Forgive Us Our Trespasses
As We Forgive Those Who Trespass Against Us.
The one who, according to the
first contemplative reading of the preceding words, seeks in the prayer
according to present history of which we said that "this day" is the
symbol, the incorruptible bread of wisdom of which the transgression in
the beginning deprived us (as he knows that the only pleasure is the
attainment of divine things whose giver by nature is God and whose
guardian by will is the free choice of the one who receives them and
that the only sorrow is their loss, suggested by the devil but
accomplished by whoever grows weary of divine things by relaxing his
free will and who does not keep up the love of what is honorable by a
firm disposition of will), that person does not at all incline his free
choice toward anything visible, and because of this he is not subject to
painful things befalling his body. In truth he forgives, in
spiritual detachment, those who sin against him because no one at all
can lay his hand on the good he zealously seeks with all his desire and
which we believe is by nature unattainable. And for God he makes
himself an example of virtue, if one can say this, and invites the
inimitable to imitate him by saying, "Forgive us our trespasses as we
forgive those who trespass against us." He summons God to be to
him as he is to his neighbors. For if he wishes that as he forgave
the debts of those who have sinned against him, he also be forgiven by
God, and it is obviously in detachment from passion that God forgives
those who forgive, then also the one who remains in detachment in what
befalls him forgives those who have offended him, without allowing the
memory of whatever painful that has happened to him to be imprinted in
his mind, so as not to be accused of dividing nature by his free will by
separating himself as man from any other man. For since free will
has been thus united to the principle of nature, the reconciliation of
God with nature comes about naturally, for otherwise it is not possible
for nature in rebellion against itself by free will to receive the
inexpressible divine condescension. And it is perhaps for this
reason that God wants us first to be reconciled with each other, not to
learn from us how to be reconciled with sinners and to agree to wipe
away the penalty of their numerous and ugly crimes, but to purify us
from the passions and to show that the disposition of those who are
forgiven accords with the state of grace. He has made it very
clear that when the intention has been united to the principle of
nature, the free choice of those who have kept it so will not be in
conflict with God since nothing is considered unreasonable in the
principle of nature, which is as well a natural and a divine law, when
the movement of free will is made in conformity with it. And if
there is nothing unreasonable in the principle of nature it is likely
that the intention moved according to the principle of nature will have
an activity habitually corresponding in all things to God. This
will be a fruitful disposition, produced by the grace of the one who is
good by nature, for the purpose of giving rise to virtue.
Such, then, is the
disposition of the one who asks in prayer for spiritual bread, and the
one who out of natural need seeks only the bread of today is disposed in
the same fashion. Forgiving the debtors their debts inasmuch as
knowing himself mortal by nature, and waiting each day with uncertainly
for what makes him live by nature, he outstrips nature by his intention
and voluntarily he dies to the world according to the passage which
says, "For your sake we are put to death the whole day, we are
considered as sheep of the slaughterhouse." That is why he pours
himself out in libation for everyone so as not to bring away with him
the mark of the wretchedness of the present life, in passing into the
life which does not grow old and to receive from the Judge and Saviour
of all the reward equal to what he had undergone here below. For a
pure disposition in regard to those who have caused pain is necessary
for the mutual advantage of both, because of all that precedes and not
least because of the force of the worlds which remain to be said and
which present themselves in this manner.
And Lead Us Not Into Temptation,
But Deliver Us From Evil.
In these words Scripture makes us see how the one who does not perfectly
forgive those who offend him and who does not present to God a heart
purified of rancor and shining with the light of reconciliation with
one's neighbour will lose the grace of the blessings for which he prays.
Moreover, by a just judgement, he will be delivered over to temptation
and to evil in order to learn how to cleanse himself of his faults by
canceling his complaints against another. He here calls
"temptation" the law of sin which the first man did not bear when he
came into existence, and "evil" the devil, who mingled this law of sin
with human nature and who by trickery persuaded man to transfer his
soul's desire from what was permitted to what was forbidden, and to be
turned around to transgress the divine commandment. And the result
of this transgression was the los of incorruptibility given by grace.
Or again we can also call "temptation" the soul's voluntary inclination
to the passions of the flesh, and "evil" the manner of the passionate
disposition which fulfills itself in act. the just Judge will
exempt from neither of these things anyone who does not forgive his
debtors their debts, even if he uses the words to ask for this in the
prayer. On the contrary, he allows such a man to disgrace himself
by the law of sin and leaves the stubborn and immature will to the
domination of the evil one, since it has preferred dishonorable
passions, whose sower is the devil, to nature, whose creator is God.
He does not prevent hi from voluntarily directing himself to the
passions of the flesh nor ransom him from the habit which carries out
this passionate disposition in act, because in paying less attention to
nature than to formless passions out of his ardor for them, he has
ignored the principle of nature. In the movement of this principle
he should know what is the law of nature and what is that of the
passions, whose tyranny comes about by a choice of free will and
not by nature. He should safeguard by reason the nature which of
itself is pure and spotless, without hatred or dissension. He
should on the contrary make free will a partner of nature which does not
involve itself in anything beyond what the principle of nature gives
out, and thereby to reject all hatred of and estrangement from the one
who is akin to him by nature. Thus in saying the prayer he will be
heard and will receive from god a double instead of a single grace, the
forgiveness of past offenses as well as the protection and ransom from
future sins. God will not let him enter into temptation, nor allow
the Evil One to enslave him on the sole basis of his having readily
forgiven his neighbor's debts.
5. This is why, to step back and review briefly the import of what has
been said, if we wish to be rescued from evil and not enter into
temptation, we also should have faith in God and forgive the trespasses
of those who trespass against us, "for," it is said, "if you do not
forgive men their sins, neither will your heavenly Father forgive you
yours." In this way not only shall we acquire forgiveness for our
sins but we shall also be victors over the law of sin without being left
behind to undergo the experience of it. We shall trample underfoot
the evil serpent which gave rise to this law from whom we beg to be
delivered. When Christ who has overcome the world has become our
leader, he will fully arm us with the law of commandments by which he
makes us reject the passions and thus binds the nature back to itself by
love. He sets in movement in us an insatiable desire for himself
who is the Bread of Life, wisdom, knowledge, and justice. When we
fulfill the Father's will he renders us similar to the angels in their
adoration, as we imitate them by reflecting the heavenly blessedness in
the conduct of our life. From there he leads us finally in the
supreme ascent in divine realities to the Father of lights wherein he
makes us sharers in the divine nature by participating in the grace of
the Spirit, through which we receive the title of God's children and
become clothed entirely with the complete person who is the author of
this grace, without limiting or defiling him who is Son of God by
nature, from whom, by whom, and in whom we have and shall have being,
movement, and life...
