December 18, 2013 – Catechism 2842 – 2845

I have never thought about the “as” used by Christ.  “As we forgive”, “as your …Father is perfect”, “as I have loved you”, “as your Father is Merciful.  We are called to be a part of our own salvation, to interact with God, to imitate Him and to act.  These are all do this as this is done.  It appears an equation of action that Christ uses a lot.

But unlike the other ones, the one in the Our Father ends with our doing something.  Love as God loves, Be as God is.  That is different than Forgive us as we forgive others.  The other ones are impossible to achieve.  We will never love as God, be as God, we are not God.  It makes me wonder if we can ever fully achieve the Our Father petition then as well.  Can we ever fully forgive those that have sinned against us, and if we can’t, can we be truly forgiven.  The Sacrament of Reconciliation makes me think that it is possible.  We are truly and wholly forgiven of our sins if we make a true and complete Confession.  I wonder what part “not forgiving” plays in our true and complete confession.  I don’t know if I have ever heard of “not forgiving” being a sin we are to confess.  I have never been in a confession and confessed to not forgiving someone.  And if I did, would the priest stop and say “I cannot absolve you until you forgive that person because of what the Our Father says”.  The next time I see a “prep for Confession” pamphlet I will have to see if “not forgiving” is on there.