The preacher's Sunday sermon was Forgiveness. Toward the end of the service, he asked, "How many of you have forgiven your enemies?" All put up their hands except one small elderly lady.
"Mrs. Jones?" inquired the preacher, "Are you not willing to forgive your enemies?"
"I don't have any," she replied sweetly.
"What a blessing and a lesson to us all. Would you please tell us all how a person can live ninety-three years and not have an enemy in the world?"
The little sweetheart faced the congregation and said, "I outlived them."
On the question of God's forgiveness a theologian asked his students, "Is God a monster or a marshmallow?" It turned out that most of his students thought of God as having a split personality, forgiving one minute and condemning the next.
I heard a conversation recently that went something like this:
"I'm afraid of dying."
"You don't need to be afraid, you are a good person. Someone who is not a good person needs to be afraid of what comes after death."
This troubled me somewhat. Not because I consider myself a bad person, but that the little story is not good theology. Jesus was good news to the sinners. In John 8:7-9 he says to the woman caught in adultery, "Neither do I condemn you."
Jesus simply stooped and wrote in the dust with his fingers. Presumably he was writing the sins of those who wanted to condemn the woman. All of us have sin in our lives and we should be asking for forgiveness rather than condemning others.
Even if we recognize the evil of our sinful natures, there is good news that Jesus died for us, forgives us and wants to inspire us rather than condemn. I use the word "inspire" because it so closely resembles the "spirit coming into" us.
In "The Power of Love" Supreme Knights of Columbus Chaplain Archbishop William E. Lori says, "By his endless mercies God exercises power over sin and even death." In his utter helplessness Jesus is most powerful. He gave absolutely all, everything, for us.
When Jesus was condemned and led forth to be crucified, He appeared most powerless.
But in that moment Jesus was most powerful! By helplessly submitting to death, Jesus defeated the power of sin and evil.
God raised Him up as He will raise us up when we submit to our deaths.
One of the best prayers I know is "God be merciful to me, a sinner." Surely Christ will hear that prayer as he heard the Good Thief on the cross beside Him.
And he will promise us, "Today you will be with me in paradise."
"The love of Christ crucified is stronger than sin and more powerful than death", was often repeated by John Paul II.
And His presence is something we can count on: "I will be with you always, even to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:20). God is with us always to expand our capacity to love, to "in-spirit" us.
