This Sunday the Orthodox Church commemorates Forgiveness Sunday, the Sunday prior to the beginning of the Great Lent Period. It is marked by the Gospel reading with the Lord entreating us with the reminder that as we render forgiveness to others, so the Lord will forgive us of our own trespasses. The message of the Gospel isn’t a suggestion rather a commandment to us that as Orthodox Christians, our footprint in the world is left by our characteristic of loving our neighbors, our enemies, and forgiving others up to seventy times seven. It is a path of humility that He embodies for us, not one of winning at all costs over those who may have caused us harm understanding that we too fall short in the presence of Christ in His ultimate and voluntary sacrifice for us. God’s ultimate forgiveness of our straying and missing the mark over generations is sealed by our ability and will to forgive others. It is the starting point for our salvation. Services this Sunday are traditionally completed with the communal forgiveness right where everyone in the parish asks forgiveness of others. As we begin to reconcile with others, we begin to reconcile with God.
Fr. Alexander Schmemann writes:
And because we make this discovery – and because this discovery is that of the Kingdom of God itself: the Kingdom of Peace and Love, of reconciliation with God and, in Him, with all that exists – we hear the hymns of that Feast, which once a year, “opens to us the doors of Paradise.” We know why we shall fast and pray, what we shall seek during the long Lenten pilgrimage. Forgiveness Sunday: the day on which we acquire the power to make our fasting – true fasting; our effort – true effort; our reconciliation with God – true reconciliation.
The Gospel also gives each of the faithful instructions on how to approach the Bright Sadness of Great Lent, teaching us not to fast in the open like the hypocrites as if to make it a means for attention, rather to do it in secret so your reward will be from your Father in Heavan. As everything that we do as Orthodox Christian, it is not for gain in the temporal world, rather for our Eternal Kingdom. To learn to love Christ, to become that which we were truly created to be.
Let us slowly reel in our thoughts this week to the up coming season of Great Lent, truly immerse ourselves in the services, the passion of Christ, so that we can rise-up with Him on the Great Day of Pascha. Brothers and sisters, let us also understand the need for our missions as the ‘true classroom’ where we are taught these ‘lessons’ and the need to support, grow missions, and plant the seeds for new ones.
