The Power of Forgiveness

As I am writing my reflection tonight, I have started a new tradition, a new way to spend New Year’s Eve. Usually we spend it at home because we don’t like to be out on the roads with people drinking. At the monastery where I attend daily Mass they are having Adoration from 9 PM to midnight. What a beautiful way to close out 2012 and welcome in 2013, sitting in our Lord’s presence. It has given me a chance to reflect on all the blessings that God has poured out on me and to also recall how merciful our Lord has been to me. So many times I have fallen into the same sin over and over, yet, every time he was there to help me rise again when I went to him with a sorrowful heart. He has blessed me with a new confessor who has continued to draw me out of my fear and has helped me to love with a Christ-like heart.

One profound moment of grace happened last week when I was back home for Christmas. The day after Christmas I went to Mass with my dad. We were kneeling beside one another in prayer before the start of Mass and it hit me that it was pure grace that allowed this moment to happen. To all those at Mass that day I am sure we looked like any other father and daughter but it was so much more than that. It was a perfect picture of the power of forgiveness. I was kneeling beside someone who had abused me and taught me to live in fear, to hate myself and to not trust others. I was kneeling next to a man who had the courage to acknowledge what he had done and ask for forgiveness. God took this broken relationship and allowed it to heal. God freed me from my fear and for the first time ever, I was able to be near my dad without fear or anxiety. Instead I was filled with peace and was in awe of God’s grace. No words can describe that moment, no one can truly understand how beautiful that moment was for me and my dad and I am so grateful that I was able to experience it. I know God will use this to bring hope to others who have been through what I have been through, to help them see that they no longer have to live in fear and that all things are possible for our God whose love is all powerful.

“Be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another as God has forgiven you.” (Ephesians 4:32)