On the previous Sunday, man took a stance in existence before God, by bearing responsibility, that is, by becoming a mature man — for children bear no one’s responsibility. This stance today requires that man transform it into action in the society in which he lives: he first forgives himself and is reconciled with it, and casts into God’s forgetfulness all the sins he has committed, to begin anew, and he forgives everyone who has wronged him, forgives every neighbor. And it is not necessary that man possess the love that drives him to this act, for we are still at the beginning of the road, and it is natural that man does not possess the sufficient love for this act, or the gratuitous love. Therefore the forgiveness that man offers today is not gratuitous forgiveness, but there is a recompense and a price that he obtains: the forgiveness of the Father. We must forgive in order to obtain forgiveness. “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.” (Matt 6:14).
The word forgiveness in Greek means “to let go of,” and it is fitting, on the last Sunday of preparation before the journey of love with Jesus, that man let go of his burdens that exhaust him, for the journey is long to Pascha and then to the Father. And my forgetting of the neighbor’s sins is a necessity, not for the other nor for God, but for myself. The man who has not forgiven is still stuck in his past, bound by its old events, and what happened to me in the past will remain a point of reference to which I return and upon which I build the events of the future, and rancor is formed, keeping me stuck in the mire of sins. Whoever wishes to soar in God’s heaven must let go.
And it is necessary that our memory become clean, because it is about to begin recording new experiences with Jesus.
It is mentioned that this Sunday is the commemoration of Adam’s expulsion from Paradise. What is the reason for placing it today? The reason is explained by the reason for Adam’s expulsion: not the disobedience, but the failure of Adam and Eve to forgive, which God was awaiting. For Adam said, the one You gave me, she is responsible. Had Adam forgiven, he would have recovered his self from the first moment and would not have gone out. What brought Adam out of Paradise brings us into it: forgive, and you shall be transfigured.
Today is the last station in the first phase, the phase of preparation (preparation of the self), which revolves around man’s self and its preparation. Thus we complete the following: knowledge of the self, making a decision, taking a stance, embodying the decision through forgiveness, then we prepare to meet Jesus on the first Sunday of the second phase: “Come and see.” (John 1:46).