Sunday of Forgiveness

2 March 2025

The Church remembers today the fall of our forefathers Adam and Eve and their exile from Paradise, and thereby also expresses that desire of return to Paradise which is so characteristic of Christian spiritual life. As Christians, we pray towards the east because “God planted a Paradise in Eden toward the east and there he placed the human that he formed”. Now in the Great Fast, we abstain from eating meat since there was no death in paradise, and more importantly, we try in Lent to obtain the blessed obedience and humility that undo the disobedience and pride that occasioned the Fall of Adam. In other words, Great Lent has as its goal our return to Paradise, our return to our natural state as human beings: being in the presence of God as partakers of divine grace.

What yesterday’s and today’s Gospel readings say about charity, fasting and prayer are likewise related to this. We do not fast, as Christ says, in order to win the admiration of men, to be celebrated by society as good people; we do it for the Kingdom of God. “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth…but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven…for where your treasure is, there your heart be also.”

At the same time, today’s Gospel also presents us with the theme of forgiveness as a prerequisite for salvation.

The relationship between these two themes can be found in the etymology of the Greek word for forgiveness, as we briefly mentioned in last week’s sermon. The word synchoro — from syn (together) and choro (space) — means to share the same space. In other words, forgiveness means that I make space for the other in eternity; and this space made by forgiveness is Paradise, it is the space in which man finds himself in the eternal presence of God, the space he has called us to share with one another.

Therefore, if I refuse to share that space with another person (a person that God loves and desires with him), that means that I place myself outside of Paradise and deny my own salvation. When Christ says that, “If ye forgive not men their tresspasses, neither will your Father forgive you your tresspasses”, this is what he means. When we do not forgive, salvation becomes impossible, since salvation means coexistence, it means sharing the presence of God.

Now, forgiveness is not an easy thing, and it is usually not something that happens instantaneously, but is rather a process, just as repentance is a process.

Forgiveness, then, is the process of our return to Paradise. The process by which we make room in our hearts for our fellow man, and thereby make room for ourselves in the Kingdom of God. When the Lord tells us that, “In my Father’s house there are many mansions,” these mansions are the dwelling spaces of forgiveness, the spaces we make for ourselves and others by imitating the mercy and compassion of a God who is infinite love.

I wish you all a blessed Fast.

Fr Kristian Akselberg