inspire us, motivate us, and lift us up to be much more compassionate to those who hurt us, just as God is compassionate to people like us. To those people who do us evil, we return an act of kindness rather than an act of revenge.

How Many Valentine Did You Give Today?

The weather forecasts more sub zero days and blowing snows, but I thought the following story would be helpful to celebrate Saint Valentine's Day.

Little Chad was a shy, quiet young man. One day he came home and told his mother that he'd like to make a valentine for everyone in his class. She thought, "I wish he wouldn't do that!" because she had watched the children when they walked home from school. Her Chad was always behind them. They laughed and hung on to each other and talked to each other. But Chad was never included. Nevertheless, she decided she would go along with her son. So she purchased the paper and glue and crayons. For three weeks, night after night, Chad painstakingly made 35 valentines. Valentine's Day dawned, and Chad was beside himself with excitement. He carefully stacked them up, put them in a bag, and bolted out the door.

His mother decided to bake him his favorite cookies (comfort food) and serve them nice and warm with milk when he came home from school. She just knew he would be disappointed and maybe that would ease the pain a little. It hurt her to think that he wouldn't get many valentines - maybe none at all.

That afternoon she had the cookies and milk on the table. When she heard the children outside, she looked out the window. Sure enough, there they came, laughing and having the best time. And, as always, there was Chad in the rear. He walked a little faster than usual. She fully expected him to burst into tears as soon as he got inside. She noticed that his arms were empty, and when the door opened, she choked back the tears. "Mommy has some cookies and milk for you," she said. But he hardly heard her words. He just marched right on by, his face aglow, and all he could say was: "Not a one. Not a one." Her heart sank. And then he added, "I didn't forget a one, not a single one!"

Here was a boy who was measuring love not by what he received, but by what he gave. How many of us can say that we did the same last week?

But that is the whole point: when we meet our maker, God will not ask us how many cards we received, but how many we gave to others.

Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends that we treat each other with compassion. Let us help to give each other the “benefit of the doubt.” No, it is never easy to love others who do not care for us. But there is only one way to learn: practice, practice, practice. Valentine’s Day is a good day to begin.

Daffodil Principle

Mother, you must come to see the daffodils before they are over. It was a two-hour drive but she promised her daughter and reluctantly drove through the fog. However, when she was welcomed by the joyful sounds of happy children. She delightedly hugged and greeted her grandchildren and quit her moaning.

Forget the daffodils, she told her daughter. The road is invisible in these clouds and fog, and there is nothing in the world except you and these children that I want to see badly enough to drive another inch! Her daughter smiled calmly and said, "We drive in this all the time, mother. We're going to see the daffodils. It's just a few blocks." Her mother was anxious and begged to turn around, but her daughter drove and reassured her that she would never forgive herself if she missed this experience.

The family turned onto a small gravel road and saw a small church. On the far side of the church, a hand lettered sign with an arrow read, "Daffodil Garden." As the kids got out of the car, grumpy grandma took a child's hand, and followed her daughter down the path. As she turned a corner, she looked up and gasped. Before her lay the most glorious sight. It looked as though someone had taken a great vat of gold and poured it over the mountain peak and its surrounding slopes. The flowers were planted in majestic and swirling patterns.

On the patio, they saw a poster. "Answers to the Questions I Know You Are Asking", was the headline. The first answer was a simple one. "50,000 bulbs," it read. The second answer was, "One at a time, by one woman. Two hands, two feet, and one brain." The third answer was, "Began in 1958."

For this mother, that moment was a life-changing experience. She thought of this woman whom she had never met, who, more than forty years before, had begun, one bulb at a time, to bring her vision of beauty and joy to an obscure mountaintop. Planting one bulb at a time, year after year, this unknown woman had forever changed the world in which she lived. One day at a time, she had created something of extraordinary magnificence, beauty, and inspiration. The principle her daffodil garden taught is one of the greatest principles of celebration.

That is, learning to move toward our goals and desires one step at a time--often just one baby-step at time--and learning to love the doing, learning to use the accumulation of time. When we multiply tiny pieces of time with small increments of daily effort, we too will find we can accomplish magnificent things. We can change the world ... with the help of God.

Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends who look back and wonder what they might have accomplished if they had thought of a goal and worked "one bulb at a time" through all the years? Instead of regret, why not simply "start today."