How do we recognize that we have created distance between
ourselves and God, that we have pulled away, separated from the unconditional
love that sustains us?
In this Sunday’s first reading from the Second Book of Samuel, King David has sinned, repeatedly and grievously. But more than adultery or murder, his
greatest sin is that he has willfully chosen separation from God by asserting
his own control in an echo of original sin, effectively replacing God with his own desire for independence. Hearing the catalog of his past errors,
however, David repents: I have sinned against the Lord, he tells
Nathan, and experiences God’s forgiveness.
Similarly, the psalmist confessed [his] faults to the Lord, and [God] took away the guilt of [his] sin (Psalm 32). Because he has
proclaimed his own repentance, acknowledging
and lamenting his separation from God, the psalmist can celebrate the
forgiveness he received when God set his sin aside, thereby restoring
relationship.
Luke’s Gospel tells the story of Simon the Pharisee and the sinful woman who demonstrates her
repentance through her gesture: she stood behind [Jesus] at his feet
weeping, and began to bath his feet with her tears. Unlike Simon, whose self-righteousness
and need for control prevent him from receiving forgiveness – the one to whom little is forgiven loves
little – the woman expresses her love in silent weeping, conscious of the
hurt her sin has created, of the barriers she has erected between herself and
God. And Love heals her, washing away her
sin: Your
faith has saved you; go in peace.
Her journey is our journey:
reconciliation is all about our capacity to be loved by God, to open ourselves to the love God has for all.
Likewise, Paul writes to the Galatian community to remind them that they
must die to [Mosaic] law so that they can be crucified with Christ and thus live
in him, forgoing their own willful, self-directed lives in order that Christ may live in them, centering themselves in Christ who is in them.
Separation, repentance, reconciliation, love: acknowledging our sinfulness, we anxiously
seek the love we have lost. But God will
draw us back, ever eager for relationship, healing us that we might know
renewed intimacy in the love of God.
This post is based on Fr. Pat's Scripture class.
Photo source
No comments:
Post a Comment