The Capacity to Forgive

When Peter committed the unthinkable sin of denying his Lord and Savior three times in John 18: 15-27 I’m sure the conviction of that act was unbearable. The weight and heaviness of such a conviction probably came in waves of guilt, shame, and regret. Many of you know exactly what I’m referring to when I speak of these waves of conviction.  Yet, later Jesus was able to come to Simon Peter in John 21: 15-19 and redeem Peter’s three denials with three questions. “Lovest thou me”? Jesus asked Peter this question three times to Peter’s dismay. 

Once Peter answered in the affirmative three times and Jesus gave His commandment to Peter I believe that heavy guilt and shame was lifted off of Peter and he was able to go on zealously for Christ preaching the gospel and building the church. Peter built the foundation of the church through that forgiveness given from Jesus. It is often through our error and mistakes that we find the humility within ourselves to serve the will of God. 

This is what I believe happened with Pope St. Francis. The 2019 movie “The Two Popes” helped to humanize the papacy like never before. Along with the humanizing of the two popes the film also goes into the history of these two popes, especially Pope St. Francis, formerly known as Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires. The flick does a great job of going into the inner workings of the Argentianian militaristic dictatorship and how that affected the Catholic religion and all of its priests and parishioners. Pope St. Francis was a leader within the Priesthood and did not walk away from that chaos unscathed. 

There are still many people that blame him for his decision making and have found fault in the way that he handled himself and the way he protected the church. To this Pope St. Francis has answered critics with a thunderous silence, but that silence could reveal the psyche of the man as well. The movie displays an incoming Pope that feels undeserving of such a position mainly because of the shame, guilt, and regret he still carried from his days in Argentina. This blanket of conviction held Pope St. Francis in a state of undervaluing himself and his potential impact on the world. 

Similarly to Simon Peter, once Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires was able to accept the forgiveness of Christ, completely and truly in his heart, is when he was able to accept becoming Pope St. Francis. This conviction that Bergoglio carried with him for decades is what shaped and molded his humble character and perspective on leadership. And it was the forgiveness received from the divine that led to St. Francis applying worldwide sweeping changes to the former Popes ideologies. The Argentinian social and political upheavals is what helped build the character of the man we now know as Pope St. Francis. 

When you accept God’s love and mercy for your own life, you can’t help but offer and provide that same thing to your neighbor. The 2nd greatest commandment from Jesus is “love thy neighbor as yourself”. I believe it is the Pope's acceptance of God’s love and mercy that is fueling his liberal attitude toward the traditional theological social and political stances of the Catholic religion. Pope Francis is open to hope, change, and flexibility. When you have laid your soul bare to the Father in complete surrender in confession, you are able to personify the scripture “the truth shall set you free”. This is why Pope St. Francis is open to reform through transparency. 

 So receive the Lord’s forgiveness in your heart on this day. I know it is easier said than done, but ask the Lord through the Holy Spirit for help. Psalms 103:12 reads, “as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us”, and Micah 7:19 says, “He will again have compassion on us, he will tread our iniquities underfoot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea”. 1st John 1:9 reads, “If we repent and confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.” 

Believe in His mercy today, believe in His grace. Most importantly, begin to forgive those that have sinned against you.  For it is only through your forgiveness of others that you will be able to align with the forgiveness of God toward you. For it was The Lord’s prayer on the mount that informed us “forgive us our trespassess as we’ll forgive those that have trespassed against us”. It’s a two-way street, and God wants us to forgive others around us so that we can feel God’s forgiveness in our lives. So, attune to God’s forgiveness through the forgiveness of others. Believe in God’s forgiveness, and then, receive it.