Mr joseph vempeny Posted on : 28/01/2008 05:17:03

Obstacles

Joseph Vempeny

Life is an obstacle race. Whatever the goal you wish to follow, there are bound to be obstacles. Those who persevere and overcome these obstacles are the successful ones. Spiritual life is no exception.

Two thousand years ago was opened the gate to ‘heaven on earth’ or the kingdom of God. The path that leads to this paradise is a pleasing and beautiful one. All we have to do is to ‘live in love’. What can be more attractive than a life in love? But is it as simple as that? Well, as in all cases there are obstacles. The chief obstacle in leading a life of pure, selfless, universal love is bitterness. To overcome this impediment, to cleanse our heart of bitterness, the only way is forgiveness. There are three dimensions to forgiveness that can help us attain a state of pure love.

The most familiar one is forgiving those who have hurt us. We must be able to say, “Father forgive them for they do not know what they do”. We must remember the words, “If you don’t forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins”. After forgiving them from your heart, after asking the Lord to forgive them, after praying for them, we must try and make friends with them. This could be quite helpful in overcoming some of the hurdles on our path to a heaven here and hereafter.

Even those of us who are willing to forgive our personal enemies do not forgive, or are not aware of the need to forgive, those who hurt other people. We tend to hate people just because hey have hurt some one else. ‘My mother has been very good to me; but very bad to my wife. How can I forgive her?’ is one attitude. Any number of similar attitudes can be cited. We often behave like those who brought to Jesus the woman caught in adultery. We strongly feel that these should be punished. We judge others instead of judging ourselves. Before throwing the stone we must make sure we are perfect, without any blemish. “Judge not that you may not be judged”. Let us try to remember that ‘to err is human; to forgive is divine’.

We find it easy to list those who have hurt us. But do we try to list those whom we have hurt? It would be a good thing to do. Once we identify those who had been hurt by us we have to approach them personally, confess our faults and ask for forgiveness. This is something most of us find difficult as it appears humiliating and demeaning. But in reality this is not humiliating but ennobling. Achieving such reconciliation is something that we can be proud of. Any amount of prayer, sacraments or sacrifices may not help you if you fail to make peace with your neighbour. In such cases, confessing to a priest and asking God’s pardon won’t have the same effect. Jesus tells us that we must get reconciled to those whom we have hurt before trying to be reconciled to God. (Mt. 5: 23, 24)

Once this three-way forgiveness in achieved we shall be free of bitterness – bitterness in us towards others and from others to us. In the absence of bitterness life becomes sweet and we can enjoy a life of ‘pure’ love. That is heaven because God is love.