Weekday

THE CHURCH AS
THE COMMUNITY OF PARDON
From “Seasons of Celebration” by Thomas Merton 5
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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.

5
pp. 225-230.