A reflection I
encountered last month in the Divine Office seemed worth sharing with you this
month in the context of the Synod on the Family. From a sermon by Blessed Isaac of
Stella, a Cistercian abbot of the 1100’s, peer of Saints Bernard of Clairvaux
and Thomas Becket, it struck me as a marvelous explanation of how forgiveness
is available to us, as well as a demonstration of how marriage is a central to
our understanding of Christ’s relationship with the Church, that is, purifying Bridegroom
and spotless Bride -- and therefore with us.
It would seem forgiveness and marriage have something in common too. Enjoy!
Monsignor
Smith
The prerogative of
receiving the confession of sin and the power to forgive sin are two things
that belong properly to God alone. We
must confess our sins to him and look to him for forgiveness. Since only he has the power to forgive sins,
it is to him that we must make our confession. But when the Almighty, the Most High, wedded a
bride who was weak and of low estate, he made that maid-servant a queen. He took her from her place behind him, at his
feet, and enthroned her at his side. She
had been born from his side, and therefore he betrothed her to himself. And as all that belongs to the Father belongs
also to the Son because by nature they are one, so also the bridegroom gave all
he had to the bride and he shared in all that was hers. He made her one both with himself and with the
Father. Praying for his bride, the Son said to the Father: I want them to be one with us, even as you
and I are one. (John 17:22)
And so the bridegroom
is one with the Father and one with the bride. Whatever he found in his bride alien to her
own nature he took from her and nailed to his cross when he bore her sins and
destroyed them on the tree. He received
from her and clothed himself in what was hers by nature and gave her what
belonged to him as God. He destroyed
what was diabolical, took to himself what was human, and conferred on her what
was divine. So all that belonged to the
bride was shared in by the bridegroom, and he who had done no wrong and on
whose lips was found no deceit could say: Have pity on me, Lord, for I am
weak. Thus, sharing as he did in the bride’s weakness, the bridegroom
made his own her cries of distress, and gave his bride all that was his. Therefore, she too has the prerogative of
receiving the confession of sin and the power to forgive sin, which is the
reason for the command: Go, show
yourself to the priest. (Luke 5:14)
The Church is
incapable of forgiving any sin without Christ, and Christ is unwilling to
forgive any sin without the Church. The
Church cannot forgive the sin of one who has not repented, who has not been
touched by Christ; Christ will not forgive the sin of one who despises the
Church. What God has joined
together, man must not separate. (Mark 10:9) This is a great mystery, but I understand it
as referring to Christ and the Church. (Ephesians 5:32)
Do not destroy the
whole Christ by separating head from body, for Christ is not complete without
the Church, nor is the Church complete without Christ. The whole and complete Christ is head and
body. This is why he said: No one has ever ascended into heaven except
the Son of Man whose home is in heaven. (John 3:13) He is the only man who can forgive sin.
Isaac
of Stella
