Healing and Forgiveness All around Us

By Sr. Dorothy Scesny, PBVM

As we prepare for this season of Lent, our minds and hearts turn toward Calvary. We ask ourselves, "How can this Lent be different? How can I make it more meaningful?"

We spend so much time looking for ways to make our Lenten Journey one that will truly transform us. And we are indeed sincere in our quest.

Our God is a gentle God, a God of Compassion and Mercy, a God of Healing and Forgiveness. Our God knows the desires that are deep within us. Our God knows when we are full of joy and peace, and when we are in need.

Often times we are in need of forgiveness and healing and at times we need to be the one who will forgive and offer a healing touch or word to another.

The children preparing for the sacrament of Reconciliation are taught that this sacrament is not about 'me and my sinfulness', but rather about the 'merciful forgiveness of our loving God'. A God who invites us to extend to others that same measure of forgiveness that is extended to us in this sacrament of reconciliation.

The only tangible experience children have of God's Forgiveness and Healing is what they see and experience all around them, everyday. How do we help them understand what they see and hear on the TV, in the newspapers, on the field, and on the playground? How will they grow in their understanding of a compassionate, gentle, healing and forgiving God in an environment of violence, where the only solution to conflicts are might and war?

The terrible events surrounding us continue to show us the high human toll of arrogance, misdirected power, and unbridled wealth-on both sides of the question. Do you agree that perhaps both we and the world we live in are sorely in need of receiving and giving God's Healing and Forgiveness?

Our world today needs followers of Christ, willing to take risks, make sacrifices, and bear witness to unwelcome truths so that the world of our children will be a better one. Do we have the daring and the commitment necessary to take up this challenge? This Lent is an appropriate time for all of us to reflect on what it means to be a Christian, a follower of Jesus Christ, the Lord of Life!

Sr. Dorothy is Director of Parish Faith Formation