Forgive us… as we forgive –2
Our Father who art in the heavens.
Forgive us… as we forgive –2–1
Your forgiveness of others is an essential condition for your receiving forgiveness.
What is the relationship between the petition for forgiveness and the petition for bread that immediately precedes it?
There are other necessary conditions for the Lord to grant you forgiveness.
Repentance is a condition for forgiveness, with fruits worthy of repentance.
The Sacraments of the Church also carry within them the gift of forgiveness.
We spoke in the previous issue about this petition and explained the need of every human being for forgiveness, even the apostles of Christ themselves… and in this issue we wish to continue our meditations on this petition of the Lord’s Prayer, and we say:
We ask God for forgiveness, and God on His part is ready to forgive. But the important thing is this: are we, on our part, ready to receive this forgiveness?
There are conditions: so what are they?
We say in the prayer: “Forgive us… as we also forgive those who trespass against us.”
Thus our forgiveness of others is a condition,
or it is an agreement between us and God.
And we notice that God cared greatly about this condition, for this petition is the only one among the seven petitions of the Lord’s Prayer on which the divine inspiration commented, and the Lord spoke about it after He taught it to us. For in the Gospel of our teacher Matthew the Evangelist, the Lord says immediately after this prayer: “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Matt. 6:14–15).
And He clarifies this in the Gospel of our teacher Mark the Apostle, saying: “And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, that your Father who is in the heavens may also forgive you your trespasses. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father who is in the heavens forgive your trespasses” (Mark 11:25–26).
And the same meaning is repeated in the Gospel of our teacher Luke the Apostle, and the Lord says: “Forgive, and you will be forgiven.” Why? He says: “For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you” (Luke 6:37–38).
Thus, if we want the Lord to forgive us, we must also forgive those who have wronged us, no matter what their offenses, and no matter how many they are, even up to seventy times seven in a day, as the Lord answered His disciple Peter the Apostle.
And if we do not forgive, then we close the door of forgiveness before ourselves, and we are the ones who lose…
Of your own accord, forgive; and all the more if the one who wronged you comes apologizing—do not interrogate him, but forgive him.
Remember how the Lord Christ, while on the Cross, forgave His crucifiers and offered an excuse for them to the Father, saying: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”
And remember that Saint Stephen, the Archdeacon and first martyr, while the Jews were unjustly stoning him, prayed for them saying: “Lord, do not charge them with this sin” (Acts 7:60).
Give up your right toward people, so that the Lord may give up His rights toward you, and so that you may have boldness in prayer when you say: “As we also forgive.” And so that, by this spiritual manner, you may be an image of your heavenly Father, a true son resembling his Father in His forgiveness, according to the measure of your spiritual stature…
But if you are unable to forgive, what should you do?
Consider this petition a sermon for you and pray for its fulfillment.
Consider that the voice of God calls you as you pray, saying: “Forgive your brother, that I may also forgive you.” And in your prayer say from your depths: “Grant me, O Lord, to forgive. Grant me the love by which I forget the faults of others.”
And in any case let the commandment of forgiveness be ever before your eyes.
Here we ask:
What is the relationship between the petition for forgiveness and the petition for bread that precedes it?
If we ask for the heavenly bread—that is, the Sacrament of the Eucharist necessary for our eternal life—then as soon as we ask for it, we remember that we need forgiveness in order to partake worthily; therefore we say “Forgive us.” Then we remember that we must “greet one another with a holy kiss, that we may partake without falling into judgment” of this heavenly gift; therefore we say “as we also forgive.”
Thus it is necessary that we forgive others and that the Lord forgives us so that we may be worthy to partake of the divine mysteries. And if in the petition for bread we ask for all the spiritual nourishment necessary for our spiritual growth and eternal life, then we say to the Lord: this concerns the future that we desire with You; but concerning the past—forgive us.
Or we say in apology: despite all the spiritual nourishment You give us, we still sin, O Lord, so forgive us…
Yet the phrase “Forgive us,” for the Lord to fulfill it, must have conditions. And foremost among these conditions is repentance, whose importance the Lord showed when He said:
“Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish” (Luke 13:5).
God is ready to forgive, but He does not forgive the unrepentant. Thus repentance is a condition. For if repentance is the beginning of a new life with God, how can we combine God with sin? For Scripture says: “There is no fellowship between light and darkness.”
Repentance is reconciliation with God, and this reconciliation is necessary for forgiveness.
And repentance is not merely ceasing the act of sin, nor merely resisting it in thought; rather the saints say:
The perfection of repentance is hatred of sin.
When a person reaches the state of hating sin, then “he cannot sin,” and sin is no longer compatible with his nature in the state of repentance.
But a person might say he is repentant while his actions show otherwise; therefore Scripture says:
“Bear fruits worthy of repentance” (Matt. 3:8).
So if you say in your prayer “Forgive us,” ask yourself within: Are you repentant? Do I bear fruits worthy of repentance? Are these fruits evident in my life, my conduct, my practical reconciliation with God? Or am I asking for forgiveness without all this?
Thus, when you pray and say “Forgive us,” you implicitly say: “Accept, O Lord, my repentance,” or “Grant me, O Lord, the grace by which I repent,” or “Turn me, O Lord, and I shall be turned.”
And what is the sign of this repentance in your life? The first sign is:
That you confess that you are a sinner.
And the Apostle says: “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins” (1 John 1:8–9).
The sin that you confess is the one for which you ask forgiveness; but the situations in which you see yourself not mistaken, or that others are the mistaken ones, these do not come into your mind or heart when you say “Forgive us.”
If you confess your illness, then you ask the heavenly Physician to grant you healing and remedy. But if you say you are not ill, then “those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.” And the Lord says: “I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”
And he who confesses within himself that he is a sinner is able also to confess to the priest, and also to the heavenly Father.
In the phrase “Forgive us,” remember all your sins and confess them before God, then confess them before His steward on earth (Titus 1:7), that he may grant you absolution and you may take from the precious Blood by which your sins are blotted out…
And among the fruits of repentance in your life are contrition and regret for sin…
They are not a price for sin, but a sign of repentance, which is a condition for forgiveness.
Forgiveness is accomplished by the great atonement, by the pure precious Blood; but this Blood grants salvation only to the believing repentant.
With faith, repentance, and confession you approach saying: “Forgive us”…
And beware of asking forgiveness for others while not asking forgiveness for yourself, as did Job the righteous, who offered burnt offerings for his sons only, saying: “Perhaps my sons have sinned against God” (Job 1), without offering burnt offerings for himself…
And know that forgiveness, even after it is granted, does not prevent contrition and the feeling of unworthiness, for David the Prophet watered his bed with tears and lived a life of repentance, weeping and confessing his sin even after the Lord forgave him.
And Paul the Apostle, after he received forgiveness and ascended greatly in the life of the Spirit, still said: “I am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God”; “I who was formerly a blasphemer.”
And he did not say that all this was done by Saul of Tarsus, and that Saul died with Christ and that the one now living is Paul who was caught up to the third heaven… No, rather he said: “I am not worthy to be called an apostle…”
Do the saints—as the sinners—also say with them “Forgive us”?
Yes. All say this petition… and the first who said it were the holy Apostles of Christ. And the saint, whenever he contemplates the perfection required of him and the image of God that he must bear, feels within himself that he is a sinner—out of faith and conviction…
Even if the saints have done all that the Lord has commanded them, they say: “We are unprofitable servants.”
Therefore let us ask at all times that the Lord forgive us—
Not only the past, but also the present sins…
For we sin at all times, and sin is not merely a past we have left behind…
When the Prophet Isaiah saw the throne of God and the seraphim around it praising, he said: “Woe is me, for I am undone, for I am a man of unclean lips” (Isaiah 6).
So what shall we say?
We say: “Forgive us.”
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Article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III, published in Watani newspaper on 16–8–1981.
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