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Category Archives: Forgiveness

Forgiveness

Towards Unity

24 Wednesday Jan 2018

Posted by Fr. Moore in Christian Unity, Forgiveness, Love

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Becoming like Christ, Loving our Neighbor

Sermon for the Third Sunday after the Epiphany
January 21, 2018

We are currently in the midst of the Octave of Prayer for Christian Unity. This yearly prayer for the unification of all Christians is much more, though, than just a pious practice. Indeed, to pray and work towards the unification of all those who believe in Christ is our duty as Christians.

We begin each day in this octave of prayer by quoting the words of our Lord, “That they all may be one, as Thou, Father, in me and I in Thee; that they also may be one in Us; that the world may believe that Thou hast sent me.” I would say that through these words we should be able to see that Christ not only desires unity amongst His followers – He even demands it. Our unity is to be a sign to the world of the truth of the Gospel, so that all the people of the world may come to believe in and follow Jesus Christ as their Saviour.

Now while it is true that the unity Christ prayed for is a reality within the Church and will never be lost, we, the sinful creatures that we are, can – and do – continue to cause division amongst ourselves. And when we do this the people of the world see it, and it leads to their disbelief and rejection of the Truth. We need to understand that in these self-sustained divisions we are not just hurting ourselves, we are in addition leading others away from Christ. Christ came that all mankind might be brought to a saving knowledge of the Truth. He came that all people might come into communion with the divine life of the Trinity. It should therefore be a very sobering thought that our actions towards one another could keep someone off that path to God.

Now when we observe the actual state of all those who believe in Christ, what do we see? We see division upon division of Christians all over the world; even here at our own parish we can see division. This division causes our Lord pain and it should be painful for us as well, and especially during this Octave of Prayer. And while we may not be able to single-handedly heal all the rifts amongst Christians around the world, we can most certainly do what is necessary to heal the divisions within our own parish and begin to heal the division between this parish and the Archdiocese.

Over this past year we have suffered a great deal of trauma from circumstances we know all too well. This has caused anger and outrage for many of us. And while we may have a right to be upset about all that happened last year we do not have a right to hate.

In today’s Gospel our Lord says, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the Gospel.” This repentance of which He speaks is not just a turning away from doing wrong. Instead, it indicates a change of heart – a rejection of our fallen nature and a continual becoming more like Christ. And the only way that is possible is by conforming our wills to the will of God. But this will never be possible if we continue to hold onto hatred and refuse to forgive.

And yet, we continue to hang on to anger and unforgiveness in at least one form that I want to discuss today: that of grumbling and murmuring. To give this a name we might call it a spirit of discontent. Now in one sense I can understand this attitude. What happened last year to this parish caught us off guard. When something like that happens we can become defensive. And from that defensive position people can easily give in to the spirit of discontent. But truly we have nothing to be discontent about.

Through God’s grace and wonderful blessing, the Pope put this parish where it belonged – in the Ordinariate, which is what we as a parish were praying for by the way. As a result we’ve been blessed with a new bishop that understands and appreciates who we are as a parish; in addition, we have also received a new pastor. So there are three things that happened very close together: a new diocese, a new bishop, and a new pastor. Any one of these would lead to changes – changes that perhaps some of you don’t like. But these three things happened almost at once and so with it there have been many changes. But instead of a spirit of gratitude at God answering our prayer for entry into the Ordinariate, what do you suppose that I am hearing? “Well, I don’t like this or that. All these changes are ruining the parish.” This is the spirit of discontent and it comes from the evil one. Therefore, when we speak this way we are sinning.

The Church teaches that sin by itself injures the unity of the Church. How much more so when the sin is directed against our fellow Christian? And if our own personal sin leads to division in the Church, then why are we constantly blaming someone else as the source of all our perceived problems?

Christ has called us to unity, but that is only possible through love and forgiveness. In other words, we must be like Christ who from the Cross forgave those who crucified Him. And we must love others as He did by wanting what is best for all people, even those who hurt us, or do things we don’t agree with, and by putting their needs above our own.

In the Gospel today our Lord called Peter, Andrew, James, and John to follow Him. “Follow me,” as followers of Christ, these are words He addresses to us everyday. But to be a follower of Christ you must heed the words I’ve said today about rejecting the spirit of discontent, and about forgiveness and love. Our Lord calls you to follow Him. No one can answer the call for you, you must do it on your own.

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On Loving God and Our Neighbor

27 Monday Oct 2014

Posted by Fr. Moore in Catholic Obligations, Eternal Life, Forgiveness, Loving our Neighbor, Salvation, Sermons, Theosis

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Becoming like Christ, Dependence on God, Dying to Self, Happiness, Heaven, Image of God

Sermon for the Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity

October 26, 2014

 

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” These words of our Savior, which we have just heard, are repeated at this parish everyday at every Anglican Use Mass. It is very good for us to hear these words at every Mass so that we are constantly reminded of our need to put God first by loving Him above all things; but, when something becomes so familiar to us we can develop a tendency to ignore its true meaning. What does it mean to love God with your entire being? This is a very serious question to which we must have the correct answer so that we can rightly order our lives toward God. But in addition, without the right understanding for the love of God we will not know how to keep the second of our Lord’s commands: to love our neighbor as ourselves. So, what does it mean to love God with all your heart, soul and mind? Before looking for the answer I want to address modern man’s take on this question.

 

In our secular and pluralistic society, modern man asks a similar but altogether different question. Instead of asking how to rightly love God, modern society demands an answer to the question “Why should we love God, if there is one? What has He ever done for us?” And even we as Catholics, and who claim to love God, don’t always prove it. Too often in our speech we say we love God, but in our actions towards Him we show a profound indifference. We let our lives get in the way of loving God by saying to ourselves – I just don’t have time go to Mass this Sunday, or to pray, or go to adoration, or to do some work of mercy. By so doing we functionally become agnostics because through our actions we ask the same question that our modern society constantly asks – why should we love God? Continue reading →

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The ‘Religion of Peace’

11 Thursday Sep 2014

Posted by Fr. Moore in Forgiveness, Salvation

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forgiveness of enemies, Image of God, Loving our Neighbor, Pain and Suffering

For a few weeks now I have been planning to do a piece on Islam. And today, the anniversary of the Islamic terrorist attacks on this country, seems to be a good day to reflect on the so-called ‘religion of peace’ and what was done to the people of this country 13 years ago. (And which continues to be done today in other parts of the world.)

Let us first get one thing straight: I am not saying that there are no peaceful Muslims. I am sure some of them are. But I believe it to be a lie to call Islam a religion of peace. Now I would imagine, in our politically correct society, that there are many people who would take offense at my calling the 9/11 attacks an ‘Islamic terriost attack’. They would say that it was only the ‘extremists’ that performed the attacks. But, let us be real, it was an Islamic attack. To deny this would be to say that the people who perpetrated the attacks were not Muslim, which would be untrue. To this someone might respond, “Yes, but many members of the Mafia are Roman Catholic, and they are responsible for many horrible crimes as well.” That is true, but it is not their Catholic faith that motivates their evil deeds. In fact, the Church denounces any such evil deeds done by one of its members or any evil done by anyone else for that matter. On the other hand, the same cannot be said of the 9/11 attacks or any of the things going on in the Middle East at this time. The actions 13 years ago and the atrocities being committed right now are very much an outgrowth of the religion of Islam, which is evidenced by the fact that the terrorists are directly motivated by the teachings of Muhammad.

But most people don’t want to think critically about such things. They just want to believe what the media tells them over and over and over again – Islam is a religion of peace. It is not hard to discover how big a lie this is. Here are some examples of what I am talking about. (There is much more that can be found at the website located here.)

Quran (5:33) – “The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His messenger and strive to make mischief in the land is only this, that they should be murdered or crucified or their hands and their feet should be cut off on opposite sides or they should be imprisoned; this shall be as a disgrace for them in this world, and in the hereafter they shall have a grievous chastisement.”

Quran (8:12) – “I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them.”

And that is not all. In total there are “at least 109 verses that call Muslims to war with nonbelievers for the sake of Islamic rule.” (From the above mentioned website.) To this some might say, “Yes, but jihad is supposed to be understood as a spiritual struggle.” Good luck convincing the family of James Foley and countless others throughout Islam’s history of that particular bit of nonsense.

 

Now that is enough about the whole religion of peace nonsense. If you still believe in that then go and see what the teachings of Islam really say instead taking your opinion from the talking heads on TV.

My main purpose is not to show how bad Islam really is. Instead, my main purpose today is to call for forgiveness toward those Muslims who have done such evil things against others. This is a case of hate the sin but love the sinner. On days like today when we remember such senseless evil done to us we can very easily become upset and angry, even to the point of hatred for those who do such evil deeds. When this kind of evil is done against a person or group of people there are sometimes those who will say, “I can never forgive them for that.” But as Christians we cannot allow ourselves to fall into such a trap. Yes, what was done was very evil, but look at the evil that was done to Christ and what did He say from the Cross? “Father forgive them.”

We need to understand that by giving forgiveness we are not condoning the evil that is done agaist us. Instead, when we forgive others we are saying in effect, “What you did to me was wrong, but, I do not hold it against you.” And why should we do this? Well, for one, Jesus told us, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.” (Luke 6:27b-28, RSV-CE) And in addition He said “if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” Those are very strong words which show us the importance of forgiving others. We must remember that we are all sinners in need of forgiveness, but if we do not give forgiveness to others, even to our worst enemies, then God will not forgive us either.

And why is this? Why does God require us to forgive and why did Jesus forgive His tormentors from the Cross? In fact, why did Jesus, the Son of God, die for us in the first place? Because each and every one of us, whether we be Muslim, Jew, Christian, atheist, or whatever, are made in the image and likeness of God and He desires all those who He has created to be with Him in Heaven.

And all of this brings up a final point. We should be concerned with those who are trapped within the religion of Islam. In our egalitarian “any religion is good as any other” mentality we do not understand what it means to be a Muslim. The people within it, especially the women, cannot just leave and join themselves to another religion if they feel so called. Muslims who dare to convert to Christianity are quite literally risking their lives because other Muslims, even their own family members, will kill them rather than let them leave Islam. Yes, the religion of Islam is a hateful, despotic, and even evil religion that has led to much suffering for centuries throughout the world. But those who are within it are still people in need of salvation and to carry around hatred in our hearts for them is equivalent to wishing them to hell. What we must do instead is forgive, pray for, and if possible, evangelize Muslims for the sake of their souls and our own.

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My Peace I Give to You

20 Tuesday May 2014

Posted by Fr. Moore in Forgiveness, Loving our Neighbor, Peace

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Confession, forgiveness of enemies, Heaven, Loving our Neighbor

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you.

John 14:27a, RSV-CE

This is from the Gospel reading for Mass today. For me, just hearing these words brings an immediate peacefulness to my soul. But when I look at the situations in which I usually hear or read these words I must take notice of something: it is usually at Mass or at prayer that I come across these wonderful words of our Lord. But both of those are times when you are not having to do a multitude of things; instead, you only have to be still and put yourself in the presence of God. But this is not the peace of which our Lord speaks.

The peace that our Lord wants for us is not simply the absence of those distractions and happenings in our life that can take away the calm demeanor we might have when things happen to be going our way. (Like when we can leave all our cares behind for a while when at Mass or at prayer. Or even at other times: when on vacation, a day off from work, etc.) Instead, the peace He wants for us can be ours at all times – even when it feels like we are caught in the middle of a violent storm.

To understand the peace that Christ wants to give us we must first understand what the world understands peace to be. Peace for the world is simply the lack of violence. For instance, think of the Middle East: when people call for peace amongst those countries what they mean is for the people in those countries to stop killing each other. But this is not peace – it is only a lack of violence. Even if they are not killing each other the people in those countries still hate one another and in times of ‘peace’ the least thing can set them off and they will be killing each other once again.

So we find that it is hatred that is at the root of the world's lack of peace. And the virtue needed to correct this lack of peace is love; but love is only possible if there is forgiveness. But, due to the fallen nature of mankind, there can be no true forgiveness amongst the various peoples of the world without the forgiveness that comes first from God. It is true that people can forgive one another and live in relative peace for a while. But, because of our tendency to sin, if we lose or have never known the forgiveness that comes to us only from God then we will inevitably come back into conflict with the people with which we formerly had peace.

So, how do we obtain this peace that Jesus promises us? It comes to us through the forgiveness we receive from Him through His one and only perfect Sacrifice on the Cross. When we are born into this world we are born into Original Sin and therefore, we are alienated from God because sinfulness can have no place with God Who is all good. Therefore, because we were created by God and for God, we can never be at peace, whether with God, within ourselves or with others, while we are alienated from Him. God, though, has rescued us from this alienation through the perfect Sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the Cross. And it is through Baptism that we participate in Christ's Sacrifice: we are buried with Him and rise again to a new life – a life of Grace.

Through this Grace, which is God's very life that He puts within us, we are put into a right relationship with God. We are therefore no longer alienated from Him. Having been created to be with Him our lives are necessarily disordered, which means there can be no true peace, until we are brought out of that alienation. Once we are made right with Him then peace within our souls is restored because we are at peace with the One who created us. But, of course, this state of Grace we have received through Baptism can be lost if we mortally sin – meaning that through some serious sin we deliberately and with full knowledge of the wrong done turn our back on God. When that happens then the peace we had is lost – until we turn back to God for forgiveness through the Sacrament of Penance.

But in connection with the forgiveness we receive from Christ we must remember His own words of warning, “if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” (Matthew 6:15, RSV-CE) The logical conclusion then seems to be this: if we want peace with God, with others and within ourselves – that being true peace and not just the absence of conflict or strife in our lives – then we must forgive others just as God has forgiven us.

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Love the Sin – Hate the Sinner?

09 Friday May 2014

Posted by Fr. Moore in Forgiveness, Loving our Neighbor

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Becoming like Christ, Dying to Self, forgiveness of enemies, Happiness, Heaven, Hell, Loving our Neighbor

It is more than likely that we have all heard the phrase, “hate the sin – love the sinner.” This is the example we have received from our Lord Jesus Christ. This morning, though, it occured to me that Satan does just the opposite and “hates the sinner but loves the sin.” It is, therefore, ironic that we so often emulate Satan instead of our Lord. What do we do (unless we are living saints) when someone offends us? If we are honest we would have to admit that our immediate reaction is, to a greater or lesser extent, to hate the person that offended us. We think to ourselves, “How could he do that to me?!” Or, “He thinks he's so great: I'll show him!”

Satan hates us and wants to drag as many of us to hell with him as possible. When we think such evil thoughts in regards to those who offend us then we are effectively doing the same thing: we are sending people to hell with our thoughts. But is that what we really want to do? Do we really want to condemn people to an eternity of despair and pain for a momentary pain they may have caused us? (And any pain in this life is only momentary.) If we really want someone to go to hell then we have probably condemned ourselves to the same fate because we have become just like Satan.

But I think for most of us, if we really thought about the consequences of our evil thoughts toward others, we would see that in the big scheme of things what has been done to offend us pales in comparison to our wrath at the offense. So the next time someone hurts us we should try to remember that that person has an immortal soul created and loved by God every bit as much as He loves our own. And if we desire to be happy for eternity then let us emulate Him when we are hurt. Yes, we should hate the sin because sinfulness can have no place with God. And we should then love the sinner with the realization that the sinner is our very self.

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Fr. Moore

Fr. Moore

Parochial Vicar Our Lady of the Atonement San Antonio, Texas FrMoore@truthwithboldness.com

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