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Lenten Weekday
March 18
AS WE FORGIVE OUR DEBTORS
From a sermon by St Leo the Great 2
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Let us take refuge in the ever-present mercy of God, and so that we may
with becoming reverence celebrate the holy Pasch of the Lord, let all the faithful
seek to make holy their hearts. Let harshness give way to mildness, let wrath
grow gentle, forgive one another your offenses, and let him who seeks to be
forgiven be not himself a seeker of vengeance. For when we say Forgive us our
debts, as we also forgive our debtors, we bind ourselves in the most enduring
bonds unless we fulfill what we profess. And if the most sacred contract of this
prayer has not in every respect been fulfilled, let every person examine their
conscience, and gain the pardon of his own sins by forgiving those of others.
For when the Lord says: If you will forgive others their offences, your
heavenly Father will forgive you also your offenses, what He is here asking is
close to each one of us; for the sentence of the Judge will depend on the
clemency of the supplicant. For the Just and Merciful Receiver of the prayers of
men has laid it down that our own generosity is the measure of His fairness to
ourselves; so that He will not treat with strict justness those whom He finds not
eager for revenge. And generosity is becoming to kind and gentle souls. Nothing
is more fitting than that a person imitate his Maker, and that as best he can he
is a doer of the works of God. For when the hungry are fed, the naked clothed,
the sick assisted, are not the hands that minister but completing the help that
God gives, and is not the generosity of the giver also a gift from God?
He who has no need of a helper to perform His works of mercy, so orders
His own omnipotence that it by means of mortals that He comes to the aid of
mortals. And rightly do we give thanks to God for the ministers of that charity
whose works of mercy are seen in His servants. It was because of this the Lord
Himself said to His disciples: So let your light shine before others, that they
may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.
2 The Sunday Sermons of the Great Fathers – vol. 2 – Henry Regnery Co – Chicago – 1958 – pg
127.