James Kuchiner, at Mere Comments, reports that in the tradition of the Eastern Orthodox Great Lent "begins with congregants asking forgiveness of each other during the Sunday evening vespers."
Beggars all, for the gift of a clear conscience. Moving from person to person, bowing, "Forgive me, a sinner." The exchange can be daunting, but reciprocity pulls the sting.
This Vespers is regarded as provision for the journey across the sea of Lenten observation. As the Sufis say,
Who can make any progress at all, carrying a grudge like a camel?
Higher stakes here.
Fr. Andrea Santoro was killed February 5 while kneeling and praying in his Santa Maria Church in Trabzon, a city of 200,000 situated on the Black Sea. His killer, 16-year-old high school student Ouzhan Akdin, yelled “Allahu akbar” or “Allah is great” after firing two rounds from a nine millimetre handgun into Fr. Santoro’s back.
Forgiveness melts a shamed father's heart.
A mother's martyred priest-son is still a dead child. It helps to have a considered frame of belief and practice in which forgiveness is both imperative and plausible because a loving if inscrutable Providence never entirely drops the reins of ultimate goodness.
A recent tangential comment at YARGB coincidentally points to what may be a hard demand for reciprocal forgiveness in taboo and roped-off arenas, lest the world implode. Combined with forgiveness for the foot-dragging of the obdurate and slow to forgive -- all of us, at one time or another.
Serious about actually getting to sincere forgiveness? The Work of Byron Katie can be a bullet train.
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