Sophia - Melkite Eparchy of Newton

NAMYIt is Between You and Godby Maria KhalilWWe go to church every weekand chant the hymns, listento the homily, and receivecommunion. But when all that’sthrough and we go back home, I oftenfind myself leaving all the “churchstuff” back at church. It’s difficult toremember that church should alwaysbe with us, that when we get home weshouldn’t just go back to the regularroutine and not worry about upholdingour faith. Unfortunately, we do itanyway. We lie, cheat, disobey ourparents and act crudely toward others.It’s difficult to always think in “whatwould Jesus do” terms.I often find myself in those situationwhere I know I’ve sinned and insteadof fessing up, I try to rationalize myactions by stating that “I’m not Jesus,I’m no saint, how can I expect myselfto do the same as Jesus when I’m nothim.” But that’s not right. Don’t we allgo to church and receive communion?We eat and drink the body and blood ofJesus Christ. We do in fact become onewith him. It should always be our priorityto become closer to him. As St. Paulsaid: “Let not sin therefore reign inyour mortal bodies, to make you obeytheir passions. Do not yield your membersto sin as instruments of wickedness,but yield yourselves to God asmen who have been brought from deathto life, and your members to God asinstruments of righteousness. For sinwill not have dominion over you, sinceyou are not under law but undergrace.” (Romans 6:12-14)So what do we do? We first have totry to take church home with us. If wetruly believe in God, then we mustwork to follow those beliefs at alltimes. I mean, God is almighty. Sowhat he wants us to do is alwayswhat’s right. If he’s always right, thenwe should always want to follow thepaths that he has set for us.Unfortunately, we are only human.We do sin, but that’s where forgivenesssteps in. It’s been said that ifAdam and Eve had repented andasked forgiveness the first time whenGod asked if they had eaten from theforbidden tree, then he would haveforgiven them, and things would be a16 SOPHIA • Winter 2008lot different. As said by Saint Ephremin response to Gen 2:25, “Speak toGod now, before he asks you aboutthe coming of the serpent and aboutthe transgression that you and Evecommitted. Perhaps then, the confessionof your lips will absolve youfrom the sin of the fruit that your fingersplucked.” But they made thedecision not to admit their fault. Weshould all have learned a great lessonfrom this.When you mess up, ask God’s forgiveness,he’ll give it; we don’t wantto end up being kicked out of the gardentoo. Throughout the bible thereare numerous stories that show God’seternal forgiveness. When Jesus wasdying on the cross, his last wordswere “Father forgive them for theyknow not what they do.” (Luke 23:34)One of the seven holy sacraments,or as we call them in our tradition,one of the mysteries, is confession.It’s right up there with baptism, chrismation,and communion. Jesusblessed his disciples and forgavethem of their sins. Then he had themgo out and do the same for others.Jesus set up a system in which wecould ask forgiveness. I mean, don’tyou all feel so much better after confession.It’s like a weight has beenlifted off my chest. I’m finally free ofthose sins and am closer to God.Some people may ask why it’s soimportant to go to confession: “Can’twe just ask God directly on our ownto forgive us? Well, no. While weshould always ask to be forgiven onour own, there’s a bit more to it. Jesushimself set up a way to receive forgivenessthrough confession. Hebreathed into the apostles the powerto forgive sin, as the bible says:“Jesus said to them again, ‘peace bewith you. As the Father has sent me,even so I send you.’ And when he hadsaid this, he breathed on them, andsaid to them, ‘Receive the HolySpirit. If you forgive the sins of any,they are forgiven; if you retain thesins of any, they are retained’” (John20:19-23; see also Gen 2:7; Ezek 37;Matt 18:18; James 5:16).It is stated that we are not just spiritualbeings. We are made up of boththe spiritual and the physical. So it’snecessary for us to not only receiveforgiveness on a spiritual level, butalso on a physical one. Jesus gave thedisciples the power to forgive sinsbecause we need that physical side. Ithelps us to be able to go to the priestand confess our sins and beg forgiveness.Look at the Protestants. Theydon’t have this. They don’t get theprayer of absolution prayed overthem. They continually pray and askforgiveness but they are never toldthat they are forgiven. The power toforgive has been passed downthrough the disciples to the priest,just as Jesus commanded. We are ableto go to confession and know that wehave been forgiven.We must also go to confession forthe good of the Church. A body ismade up of many parts. When one ofthose parts is hurt, it upsets the wholebody. But the body is able to heal thathurt part. The same goes for theChurch. When one of us sins, thewhole Church is affected. It is up to usto have the Head of the Church, Jesus,forgive us, so that the Church, thebody of Christ, can go back to beingthe way it was meant to be. (Eph 5:23)While we all have the ability and theneed to be forgiven by God, we havethat same need to give and receive forgivenessfrom each other. The goldenrule is, treat others as you wish to betreated. As Jesus said: “For if you forgivemen their trespasses, your heavenlyFather also will forgive you; butif you do not forgive men their trespasses,neither will your Father forgiveyour trespasses.” (Matthew 6:14-15) When someone hurts us, it’s ourjob to forgive them; for we too wouldwant such mercy if we were in thatposition. We’ve all been through situationswhere the outcome is not whatwe wanted. It’s hard to forgive othersfor their actions when we have personallybeen hurt in some way, but if wedon’t, we can easily become consumedby hate and anger.There is the parable given by Jesusabout the debtor. When he asked to beforgiven for his debt that he could not