What Are You Looking For? Part 1: The Nicene Creed

The Father...Pardons

The Father…Pardons

This is not the piece I was intending to write on the Father’s pardon, but today is the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul (for those who aren’t Catholic, June 29) and I thought, who better to serve as examples of God’s pardon than Saints Peter and Paul.

St. Peter went from being a humble fisherman to the head of the church and the first Pope. But his journey wasn’t an easy one. He had great highs, like when he declared Jesus to be the Christ and was told Jesus would build his church on him. And he had the lowest of lows. At Jesus’ trial he denied even knowing Jesus. In Luke 22, St. Luke writes of that time and adds one detail that the others leave out. As Jesus is being tortured and Peter is denying him, Jesus’ looks at him. And the cock crows. And Peter realizes what he’s done. He goes out and weeps bitterly. But he has no chance to make it right.

St. Paul begins as Saul. He’s educated. Very well educated. And he is on fire for God. He sees the Jesus sect as being steeped in heresy. His heart’s in the right place - sort of - but he’s really wrong. It’s not that he hasn’t heard about Jesus, he just hasn’t understood what he has heard. Acts 7 and 8 record Saul’s presence at and approval of the stoning of St. Stephen. Even though he heard the message, he didn’t get it. But…

God is a God who pardons. After the resurrection, Jesus makes a special point to reach out to Peter. In John 21 three times he asks Peter if he loves him. Three times Peters proclaims his love. God’s pardon is poured out and Peter is restored to fellowship and strengthened.

St. Paul, gets a more dramatic approach. He essentially gets slapped upside the head when Jesus speaks to him from heaven and asks why Saul is persecuting him. Saul then spends three days blind, before Ananias prays for him and the scales fall from his eyes. And the persecutor of the Christians finds pardon and goes on to impact the world. Not just in his time, but even today in our time. They both do.

God’s pardon is for everyone. The educated. The uneducated. The devout, the heathen. Those who have never really done much wrong, and the worst criminal there is. It doesn’t matter. God knows who we are. Each of us, individually, and what we’ve done. He knows we carry within our hearts the disease of concupiscence (man’s disordered inclination to sin). And so he has made grace and pardon available to all of us. He reaches out to us constantly, like a bridegroom reaching for his bride. Through the Paschal Mystery (Jesus suffering, death and resurrection) he has made a way for us to obtain his pardon, to be restored to fellowship and be strengthened. All he asks of us is that we receive it.