A Penitent Blogger
What to do about that sinner?
Today’s Gospel is the Gospel pre-selected for the Thursday of the 24th week of Ordinary Time, not for today’s memorial in honor of Cornelius and Cyprian. Even so, it resonates wonderfully with the lives and the teaching of these two saints.
The great theological problem of their time was the question of what to do with Christians who have apostatized by sacrificing to pagan idols (often under duress) and who later seek to return to the Church. This problem was made all the more difficult because the bloody persecution of Christians was still in full force. Many Christians were being slaughtered for their refusal to make pagan sacrifices: even Cornelius the Pope and Cyprian the bishop would die thus at the hands of the Roman Empire.
Some Christians harbored great anger toward the apostates, mindful of the suffering of those who had stood fast and of St. Paul’s strong words about those who fall away after embracing Christ, and said the apostates could not be forgiven. Others felt that mercy must be shown to all sinners who repent, and that even the most egregious apostates could be readmitted to communion with little concern.
Cornelius and Cyprian advocated a middle course: one that dealt seriously with the relative gravity of the sin and yet was always directed toward mercy and forgiveness.
Today’s Gospel has many of the elements of this ancient controversy: the self-righteous who think some people are unforgivable, the sinner performing acts of penitence and love, and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who brings forgiveness and truth.
How do we treat sinners? How do we deal with Christians “who have fallen yet strive to rise again?” Do we treat them as practically unforgivable? Or do we ignore the real evil of sin by throwing around some “feel good” theology?
We are all sinners. To some extent, all of us are in a spiral of falling and (by God’s grace) rising again.
We cannot let the evil of sin and its consequences be ignored, but neither can we -- nor should we -- obstruct the infinite mercy of God (upon which each one of us so desperately depends).
Be real. Be faithful. Be honest. Be merciful.
The great theological problem of their time was the question of what to do with Christians who have apostatized by sacrificing to pagan idols (often under duress) and who later seek to return to the Church. This problem was made all the more difficult because the bloody persecution of Christians was still in full force. Many Christians were being slaughtered for their refusal to make pagan sacrifices: even Cornelius the Pope and Cyprian the bishop would die thus at the hands of the Roman Empire.
Some Christians harbored great anger toward the apostates, mindful of the suffering of those who had stood fast and of St. Paul’s strong words about those who fall away after embracing Christ, and said the apostates could not be forgiven. Others felt that mercy must be shown to all sinners who repent, and that even the most egregious apostates could be readmitted to communion with little concern.
Cornelius and Cyprian advocated a middle course: one that dealt seriously with the relative gravity of the sin and yet was always directed toward mercy and forgiveness.
Today’s Gospel has many of the elements of this ancient controversy: the self-righteous who think some people are unforgivable, the sinner performing acts of penitence and love, and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who brings forgiveness and truth.
How do we treat sinners? How do we deal with Christians “who have fallen yet strive to rise again?” Do we treat them as practically unforgivable? Or do we ignore the real evil of sin by throwing around some “feel good” theology?
We are all sinners. To some extent, all of us are in a spiral of falling and (by God’s grace) rising again.
We cannot let the evil of sin and its consequences be ignored, but neither can we -- nor should we -- obstruct the infinite mercy of God (upon which each one of us so desperately depends).
Be real. Be faithful. Be honest. Be merciful.
posted by Penitens | 2:56 PM
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