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   From: hayesstw@telkomsa.net   
      
   In the Orthodox Church this coming Sunday is called Cheesefare Sunday --   
   the equivalent of the Western Mardi Gras, Shrove Tuesday, or Pancake Day.   
   It is the last day before Lent begins.   
      
   It is also called "Forgiveness Sunday", because Lent actually begins in   
   the middle of Vespers, when the altar frontals and vestments are changed   
   from white to purple, and at the end of Vespers all the members of the   
   congregation prostrate themselves before one another, asking for   
   forgiveness, and receiving forgiveness.   
      
   So perhaps this essay by C.S. Lewis is appropriate for this time.   
      
   Essay on Forgiveness by C. S. Lewis   
      
   We say a great many things in church (and out of church too) without   
   thinking of what we are saying. For instance, we say in the Creed " I   
   believe in the forgiveness of sins." I had been saying it for several   
   years before I asked myself why it was in the Creed. At first sight it   
   seems hardly worth putting in. "If one is a Christian," I thought " of   
   course one believes in the forgiveness of sins. It goes without saying."   
   But the people who compiled the Creed apparently thought that this was a   
   part of our belief which we needed to be reminded of every time we went to   
   church. And I have begun to see that, as far as I am concerned, they were   
   right. To believe in the forgiveness of sins is not so easy as I thought.   
   Real belief in it is the sort of thing that easily slips away if we don't   
   keep on polishing it up.   
      
   We believe that God forgives us our sins; but also that He will not do so   
   unless we forgive other people their sins against us. There is no doubt   
   about the second part of this statement. It is in the Lord's Prayer, it   
   was emphatically stated by our Lord. If you don't forgive you will not be   
   forgiven. No exceptions to it. He doesn't say that we are to forgive other   
   people's sins, provided they are not too frightful, or provided there are   
   extenuating circumstances, or anything of that sort. We are to forgive   
   them all, however spiteful, however mean, however often they are repeated.   
   If we don't we shall be forgiven none of our own.   
      
   Now it seems to me that we often make a mistake both about God's   
   forgiveness of our sins and about the forgiveness we are told to offer to   
   other people's sins. Take it first about God's forgiveness, I find that   
   when I think I am asking God to forgive me I am often in reality (unless I   
   watch myself very carefully) asking Him to do something quite different. I   
   am asking him not to forgive me but to excuse me. But there is all the   
   difference in the world between forgiving and excusing. Forgiveness says,   
   "Yes, you have done this thing, but I accept your apology; I will never   
   hold it against you and everything between us two will be exactly as it   
   was before." If one was not really to blame then there is nothing to   
   forgive. In that sense forgiveness and excusing are almost opposites. Of   
   course, in dozens of cases, either between God and man, or between one man   
   and another, there may be a mixture of the two. Part of what at first   
   seemed to be the sins turns out to be really nobody's fault and is   
   excused; the bit that is left over is forgiven. If you had a perfect   
   excuse, you would not need forgiveness; if the whole of your actions needs   
   forgiveness, then there was no excuse for it. But the trouble is that what   
   we call "asking God's forgiveness" very often really consists in asking   
   God to accept our excuses. What leads us into this mistake is the fact   
   that there usually is some amount of excuse, some "extenuating   
   circumstances." We are so very anxious to point these things out to God   
   (and to ourselves) that we are apt to forget the very important thing;   
   that is, the bit left over, the bit which excuses don't cover, the bit   
   which is inexcusable but not, thank God, unforgivable. And if we forget   
   this, we shall go away imagining that we have repented and been forgiven   
   when all that has really happened is that we have satisfied ourselves   
   without own excuses. They may be very bad excuses; we are all too easily   
   satisfied about ourselves.   
      
   There are two remedies for this danger. One is to remember that God knows   
   all the real excuses very much better than we do. If there are real   
   "extenuating circumstances" there is no fear that He will overlook them.   
   Often He must know many excuses that we have never even thought of, and   
   therefore humble souls will, after death, have the delightful surprise of   
   discovering that on certain occasions they sinned much less than they   
   thought. All the real excusing He will do. What we have got to take to Him   
   is the inexcusable bit, the sin. We are only wasting our time talking   
   about all the parts which can (we think) be excused. When you go to a Dr.   
   you show him the bit of you that is wrong - say, a broken arm. It would be   
   a mere waste of time to keep on explaining that your legs and throat and   
   eyes are all right. You may be mistaken in thinking so, and anyway, if   
   they are really right, the doctor will know that.   
      
   The second remedy is really and truly to believe in the forgiveness of   
   sins. A great deal of our anxiety to make excuses comes from not really   
   believing in it, from thinking that God will not take us to Himself again   
   unless He is satisfied that some sort of case can be made out in our   
   favor. But that is not forgiveness at all. Real forgiveness means looking   
   steadily at the sin, the sin that is left over without any excuse, after   
   all allowances have been made, and seeing it in all its horror, dirt,   
   meanness, and malice, and nevertheless being wholly reconciled to the man   
   who has done it.   
      
   When it comes to a question of our forgiving other people, it is partly   
   the same and partly different. It is the same because, here also forgiving   
   does not mean excusing. Many people seem to think it does. They think that   
   if you ask them to forgive someone who has cheated or bullied them you are   
   trying to make out that there was really no cheating or bullying. But if   
   that were so, there would be nothing to forgive. (This doesn't mean that   
   you must necessarily believe his next promise. It does mean that you must   
   make every effort to kill every taste of resentment in your own heart -   
   every wish to humiliate or hurt him or to pay him out.) The difference   
   between this situation and the one in which you are asking God's   
   forgiveness is this. In our own case we accept excuses too easily, in   
   other people's we do not accept them easily enough. As regards my own sins   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)