At the Crossroads of Sin, Forgiveness, and Mercy

Regularity and routine fill our lives with ease and comfort. We’re content to wake up each day, knowing what it will bring. It’s no wonder then that the prayer we recite the most regularly during Mass, The Our Father, is spoken in monotone voices. We don’t give much thought to it. We simply drone out the words that we’ve most likely had drilled into our heads since childhood. Yet during this Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy, we are given reason to pause: “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

This profound line of The Our Father reminds us strongly of the axiom of “the golden rule” to do unto others as we would have them do unto ourselves. Pope Francis himself is calling “all Catholics to be profound witnesses to mercy and to ‘find the joy rediscovering and rendering fruitful God's mercy, with which we are all called to give comfort to every man and every woman of our time’ during this Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy (YearofMercy.org).”

Often we do not pause to truly forgive others or even to ask for forgiveness for our own mistakes. Instead we go along with the easier and more comfortable options of holding onto grudges or committing the same sins over and over again. On one level it is easiest to harbor feelings of anger or to lash out in a passive-aggressive manner at those who have hurt us: parents who divorce after years of marriage; friends who share a private story they swore never to tell; coworkers who use us as a scapegoat for their own wrongdoings.... On another level, we ourselves may freely commit sins. In fact, we may commit the same sins repeatedly and without thought, thinking nothing of it: longing after another’s spouse; gossiping behind our friends’ backs; telling little lies at work. The sins of others and our own sins therefore can become so deeply seeded that we neglect our souls and fail to realize that our daily thoughts and actions have become more than just bad habits. Instead we have chosen ease and have ceased to reflect on and recognize right and wrong.

Rather than calling us to moral greatness, the secular world surrounding us calls us to respect an individualistic and self-driven culture. It tells us to "do you." This lifestlye lacks the balance between cognizance and humility that is needed to recognize mistakes and to seek forgiveness for sins. We have been holding on to that which resembles God’s caritas less and less. How then do we escape from this dark monotony, this regularity and routine of sin and sinning without recognition or forgiveness?

In the words of our most regularly recited prayer, we must humble ourselves by recognizing and asking Our Father, the being who loves us and knows us the most, to forgive us for our mistakes. His love is unconditional. When we ask for forgiveness from Him, we ask for our mistakes and the consequences of our thoughts, words, and actions to be forgotten. What He then gives us is not what we deserve, but incredible mercy unlike anything we have ever experienced.

God challenges us to be and act in His image and likeness at all times, but most especially when it comes to His love and mercy. It’s not easy to break out of bad habits which may have become comforting in their regularity. But at the crossroads of sin, forgiveness, and mercy during this Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, it is especially what we are being called to do.