"Father, forgive them,
they know not what they do."
Let us begin this series of reflections recalling this: "Father" is the very first word that the already tortured Jesus speaks from the pain-filled experience of his crucified body. It is the first word he used in teaching the disciples how to pray. The word "Father" must be laden with meaning that is easily passed over in repetition. So, we begin our journey of understanding what Jesus was thinking, what Jesus was teaching as he hung in abject humiliation. Jesus first word is a sign of his love, his pardon for his prosecutors. It is a plea for all of humankind.
There is obvious pathos in this first word. It can bring us to consider the reversal of divine order that sin has brought into our world. Fr. Cessario makes an interesting observation that we might keep in mind at the outset of these seven reflections: "If sin matters not a white to us then neither will pardon for sin....Those who are impervious to sin remain impervious also to forgiveness." Recall the seeming finality in the definition of the word impervious: "incapable of being penetrated." Perhaps this alone could be a thought throughout the last days of Lent.
Consider for a moment that sin and forgiveness are mysteries. When God created all things, there was a definite ordering or design. Everything he created was good and for the good Creating us, God created an ordering between us and everything else because of our intelligence. But in that relationship between God and us is the famous Eden edict: "don't eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil." What this edict does is instruct humankind that there is a relationship that demands obedience. It was St. Thomas Aquinas, the Dominican theologian, who offered a simple definition of sin: "a sinful action is one deprived of its true ordering, the ordering from the maker of heaven and earth." Sin is a turning away from God and l things good. St. Augustine wrote about this relationship between God and his creations as an "eternal law" to make clear that we remain subject to God's plan, his design, his ordering.
There is obvious pathos in this first word. It can bring us to consider the reversal of divine order that sin has brought into our world. Fr. Cessario makes an interesting observation that we might keep in mind at the outset of these seven reflections: "If sin matters not a white to us then neither will pardon for sin....Those who are impervious to sin remain impervious also to forgiveness." Recall the seeming finality in the definition of the word impervious: "incapable of being penetrated." Perhaps this alone could be a thought throughout the last days of Lent.
Consider for a moment that sin and forgiveness are mysteries. When God created all things, there was a definite ordering or design. Everything he created was good and for the good Creating us, God created an ordering between us and everything else because of our intelligence. But in that relationship between God and us is the famous Eden edict: "don't eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil." What this edict does is instruct humankind that there is a relationship that demands obedience. It was St. Thomas Aquinas, the Dominican theologian, who offered a simple definition of sin: "a sinful action is one deprived of its true ordering, the ordering from the maker of heaven and earth." Sin is a turning away from God and l things good. St. Augustine wrote about this relationship between God and his creations as an "eternal law" to make clear that we remain subject to God's plan, his design, his ordering.
In a nation where individual freedom is paramount, some folks may feel that because they were not involved in making God's laws, they are not bound by them. Because a majority of a population might wish to reject or rescind the Creator's plan or even a part of it does not mean that the Creator has rescinded or will rescind his design. Furthermore, simply because some set themselves outside God's plan does not mean that God has given up or will give up on the order that governs our relationship.
Yet we cannot forget Jesus' prayer to the Father "that all may be one ... as we are one" (Jn 17:21-22). Jesus reminds us that we human being are very specially created Jesus' words point to a divine-likeness we possess in our relationship to the Father. This gift of divine likeness should teach us that we cannot be truly ourselves unless we make of ourselves a sincere gift to God. But then there is sin. Because we fail through sins, we, all sinners, need forgiveness. This is why Jesus would speak the word, "Father, forgive them."
Jesus' call to the Father for his gift of all that he is --love-- is how God rather than be a vindictive God, restores the order or relationship he had established through his forgiveness. It is Jesus, the Suffering Servant, who brings to our world the singular, distinctive gift of God's love in his forgiveness. It is the voice of Jesus, his thinking about all sinners, that announces a new relationship -- Redeemer and Redeemed! Dying on the cross, he is fulfilling his Last Supper invitation: "This is my body which will be given up for you; do this in memory of me." On Calvary Hill Jesus died so that we might be gift with the forgiveness of our sins. It is, without any doubt, the gift that keeps giving.
It is this first word form the cross that establishes an ordering or relationship within our Church. It is a reality found "no place else, in no other institution or forum." The Church has the ability to forgive sins for God: "Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" (Jn 16:19). How can this be? Only God can forgive sins, sins that damage his relationship with us, his created beings.
And to understand Jesus' Intention in this first word, we must understand his expectation created by this word: "...love your enemies" (Lk 6:27). It is the command to forgive as we have been forgiven. Look at our world and its history: so many broken places, so many broken relationships. These are living testimony to what happens when human beings remain locked in the failure to forgive.
It is this first word of Jesus from the cross that challenges us to know what it means that God has created an order in our world that sin has destroyed. Also, it is a damaged order that has been restored by God's forgiveness and our divine-likeness in forgiving those who have sinned against us.
Yet we cannot forget Jesus' prayer to the Father "that all may be one ... as we are one" (Jn 17:21-22). Jesus reminds us that we human being are very specially created Jesus' words point to a divine-likeness we possess in our relationship to the Father. This gift of divine likeness should teach us that we cannot be truly ourselves unless we make of ourselves a sincere gift to God. But then there is sin. Because we fail through sins, we, all sinners, need forgiveness. This is why Jesus would speak the word, "Father, forgive them."
Jesus' call to the Father for his gift of all that he is --love-- is how God rather than be a vindictive God, restores the order or relationship he had established through his forgiveness. It is Jesus, the Suffering Servant, who brings to our world the singular, distinctive gift of God's love in his forgiveness. It is the voice of Jesus, his thinking about all sinners, that announces a new relationship -- Redeemer and Redeemed! Dying on the cross, he is fulfilling his Last Supper invitation: "This is my body which will be given up for you; do this in memory of me." On Calvary Hill Jesus died so that we might be gift with the forgiveness of our sins. It is, without any doubt, the gift that keeps giving.
It is this first word form the cross that establishes an ordering or relationship within our Church. It is a reality found "no place else, in no other institution or forum." The Church has the ability to forgive sins for God: "Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" (Jn 16:19). How can this be? Only God can forgive sins, sins that damage his relationship with us, his created beings.
And to understand Jesus' Intention in this first word, we must understand his expectation created by this word: "...love your enemies" (Lk 6:27). It is the command to forgive as we have been forgiven. Look at our world and its history: so many broken places, so many broken relationships. These are living testimony to what happens when human beings remain locked in the failure to forgive.
It is this first word of Jesus from the cross that challenges us to know what it means that God has created an order in our world that sin has destroyed. Also, it is a damaged order that has been restored by God's forgiveness and our divine-likeness in forgiving those who have sinned against us.
"Father, forgive them."
