ECUMENICAL PATRIARCHATE

Exarchate of Parishes of Russian
Tradition in Western Europe

Bishop Basil of Amphipolis
Sermon on Forgiveness Sunday 2007
Church of the Holy Trinity and Annunciation, Oxford

I would like to draw your attention to one important aspect of the Great Fast, that period during which we look forward to Easter and the celebration of Christ’s Resurrection. In particular I think we should take seriously the prayer that is said by the priest in the sanctuary after communion:

O Christ, great and most holy Passover!  O Wisdom and Word and Power of God! Grant that we may more perfectly partake of thee in the day without evening of thy Kingdom.

What is interesting about this prayer is that we have just received the Body and Blood of Christ in truth, and yet we confess that there is still something more that lies ahead. It is possible for us to partake more perfectly than we have just now partaken.

It seems to me that this should be brought into connection with the whole problem of repentance. If we were ever able to repent completely, we would be able to say quite truthfully: ‘I can never do that again.’ But as soon as we realise this, we also realise that we do not repent completely. And yet we do not use this as an excuse for not going to confession. Even if we know that we cannot repent completely, we repent to the extent that we can. And we ask God to fill us with his grace to the extent that he can in response to our own repentance.

The very same thing is true of forgiveness. We know as Christians that we are called to forgive even as Christ forgave his murderers – and his disciples. But we also know that it is very difficult to forgive completely. If we could forgive completely we would never be troubled again by thoughts of what has happened to us, the injuries we may well have received.

But many of us will know from experience that we try to forgive, and we do forgive, and yet still we are troubled. But the fact that we are still troubled should not tell us that we should not tryto forgive, that we are somehow entitled to say: ‘This business of forgiveness is impossible.’ It may be a fact that at this stage of our lives we cannot partake perfectly of Christ, it maybe a fact that at this stage of our lives we cannot repent perfectly, a fact that at this stage of our lives we cannot forgive perfectly; but this is no reason for not approaching someone and asking for forgiveness and forgiving.

This is the great mystery of the synergy – the ‘working together’ - of God and Man. God is there, always ready to share his Son with us in the Spirit, ready to confirm and strengthen our repentance, ready to forgive us in response to our forgiveness of others. But we in our weakness can only move part way towards him. Yet God in his strength and in his mercy will always be there to meet us at that point that we in our weakness have managed to reach.  Amen.