THE LORD'S PRAYER
AND
THE CREATION WEEK
By The Rev. Erik Sandstr m, Sr.
(Lesson 7)
7. And Forgive
Us Our Debts
There is nothing purely passive
in spiritual life. Indeed the very fact that we speak of spiritual life implies
that there is no standing still, no pausing, but a steady flow of those things
that make us live; for, obviously, life cannot stop. Hence we pass along from
affection to affection, and from thought to thought.
Yet it is commonly held that
forgiveness is something that may enter into our existence without any activity
on our part. If we ask it of the Lord Himself, we suppose that. He may grant our
petition simply by changing His attitude of mind toward us: from having been
displeased He would agree to forgive and forget, and so we would be spared the
punishment otherwise held in readiness for us. This having been the persuasion
of the churches for many ages, the ruling idea of forgiveness in the world,
whether asked of God or of the neighbor, has become a very superficial one. A
man asking his fellow s pardon is apt to mean nothing more than Please do not
be angry with me. It is a little better, of course, if there is also a clear
admission of having done wrong. But, unfortunately, it is not usual for such an
admission to be allowed to stand by itself: there is usually much modification
and covering up to protect the prestige of the offender, suggesting that he has
really done no wrong, or meant no wrong at all, and that generally he is a
person of inviolable integrity. Nevertheless, if there is a sincere and humble
admission of wrongdoing, then the hope for genuine forgiveness is that much more
sustained. But still more is this the case if the person who is aware of having
committed an offense amends his ways with uprightness and steadfastness of
heart.
It ought to be self-evident and
indisputable: first, that real and essential wrongs are being committed by us
from time to time, and that we do entertain certain ideas which are either
erroneous for lack of better information or downright rebellious; second, that
all these things spring from a will that is turned in upon itself instead of
being open to the Lord and the neighbor; third, that forgiveness without a
change in the nature of the mind to be forgiven would be self-contradictory,
since it would be like saying, Please forgive me, but I most certainly intend
to do it again! Hence it appears that there can be no forgiveness without
repentance and a change of life.
This, however, is said strictly
with regard to the offender. The picture is complete only when the attitude of
the other party, the forgiver, is considered at the same time. Inmostly, that
party is always the Lord; for we cannot do wrong to our neighbor without also
disturbing the order of life, that is, without going counter to the Divine
influx. But the Lord forgives constantly, if by forgiveness is meant willingness
and readiness to pardon, thus clemency, mercy and love. The Lord knows no anger,
still less any spirit of revenge. The thought that the Divine justice can be
satisfied only by suffering in proportion to the offense is an utter falsity and
a profane perversion of the truth of mercy. If it were possible, the Lord in His
infinite compassion would draw all, evil and good alike, to Himself. For the
love of God approaches and extends not only to good persons and good things but
also to evil persons and evil things; consequently not only to persons and
things in heaven, but also to those in hell; thus not only to Michael and
Gabriel, but also to the devil and Satan; for God is everywhere, and from
eternity to eternity the same. He says also: He maketh His sun to rise on the
evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust (Matt. 5:
45) (TCR 43: 2).
Such being the nature of the
Divine love and forgiveness, man is called upon to act in the image and likeness
thereof. When Peter came to his Master, and said, Lord, how oft shall my
brother sin against me, and I forgive him? until seven times? there was only
one possible answer: Have a heart of mercy, a heart full of forgiveness; forgive
without end, without numbering the times; or, in the Lord s own words: I say
not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven (Matthew 18:
21, 22). Seven, and also seventy, signify what is holy and celestial (AC
433), for the Lord rested on the seventh day, the celestial day, of creation.
Hence to forgive until seventy times seven is to forgive from the Lord, in a
celestial state of mind, which is a state of love and charity.
These are the two sides of the
picture. What has confused the issue so much is that they have been mistaken for
one another. The sinner, having heard of the great mercy of God, has been apt to
forget the nature of his sin, viewing forgiveness only from the aspect of the
forgiver. Hence the common belief in the effectiveness of deathbed repentance.
Or else he has allowed himself to be seized with fear at the thought of the
magnitude of his sin and the severe punishment prescribed in the Word lot the
impenitent: to be shaken at the alleged wrath of God and strangely oblivious to
His infinite mercy. There can be little doubt that this is the unhealthy and
stagnant self-awareness of sin that gave birth to reliance on the vicarious
sacrifices of atonement in the Jewish Church turned to acts of obedience by
Divine ordinances concerning them and in the Christian era to the man-made
doctrine of an innocent Divine Son appeasing the wrath of Almighty God on behalf
of sinful mankind. There has been all this confusion because the aspect of the
sinner and that of the forgiver have not been seen distinctly, or brought
together under a unifying view.
The truth stands clear only if
the idea of inertness is rooted out of the concept of forgiveness. It is true
that the Lord is all merciful, and it is true also that the evil of man causes
separation from Him; but these things are true together, not apart from each
other. The Writings give unequivocal teaching in regard to both these aspects.
In reference to the Lord s loving desire to forgive all we read: The Lord
continually excuses, and continually forgives, for He continually feels
compassion (AC 8573; 2); and in respect to the actual reception of forgiveness
through removal of evil it is said: Repentance is the first essential of the
church, and as far as a man repents, his sins are removed, and as far as they
are removed, they are remitted (TCR 510). The two aspects are also dealt with
together as follows: When sins have been removed they have also been remitted:
for repentance precedes remission, and without repentance there is no remission;
wherefore the Lord commanded the disciples to preach repentance for the
remission of sins (Luke 24: 47) . . . . The Lord remits the sins of all; He does
not accuse and impute; but yet He cannot take them away, except according to the
laws of His Divine Providence (DP 280). And again: The Lord forgives everyone
his sins, because He is mercy itself. Nevertheless they are not thereby forgiven
unless the man performs serious repentance, and desists from evils, and
afterwards lives a life of faith and charity, and this even to the end of his
life (AC 9014: 3). The total view, then, is that the forgiver holds His mercy
in constant readiness, and that the offender is to make room for that mercy by
removing the evils that stand in its way; and it is abundantly clear that these
two merge in the act of forgiveness, which is the influx and reception of mercy.
But at this point it may be
asked why so much of repentance is involved in this fifth petition of the Lord s
Prayer Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors when we met with
the doctrine of repentance in the third petition Thy will be done, as in heaven
so upon the earth and again in the fourth petition, Give us this day our daily
bread. The reason, however, is that repentance is progressive. In general, the
following distinct steps are discerned: A man s examining himself, recognizing
and acknowledging his sins, owning that he is guilty of them, confessing them
before the Lord, imploring help and power to resist them, and then desisting
from them and leading a new life (TCR 567: 5). Therefore, if the initial states
in preparation for acts of repentance be included in the general view, the whole
of the sacred prayer is seen to deal with that subject from beginning to end.
Universally regarded, the burden of the Lord s Prayer is one; yet again we meet
with the two aspects. They are: the removal of evil, and this for the
sake of reception of the Lord.
The emphasis in this regard is
seen if we reflect on the continuation of the passage quoted above (AC 9014: 3).
The words, and afterwards lives a life of faith and charity, and this even to
the end of his life, are followed by: When this is done, the man receives from
the Lord spiritual life, which is called new life. When from this new life the
man views the evils of his former life, and turns away from them, and regards
them with horror, then for the first time are the evils forgiven, for
then the man is held in truths and goods by the Lord, and is withheld from
evils. [Italics added.] Still more is the force of this doctrine perceived when
it is known, as stated elsewhere. that sins are removed by means of faith
and love from the Lord. For in so far as the good of love and of
faith enters, or, what is the same thing, so far as heaven enters, so for
sins are removed, that is, so far hell is removed; both that which is within man
and that which is without him (AC 9938). [Italics added.]
This is a much needed lesson,
for it is commonly held that repentance consists in being sorry for past errors.
Let us impress thoroughly upon our minds, therefore, that repentance is not
complete until there is a new life from the Lord, that is, a new love and faith.
This is the truly active and constructive part of repentance, and is what makes
that long, progressive and most crucial act of life so different from the
passive contrition, expressed with hanging hands, which is mistakenly called by
the same name. This is why we are not taught just to say. Forgive us our
debts, but to add as we also forgive our debtors. Indeed, as if to make the
point inescapable, the Lord sums up the entire prayer, having concluded it, by
saving . For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also
forgive you: but if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your
Father forgive your trespasses (Matthew 6: 14, 15). For the same reason we
also have the responses so frequently added to the Lord s Prayer in our services
and classes, when the priest and the people say alternately, O Lord, forgive us
our trespasses, As we forgive those who trespass against us. These words are
potent with meaning, for only the mind that forgives truly, justly and
mercifully is itself capable of receiving forgiveness. It is the forgiving state
that forgiven. Therefore the Lord taught concerning the woman who began to wash
His feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed
His feet, and anointed them with the ointment, saying: Her sins, which are
many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same
loveth little (Luke 7: 38, 47). And again He said: For with the same measure
that ye mete withal it shall be measured unto you again (Luke 6: 38).
Thus it now appears why the
fifth petition in the Lord s Prayer answers to the fifth day of creation. On
that day the first living creatures were made: the lower forms, the creeping
things of the sea and the birds of the sky; not the quadrupeds, still less man,
yet creatures capable of moving by themselves and thus portraying on their plane
the parallel of knowledges and faith in the natural mind of man being animated
by descending and regenerating spiritual life. That is forgiveness, or the
beginning of it; for man has yet to pass through temptations as to the will in
order that he may be purified inmostly.
That purification is as it were contained prophetically in
the first words of the prayer and of the creation week. Man says, Our Father,
and thus turns his mind to the Lord for leadership, support and nourishment: the
Lord says, Let there be light, and
the covenant between God and man has commenced. Within that covenant all things
can be, and also are, forgiven: for once the Lord has been allowed into the mind
of man, to begin there His creative work, He also completes that work. He does
make a new will, though according to reception by man.
It follows from this that there
is only one state with man that cannot be forgiven the state that desires no
forgiveness. This is the state that either refuses to enter into the covenant,
or, worse still, breaks it having once entered into it. In either case there is
sin against the Holy Spirit a denial of the Divinity of the Lord and the
holiness of His Word. The deliberate refusal to be led involves both these
denials, for men cannot be led by God save by His Divine Human as it appears in
books inspired by His Holy Spirit (Can. HS 5: 8). But it follows also that all
creative forgiveness is from the Divine Human through the Word; for His Word,
though fixed ultimately in Divine revelation, is, interiorly regarded, the very
blood of creation.
CONFIRMATION OF TRUTH
Nothing but good confirms a
man in regard to what is truth. Truth indeed teaches what good is, but without
perception; whereas good teaches what truth is from perception (Arcana
Coelestia 3463: 2).
TO CONTINUE :
Beginning -
Lesson - 2 -
Lesson - 3 -
Lesson - 4 -
Lesson - 5 -
Lesson - 6 -
Lesson - 8 -
Lesson - 9 -
Lesson 10 -
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