Anything can be forgiven. There is no wrong someone does to us that we cannot forgive.`God give me to see my own sins and not to condemn my brother` says saint Ephrem the Syrian in his prayer.
I’m sure you’ve noticed too that unfortunately it is more handy fr ourselves to see the mistakes of the others than our own but you should know that any thought turned into that direction makes a crack in the wall of the stronghold and the more time goes by the more it enlarges and at a certain moment the stronghold will be torn down.
Any thought of judgment wipes out the grace of God that may descend over us. There is only one way for us to get back the grace of God…beginning with the forgiving of our brother.
Anything can be forgiven. There is no wrong someone does to us that we cannot forgive.`That is why we realize that our beginning was made under some demonic auspices: Adam loses heaven, falls from it and is heading for hell. Christ, the new Adam makes this way back and the way culminates on Golgotha, where after a life filled with pain, he forgives everything to everybody. In the moment we forgive, the easier and the more we forgive, the world changes little by little and this change is in fact a work of the divine grace, it is not a mere ethical or psychological matter that brings you peace and reconciliation with yourself, but brings you reconciliation with God as well. It is the beginning of your own deification and of those around you. Saint Seraphim of Sarov states it: `When you begin seeking God and Hs grace descends upon you, others dozens of people will get sanctified around you.
You should know that this process is not a simple rule to be accomplished, it is a profound work done by God so that the world may sanctify itself, may change itself. This change won’t happen through intellectual discussions but by personal example.
By each one of your forgiving the world starts to change, be the first to forgive, don’t wait this thing from the other one.
Nothing divides people harder than unforgiving and judgment. From these begin all the bad things among people, know that.
You see, when a row bursts we can never find out exactly who started it, from whom it started but we can do one thing, to be those who put an end to it.
These are simple things but in the Christian world they are essential :
`God, give me to see my own mistakes !` `Give me to be able to control my thoughts and my heart and not to try to dominate the others!
We aim to be Christians, we begin walking on this way but we are lamentable many times, because these fundamental things, FORGIVENESS, UNCONDEMNING are taken out at the limit of our Christian life.
Think on what are focused so many of our confessions…on the mistakes of the other one. We justify our mistakes by the mistakes of the other. But here, where you justify your mistakes, your wickedness by the infirmities of the other one, God doesn’t intervene anymore, He s far away.
Forgiveness is the beginning of our spiritual life. To be Christian it doesn’t mean to fly in the air, to fast a long time, to make interminable prostrations but first of all to forgive. FORGIVE TO BE FORGIVEN!
If Adam didn’t forgive Eve and Eve didn’t forgive the snake and they were all of them condemned, Christ forgives everyone: God, forgive them because they do not know what they are doing!
You realize what a divine work is in a man who doesn’t see anything wrong in his brother and even if that is obvious he says like Christ `God forgive him because he doesn’t know what he is doing.`
A man sees all the time the wickedness of the other one, he compares himself all the time with his brother, he considers the other guilty and not himself but if the man puts God in front of himself and he begins walking on this way full of humility, the things change radically in his soul and in the souls of the others.
God won’t judge us for how long we didn’t eat and didn’t drink at all, no, the accent doesn’t fall on such things, they only help us, but on how much we could forgive and love the man who is in front of us, understanding that his falls are not bigger than ours. Doing this thing, we accomplish the word of Christ who says:
For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the Gospel will find it.
Forgive easily and you will see what big changes will happen into your soul and of those around you and you will see how the grace and peace of God will surround you.
Priest Visarion Alexa
