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Sunday in White (Second Sunday of Easter) |
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| Background:
Often this Gospel is used as an occasion to prove the Church’s
control of the forgiveness of sins and even to demand more frequent confession. The
Church, in this perspective, has a monopoly on forgiveness and must be stern in its use.
Patently this narrowly circumscribes the passionate forgiveness of God which Jesus came to
reveal. God may be generous with forgiveness, it is implied, but the Church cannot and
should not. Yet the story of Thomas, immediately after suggests that such an
interpretation of the words of Jesus missed the points. To forgive is not a right to be
jealously guarded, but an obligation to be exercised generously. We do not earn our own
forgiveness by forgiving others. Rather we
manifest the generosity and implacability of God’s forgiveness of us. |
read the padre |
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Story:
Once upon a time there was a man who counted carefully all
his grudges. He remembered all the cruelties of the school yard, the taunts from his class
when he did something well, the feather-brained responsibilities (as he saw them) of the young women he had dated,
the dishonesty of his business associates, the insensitivity of his wife, the ingratitude
of his children. So many people had done such terrible things to him that he figured that
there had to be a conspiracy. Who could have organized such a massive conspiracy? Only
God. For some reason, maybe it was his face, God did not like him. This was unfair, but
what could he do. If God had a grudge against him, that was God’s privilege. But then
he had the right to hold a grudge against God. So he died lonely and isolated, hated (he
thought) by everyone who ought to have loved him. I have a grudge against You, he told God
on first meeting. So what, God replied. I don’t have a grudge against you, so forget
about it! Then God showed him the people at his funeral Mass. All the people who had
injured him were sobbing in church. Do you think maybe you missed the point, God asked.
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