Conference 5: Fait Accompli

According to Father Brendan Byrne SJ, forgiveness is a fait accompli in the Bible.

Perhaps we take it for granted. Maybe we do not realise our need for it. However, forgiveness is foundational to our spiritual life and we need to revisit it here – right in the middle of this retreat.

Byrne relies on 2 Corinthians 5:13-21 and then returns to the Gospel of Matthew.

In the second letter to the Corinthians, Paul is being criticised for not being ecstatic enough. Apparently, certain religious figures at the time were quite ecstatic in their presentation of their message. Paul clarifies the matter:

For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God. If we are in our right mind, it is for you (2 Cor. 5:13). 

There is a place for ecstatic expression when one is communing with God. No doubt about it. In personal and communal prayer we can experience being ‘beside ourselves.’

Yet, when we deal with each other, we must be reasonable and this, more than ecstatic displays, will help build community. We need people, especially leaders, to be in their ‘right mind.’

Paul demonstrates his ‘right mind’ – relying on the fait accompli – to argue his point with the Corinthians:

For the love of Christ urges us on (‘overwhelms us’), because we are convinced that one has died for all and therefore all have died.

And he died for all, so that those who live may live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them (2 Cor. 5:15). 

Having received the love of Christ, believers become ‘ambassadors for Christ.’ The love of Christ overwhelms and unites:

So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

God made Jesus who knew no sin into sin for our sakes, so that in him we might become righteousness of God (2 Cor. 5:20-22).

In our spiritual tradition, sin is often referred to as the mysterium iniquitatis – the mystery of iniquity:

If sin can be defined as alienation from God, others and self, then righteousness means right relationship with God, others and self.

God takes the initiative. He saves us, not as we might be, but as we are. He comes to us as sinners. The fait accompli entails the ‘sinless one becoming sin’ – for us.

Armed with this helpful insight, we return to Matthew and we are given a little ‘homework.’ 

We read the Call of Matthew (Matthew 9:9-13) and the Plucking of Corn on the Sabbath (Matthew 12: 1-8).  We notice the common text from Hosea 6:6:

For I desire mercy and not sacrifice,

The knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

Jesus encounters the Pharisees, a group characterised not by righteousness, but by self-righteousness:

The Pharisees are prone to condemning others, precisely because they have not dealt with their own sinfulness. 

Father Patrick O’Sullivan – author of ‘It Sure Beats Selling Cardigans’ (1995) is quoted. It is from a letter he wrote to the province of the Australian Jesuits in 1977.

The gist of the passage is this: ‘If I cannot experience and acknowledge my own sinfulness, then I have little chance of grasping the forgiveness offered by Jesus.’

Sullivan’s perceptive and luminous insight needs no commentary, just thoughtful reading. Right here, in the heart of Lent, we are taken back to basics:

One of the things that happens, when we give ourselves to prayer, is that we get to know ourselves very well.

The first thing we get to know and experience is our own sinfulness. Now that is terribly important, to accept our own sinfulness, in the knowledge that over and above our sinfulness, God is greater than our hearts.

It is so terribly important for ordinary living and the service of people that we accept our own sinfulness, because if we do not accept our own sinfulness, we will become very much aware of the sinfulness of other people, and if we do not accept our own sinfulness we will condemn other people for theirs.

I think there are all sorts of ways in which we see this. For example, sometimes you hear a person say, ‘I have lost all confidence in the church.’ 

They might be talking in terms of a priest, or a Bishop, or even the Pope, and they will say, ‘Look how he has done this or that, I have no confidence in him, no confidence in the church anymore.’

What is actually going on when we hear people talk like that?

I think the person who talks like that does not really accept their own frailty and sinfulness, and because they haven’t accepted their own sinfulness, they reject other people in their sinfulness.

They cannot accept the ambiguity, the frailty, the sinfulness of the organisation, so rather than loving it and identifying with it, they stand apart and reject it.

When you are proud, you think you love. When you have felt shame, you know you do. 

Then you can see your own sinfulness in the sinfulness of other people, and you can forgive because you know you have been forgiven.

Amen.

Q. Have I accepted God‘s mercy and forgiveness in my own sinful state at sufficient depth to find peace?