Forgiveness
Sermon by H.G Bishop Emilianos of Meloa, 26th February 2017
Today we heard in the Holy Gospel that if we will not forgive others who go against us, our own sins will also not be forgiven. To forgive someone’s sins against you means that you will be able to fly without any weight on your soul. The weight we have on our souls is from our own sins and also from the sins we hold against the others. If we let go of the sins others have done against us that is 50 percent of this weight and then, God will take care of the rest. He will help us get rid of our sins as well.
We need to hate the sin but not the sinner. That’s what the Fathers of the Church teach us. By doing so, we better understand what happens in our life. Behind the falls of others, we have to realise that it is the tempter, and we have to feel sorry for the one who was attacked and fell. Not attacking them too instead. Because then this person is attacked from two sides and will feel that there is no salvation for him. Instead of getting upset and attacking the ones who attack us, we need to realise that they were victims. By doing so, we will feel sorry for them, we can then pray for them and in their own time, when their souls are ready, God can help them understand what they have done to us and possibly fix things.
When we say we can forgive but we cannot forget; in other words we still maintain bad feelings for the person who wronged us, this means that our hearts are not fully open. Do you remember the parable of the Prodigal Son? After going whatever he did and spent all of his father’s inheritance, as soon as he returned back to his father, his father not only forgave him, but he forgot everything he had done, gladly received him back and honoured him more than before.
If we don’t forgive and also don’t forget, it means that we have trust issues. It means that we focus on the waves and not on Jesus who enabled us to walk on the waves. That’s what happened to Apostle Peter. Jesus told him to walk on the waves. When he was focused on Jesus he started walking on the waves. As soon as he changed his focus point from Jesus to the waves, to the temptations and to the troubles, he started sinking. That’s what will happens to us too. If we stop focusing on Jesus and we focus on what others do to us, we will try to attack everyone around us in order to defend ourselves. This means that we are not free anymore. We become slaves to our fears, our anxiety, we are preoccupied with others and will start losing the balance within us.
It also means that we see enemies everywhere. But Jesus said to love our enemies. When we love our enemies, God can make every evil action beneficial to us. We keep focusing on God and no waves can hurt us.
The greatest example here, is the example of our Lord. They killed Him, that’s the worse that they could have done to Him, and through His death we all received our Resurrection and our Salvation. So there is nothing worse that someone could ever do to us, but, there is nothing greater that God. Have trust in Him. Even the worst things will turn around and become beneficial to us if we put our trust in God.
We need to let things go, though. Forgive and forget, for our own spiritual and psychological freedom and development. Otherwise, we just waste our time and end up fighting everyone around us. And then, we will end up dying one day, we will look back and we will realise that all we ever did was to just defend ourselves and our ego.
Forgive (Συγχωρώ, συν+χωρώ) in Greek comes from two Greek words and it means that I make space inside me for the other person. Forgiveness means that I make space inside me so I can fit everyone in, to fit the one who hurt me and, if I don’t do so, this means that I will just be empty or full of my own ego.
We often talk about individuality. We talk about individuals. The word individual (Άτομο) in Greek means the piece which cannot be cut into smaller pieces. And that’s what happens with us, our ego keeps us as one, keeps us undivided, keeps us all together. But by keeping us solid, we cannot cut a small part of ourselves and give it to others. To our wife or husband, to our children or to God. We are strangers to sacrifice.
Instead of individuals, we need to become persons. A person. We will then be able to embrace and absorb and dilute ourselves within others, like the three Persons of the Holy Trinity. Otherwise, we will never feel close to any human and we will never be able to become one with God.
.
We need to hate the sin but not the sinner. That’s what the Fathers of the Church teach us. By doing so, we better understand what happens in our life. Behind the falls of others, we have to realise that it is the tempter, and we have to feel sorry for the one who was attacked and fell. Not attacking them too instead. Because then this person is attacked from two sides and will feel that there is no salvation for him. Instead of getting upset and attacking the ones who attack us, we need to realise that they were victims. By doing so, we will feel sorry for them, we can then pray for them and in their own time, when their souls are ready, God can help them understand what they have done to us and possibly fix things.
When we say we can forgive but we cannot forget; in other words we still maintain bad feelings for the person who wronged us, this means that our hearts are not fully open. Do you remember the parable of the Prodigal Son? After going whatever he did and spent all of his father’s inheritance, as soon as he returned back to his father, his father not only forgave him, but he forgot everything he had done, gladly received him back and honoured him more than before.
If we don’t forgive and also don’t forget, it means that we have trust issues. It means that we focus on the waves and not on Jesus who enabled us to walk on the waves. That’s what happened to Apostle Peter. Jesus told him to walk on the waves. When he was focused on Jesus he started walking on the waves. As soon as he changed his focus point from Jesus to the waves, to the temptations and to the troubles, he started sinking. That’s what will happens to us too. If we stop focusing on Jesus and we focus on what others do to us, we will try to attack everyone around us in order to defend ourselves. This means that we are not free anymore. We become slaves to our fears, our anxiety, we are preoccupied with others and will start losing the balance within us.
It also means that we see enemies everywhere. But Jesus said to love our enemies. When we love our enemies, God can make every evil action beneficial to us. We keep focusing on God and no waves can hurt us.
The greatest example here, is the example of our Lord. They killed Him, that’s the worse that they could have done to Him, and through His death we all received our Resurrection and our Salvation. So there is nothing worse that someone could ever do to us, but, there is nothing greater that God. Have trust in Him. Even the worst things will turn around and become beneficial to us if we put our trust in God.
We need to let things go, though. Forgive and forget, for our own spiritual and psychological freedom and development. Otherwise, we just waste our time and end up fighting everyone around us. And then, we will end up dying one day, we will look back and we will realise that all we ever did was to just defend ourselves and our ego.
Forgive (Συγχωρώ, συν+χωρώ) in Greek comes from two Greek words and it means that I make space inside me for the other person. Forgiveness means that I make space inside me so I can fit everyone in, to fit the one who hurt me and, if I don’t do so, this means that I will just be empty or full of my own ego.
We often talk about individuality. We talk about individuals. The word individual (Άτομο) in Greek means the piece which cannot be cut into smaller pieces. And that’s what happens with us, our ego keeps us as one, keeps us undivided, keeps us all together. But by keeping us solid, we cannot cut a small part of ourselves and give it to others. To our wife or husband, to our children or to God. We are strangers to sacrifice.
Instead of individuals, we need to become persons. A person. We will then be able to embrace and absorb and dilute ourselves within others, like the three Persons of the Holy Trinity. Otherwise, we will never feel close to any human and we will never be able to become one with God.
.