Vigils Reading

A COMMUNITY OF PARDON

From “Seasons of Celebration” by Thomas Merton

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Let us remember especially that the Church is a community of pardon. All

who have entered the common life of the body of Christ have done so by the way

of pardon. And they remain in the Body of Christ only through pardon, through

the mystery of Christ: not only of Christ, as Head, but also of Christ in His

members.

The mercy and pardon of Christ must be continually at work in all the

members and through all the members of the Mystical Body. This is what makes

the Church truly a Mother: she gives life by gentleness, understanding, love and

pardon. She forgives sins, that is to say she heals separations. Sin is separation

from God, and from those who love God. Sin is a cutting off from life. It is a

spiritual death and pardon is the restoration of life.

The Spirit by which the Church lives is the Spirit of love, of unity. Unity

can be preserved or restored only by understanding, acceptance and pardon.

The Church is a body of people who know they are forgiven and who forgive

repeatedly because they are themselves forgiven repeatedly.

The Church is then not so much a body of people who are pure and never

offend, but of those who, in their weakness and frailty, frequently err and

offend, but who have received from God the power to forgive one another in His

name. They possess the Holy Spirit and they can give the Holy Spirit in some

sense, to one another. The Holy Spirit Himself moves them to do this, and acts

in them, to save others.

We, then, who form one body in Christ, share with one another the

message of Christ’s divine truth, we share His word, we share His worship, we

share His love, we share His Spirit.

In building a community of pardon which is the temple of God, we have to

recognize that no one of us is complete, self-sufficient, perfectly holy in himself.

No one can rest in one’s own virtues and interior life. We do not live for

ourselves alone. To live for oneself alone is to die. We grow and flourish in our

own lives in so far as we live for others and through others. What we ourselves

lack God has given them. They must complete us where we are deficient.

Often the good that is given us by God is given us only to be shared with

another. If God sees that we will not pardon and will not be open, that we will

not share, then the good is not given us. But to the one in whom there is the

greatest readiness to share with all, most is given. The greatest of gifts then is

this openness, this love, this readiness to accept and to pardon and to share with

others, in the Spirit of Christ. If we are open we will not only offer pardon, but

will not disdain to seek it and recognize our own desperate need of it.