The Power of Forgiveness

In the ancient Middle East every culture had laws. Hammurabi, a name you might remember from your fourth grade history, gave a set of laws that both stabilized and promulgated the standards he wanted to be kept in his kingdom. Now, until Hammurabi, laws were created as the fancy of the king and they could be changed by that king at any moment. Hammurabi made a giant leap when he bound both himself and hispeople to those 272 statutes that he inscribed in stone on a pillar more than 14 feet high for all the people to see. This was the first time in history the royal decree ceased to be arbitrary. Today this might seem strange to us as we, in the United States, are so aware of our laws and rights as citizens. But this was the first time in history that all of the people were allowed to know the laws under which they would be governed and judged.

Then, at least four hundred years later, Moses, who had led the Hebrew people out of slavery, gave his little band of wanderers another set of laws to live by. These laws were another great leap, this time into a new realm. For the laws of Moses did not originate from him, their leader, nor did they embody the mind of an earthly ruler. No, the laws that Moses gave the people, embodied the mind of God. These laws, from God through Moses, carved the Israelites into a society that was unique in that they were not adhering to the law of a human being but to the law of God. These laws are what we refer to as the 10 Commandments.

The Ten Commandments were meant to be more principles to live by, rather than minutely defined proscriptions to be followed. They were meant to shape a way of living, a lifestyle, an attitude of mind, a spirit of human community. They were meant to create a people, a people that could be recognized by all, as God's people, because of how they lived and treated one another and the things of their world.

The Ten Commandments were not made to be argued in a court of law. In fact, most of the items defined in the Commandments were not legally enforceable at all. How could you tell if someone remembered to keep Holy the Sabbath? How many times have we been made to look good by someone who reminded us of what we were to be doing? we never had to let on that we had forgotten. Or how could you tell if your neighbor had a strange God lurking in their hearts? Isn't that what we struggle with, the temptations that lurk within us?

The Ten Commandments received, by the people, as tablets from Moses were both "civil" laws as well as laws of the heart, not laws of the commonwealth. They were laws that were intended to lead to the fullness of life, not simply to the well-ordered life.

And then, a few thousand years late, we move to Jesus who simplifies things even further for us. He asks only two things of us: to love God with all of our heart and to love our neighbor as ourselves. And although having only two commandments may in some ways seem simple, they offer us, as humans, an immense challenge. It is so easy to have other things take first place in our lives and hearts, to put God on a back burner, even for a day. It is so easy to misjudge or maltreat our neighbor, because of what we see them doing or because of our own fears and prejudices. But these two commandments are what Jesus asks us to keep.

And so we, as a human race, have progressed in simplifying the 272 statutes of Hammurabi, to the 10 Commandments received from God by Moses, both of which were inscribed in stone, to the two great commandments of Jesus which he wants written only in our hearts.

These commandments call us to be more, to grow in love, to excel in self-sacrifice, to be noticed by our positive actions as children of God. We examine our hearts and actions in light of these two commandments. We ask ourselves how it is that we are living the commandments of Jesus.

Let me share an example of this law of the heart. You may all remember a famous picture from the Vietnam War. It was of nine-year-old Phan Thi Kim Phuc running naked down a road with her back on fire from napalm. The young soldier, John Plummer, who organized and participated in the air strike on the village of tang bang in 1972 was haunted by that Pulitzer Prize winning photo, which he saw shortly after the bombing raid.

Kim Phuc underwent plastic surgery, married, defected to Canada and became a spokesperson for UNESCO.

John Plummer returned home racked with guilt, divorced, turned to alcohol, and then met his second wife, who led him to God and eventually to serve as a minister. Plummer said he thought about Kim Phuc every day and wanted to tell her how sorry he was but could not summon the courage to contact her.

Then in 1996, Kim Phuc was the main speaker at a special service at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C. Plummer went to the observance and heard Kim Phuc say that if she met the pilot of the plane she would tell him she forgives him and that they cannot change the past but she would hope they both could work together to build the future.

Through friends, Plummer got the word to Phuc that the soldier she wanted to meet was there. "She saw my grief, my pain, my sorrow," Plummer wrote. "She held her arms to me and embraced me. All I could say was 'I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm sorry' over and over again. At the same time she was saying 'It's all right. It's all right. I forgive. I forgive.'" Kim Phuc and Rev. Plummer met many times after that and even worked together on a few projects. Kim Phuc, who lost two brothers in that 1972 bombing raid, now considers Plummer her brother. Plummer says, "She's the closest thing to a saint I ever met."

This woman lives the two commandments given us by Jesus. She places God first and is thus able to forgive. She embodies the forgiveness that God offers to each of us. It was Kim that had been violated, and it was Kim who spoke of the forgiveness that she wanted to offer.

For each of us, we know that it is God whose trust has been violated, whose love has been rejected, whose grace has been ignored. And it is God who is asking each of us to come home. All God wants to hear from us is "I'm sorry." Like Kim Phuc, God's arms are open and welcoming. In sacramental reconciliation we hear God say, "It's all right. I forgive. I forgive." Why would we ever continue to bear the burden of guilt when we can free ourselves and be forgiven."

This talk was originally given by Catherine Leary, SSJ, a pastoral minister, as part of a Christmas penance service.