You do not have to
be good before God will love you; you do not have to repent before you will be
absolved by God. It is all the other way around. If you are good, it is because
God’s love has already made you so; if you want to be forgiven, that is because
God is forgiving you.’
(Extract from: http://novenas.sacredspace.ie/shnovena5)
As I prayed, I
realised that the loving forgiveness of God is always streaming towards me and
you, and all of humanity. This being so, as I open my heart to receive this
forgiveness, this gift enters and wants to push out the unforgiveness,
non-forgiveness, hurt and resentment I am holding onto, sometimes unknowingly,
in recesses of my being. This may be why we cannot experience being forgiven whilst we withhold
forgiveness from those who have wronged us. The nature of love is to heal as
it finds hurt in us. Love gently says, 'Let go. Trust Me with the offending
party.' Better to be filled with love and forgiveness than the putrid ferment
of bitterness and hate or resentment which corrodes the soul, and our
relationships, very life and affects our physical health too.
To make room in ourselves for joy and love, we need to pull up the plug that keeps the rot in us. Love flows in and through us. The other stagnates and putrefies. Ugh!
In my imagination I am a child looking up at the refreshing shower falling on me and laughing and splashing with joy as the water gurgles around me. No longer obsessed with keeping the plug in and wallowing in the fetid water that should be washed away.
Which is it to be for you?
You are beautiful. Let the waters of forgiveness have their way.
