Dcn Anne Strong
My dear brothers and sisters:
Luke talks about light and while reflecting upon this, forgiveness revealed itself to me. I immediately proceeded to google “forgiveness” to see how they might connect.
Sure enough: “forgiveness is the way out of darkness and into the light.” Aha! I became excited and continued to search and found “forgiveness means seeing the light of God in everyone, regardless of their behavior.”
As we all know, forgiveness is difficult. There are so many secular theories: some people should never be forgiven; forgiveness is weak; passive. A difficult truth is that it is hard because what we need to forgive in others may be something that we have hidden in ourselves. (John 15:5 “cut off from the vine, you can do nothing.”)
Intellect and will power will not cut it when we attempt to forgive someone who has angered and hurt us. We need to look at forgiveness as a journey across a bridge from a world where we are always recycling our anger to a place of peace. This journey takes us into our own spiritual essence and the heart of God. It takes us into a new world of expanding, unconditional love.
Forgiveness offers all I want. How about you? Do you want peace? Forgiveness offers it. Do you want happiness, a quiet mind, a certainty of purpose, and a sense of worth and beauty that transcends the world? Do you want care and safety, the warmth of pure protection always? Do you want a quietness that cannot be disturbed, a gentleness that can never be hurt, a deep and abiding comfort, and a rest so perfect it can never be upset?
Our attachment to cling to our anger gets us in trouble. Today I made a choice to cleanse myself of these types of thoughts which were controlling me. I requested personal reconciliation while at a monastic retreat in Chapel Rock. This is a concrete action in my decision to choose what is in my mind. I plan to participate in this monthly.
A lot of you may remember the comic strip character Pogo. Pogo said, “We have met the enemy and it is us.” I am convinced that one of the greatest gifts of all is our power to choose the thoughts we want to put into our minds. This freedom of choice can release us from the enemy, which Pogo discovered…ourselves, and our own attachment to our past.
Forgiveness puts us in the flow of love. This result of forgiveness is a reminder that love is our only reality, that love is everything and everywhere. Love is all there is, and it is the answer to many problems that we may have to face. I choose this. What do you choose?
Faithfully and with love,
Deacon Anne