A Gift for Christmas

In the spirit of the Magi, I’d like to offer the following “gift” to you for Christmas. Granted, it’s more like an idea than a gift, and even then not an idea so much as a realization. But it has made such an impact on me that I have refined my outlook on forgiveness and sin. It also has given me insight into myself, which is nothing to sneeze at. Hopefully, you’ll feel the same way.

The gift is “trespassing.” The Lord’s Prayer says, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil…” (Luke 11:1-4). Some translations refer to “debt” rather than trespasses (e.g., King James), but I like trespass since it does two things: (1) connotes property, boundaries, and someone straying into an area where they don’t belong, and (2) transcends debt, which more often than not implies monetary debt, although technically it includes all kinds of debt as in the expression, “I’m in your debt.”

My realization–let’s call it an epiphany, given the season–is that not only has God forgiven me sacramentally for all the incredibly stupid, insensitive, and boorish things I have done in the past, but he allows me to make amends for them once and for all by forgiving others. In other words, I can make up for the trespassing I have done onto other people’s “property,” whether personal, emotional, romantic, spiritual, or otherwise, by forgiving them the trespassing they have done to me.

Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth, and a door round about my lips.”

Psalm 141: 3

So, why is this important now? you ask. It’s important, because for some reason–retirement, moving, spending too much time thinking and writing–I have been going over the events of my life and cringing at them à la Ebenezer Scrooge, whom Dickens described as “self-contained and solitary as an oyster.” Knowing that I don’t have to carry the weight of past indiscretions around like Ebenezer’s chain has been more than a relief. It has been a form of liberation and salvation for myself and others. I don’t mean to be hyperbolic here, but this outlook has changed the way I think about myself and the past. The fact that I have canned oysters in my pantry has got me thinking again, but I’ll leave that for another post.

The importance of forgiving trespasses figures elsewhere in scripture. In the parable of the “wicked servant” (Mt 18:23-35), a king who is “moved with pity” forgives the debt of a servant who owed him ten thousand talents. However, this same servant then threatens a fellow servant with prison if he doesn’t pay him what he owes, which is a mere hundred pence. When the king finds out, he upbraids the wicked servant for not showing compassion after it was shown to him. He then turns the servant over to the torturers until he pays the entire debt.

There is another consideration that has played out in my life and makes up most of the trespassing. I’m talking about sins of the tongue as in Proverbs 18:21: “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits.” Picking the right fruit is the work of a lifetime, and it is only recently that I can claim any good harvests there. It gets a little easier when you’re older, since for most of us there exists a natural tendency to talk less and listen more. Other people in the orchard will see to that. I’ve met a lot of people in love with the sound of their own voices.

But think of it. You can avoid a great deal of misery just by following the prayer of the priest in the Latin, extraordinary form of the Roman Mass (Psalm 141): Pone, Dómine, custódium ori meo, et óstium circúmstantiae lábiis meis…Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth, and a door round about my lips.” This is probably the most direct way not to trespass onto somebody else’s property. Think of it as a barbed wire fence, and don’t fences make good neighbors? It is also one of the best ways to forgive those who trespass against you. Just don’t eat any of their fruit.

Image credits: feature by Markus Spiske. For information on Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, go to VOCES8: ‘Jauchzet, frohlocket’ by JS Bach. Want more? Go to Robert Brancatelli. The Brancatelli Blog is a member of The Free Media Alliance, which promotes “alternatives to software, culture, and hardware monopolies.”