Welcome To Gehenna

"You have heard that it was said to your ancestors,

You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment.

But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother

will be liable to judgment,

and whoever says to his brother,

Raqa will be answerable to the Sanhedrin,

and whoever says, 'You fool,' will be liable to fiery Gehenna."

Welcome to Gehenna!  How do we interpret this passage of scripture?  I think it is relatively simple.  Jesus says that if you hate your brother, well, you can go to hell.  But, the news is even worse than that.  You may not hate your brother, you might just be angry with him, or you might call him a fool. In either case, you would become a citizen of Gehenna.  

The listeners did not have to think metaphysics when they heard these words of Jesus for they could go to Gehenna any time of the day or night that they wanted to.  Gehenna lay outside of the walls of Jerusalem and was a place where the, using the polite term, garbage was burned.  The fires burned day and night just under the surface the process of decay aided by the worms, flies, and maggots continued both day and night.  To be sure, Gehenna was not a place that the local Chamber of Commerce put into their brochures as an enticement to visit the city. 

As nasty as this place is, it is the place we are invited to move to by Jesus if we just call our brother a fool.  It is not easy to be a follower of Jesus, it never has been, and it never will.  What He proposes runs counter to the way we think.  When we are offended by someone, our natural self-wants to go on the offensive and strike back at the person or persons that have offended us.  

In order to avoid Gehenna, we must wage a war not against those who offend us but against that part of our soul that is reaching for the sword.  Our war should not be against our brother but against ourselves and the defects in our nature that cause us to respond with hate instead of love. 

This is not easy nor is it natural for us to do.  Yet, throughout our life, we should learn to practice forgiveness of those who offend us because there is no good neighborhood or good neighbors in Gehenna. 

Lent Day 10 - How To Be Like God!

Jesus said to his disciples:

"You have heard that it was said,

You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.

But I say to you, love your enemies,

and pray for those who persecute you,

that you may be children of your heavenly Father,

for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good,

and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.

For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have?

Do not the tax collectors do the same?

And if you greet your brothers and sisters only,

what is unusual about that?

Do not the pagans do the same?

So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect."

Jesus does a whole lot more than to give us instructions in our reading today.  He describes God. Here is what God does for all of His People. 

• He loves those that persecute Him.
• He blesses his enemies.
• He allows the sun to rise on the bad and the good.
• He cares for His enemies. 

What Jesus is asking us to do is to be like God and do the things He does.  We already know that in order for us to be forgiven, we need to forgive. To forgive someone that has done us harm, or even great harm, is very hard for us to do.  I believe that it is possible to forgive even the most grievous injuries if we but take it a step at a time. To begin the process we should pray for the person that has offended us.  We should ask God to bless them every day and in every way. It will NOT be enough to pray for them just once. In most cases, multiple prayers will need to be sent to our Father and we will need to be receptive to the grace He sends us. Eventually, the ice in our heart will begin to melt and we will be able to begin to entertain the thought of forgiving the offender. It may take years for spring to appear in our heart but we should keep up the offensive and God's grace like a gentle spring rain will help melt away years of resentment and hurt.  When you forgive someone, do you have to tell them?  In a perfect world, it would be a good idea to mend the broken relationship.  Here, again, we have to evaluate the situation. Would contact with the other party be beneficial or would it just open up wounds that have scabbed over?  The important part is that you grant them a complete pardon for any wrongs committed against you from the day of their birth to the current day.  You release all claim to revenge and reboot the relationship, the later you can do at the very least in your heart and then later, when you think it is the time approach the person and offer an olive branch. The final step after forgiving is forgetting.  Jesus not only forgives our sins, He forgets them.  We must do the same.  Forgiveness is not something that you give and hold over the head of your adversary.  If you keep reminding someone that you forgave them, well, that means you really haven't. 

Is every offense against us forgivable? The hard answer is yes, This is because our Father in heaven has forgiven every offense we have ever committed against Him.  I heard a speaker one time tell a story about how once when someone cut him off in traffic he got red in the face, spitting mad, and uttered every obscenity he could think of against the man.  That was bad enough. He then said, what if the same thing happened and the offender was his mother and he uttered all of this graphic language at her? The offense would be greater because one's mother is a person of more dignity than a stranger. It is the same with God.  When we offend Him, we are offending the highest dignity that there is. What does God do for us?  We confess He forgives, He forgets. 

The last line of today's reading assigns us our task; "So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect."  Saint Francis of Assisi, at the end of his life, said this to his brothers; "Brothers, let us begin now, for until now, we have done nothing."  

  

Lent - Day 9 - The "F" Word

Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar,

and there recall that your brother

has anything against you,

leave your gift there at the altar,

go first and be reconciled with your brother,

and then come and offer your gift.

There is not a whole lot that I can add to this reading.  Jesus kind of says it all.  Forgiveness is more important to the second person of the Holy Trinity than worship. What makes forgiveness hard is that sometimes, we have to swallow our pride and make the first step.  It is even harder when you are actually on the "right" side of the argument.  

Jesus tells us that our relationship with God and with our fellow creatures occupy the level!  How can this be?  Well, our Baptism made us adopted sons and daughters in the household of God.  We in effect are princes and princesses.  We are called to be ambassadors for our Father's Kingdom.

When Adam and Eve sinned against God in the Garden of Eden, God did not wait for Adam and Eve to appear.  He knew that there had been a sin committed and He went looking for Adam and Eve, He did not wait until they came to Him.  

So, for us, we are called to imitate our Father.  We are called to make the first step.  Are you ready to do this?