February 22nd, 2026: Forgiveness Sunday

Glory to Jesus Christ. Glory to God. In the name

of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy

Spirit. Amen. I've been a priest long enough

that I could probably share on this Forgiveness

Sunday edifying and some humorous stories as

well about forgiving and lack of forgiving. But

that's really not what we need, illustrations

and stories. What I want to give you is some

meat, something to think about this week. Let's

start with where we have been. For the last several

weeks, the Gospels we have heard on Sunday morning

have presented to us events and parables with

two categories. Tax collector, the Pharisee.

Prodigal son, the older brother. The sheep at

the judgment and the goats. Today, those who

forgive, opening their heart to receive God and

their neighbor, and those who do not forgive.

All this has been given to us. So that we can

meditate on the path we need to take. To find

ourselves in those stories somewhere. We're there

someplace. And to remember that in each of them

it is the mercy of God that saves. These weeks

we've had this extended lesson. These two categories

and what the Lord our God sort of like gave to

Moses. To say to the people. I call heaven and

earth to record this day against you, that I

have set before you life and death, blessing

and cursing. Therefore, choose life, that both

thou and thy seed, thy children, descendants,

may live. That thou mayest love the Lord thy

God, and thou mayest obey his voice, and that

thou will cleave unto him, for he is thy life.

to our sorrow and hurt. Many of us keep looking

for a third way, somewhere between life and death,

and unfortunately we find it all too often. Lent

is the time when we recalculate, and I'll use

the word reorient ourself. The orient is the

east. We turn to Christ. So we're on the threshold

of Great Lent right now, and the church wants

us to begin at the beginning. So last week we

meditated on the end, on judgment, on the glorious

appearance of the Lord in our own place, in that

scene, in that reality that will come to us,

whether at some point in the future or when we

die. Either way, we prepare ourselves now for

it. And this week... We go back to the very beginning.

So last week the end, today the beginning. Back

to Adam and Eve. We call this Sunday Forgiveness

Sunday commonly, but our liturgical books call

it the expulsion of Adam and Eve from paradise

of delight. And you heard those heart -moving

hymns that the choir sang a few moments ago.

Adam outside of paradise. I'll share with you

the words of St. Silouan, who died in 1938 on

the Holy Mountain. In this poem, Adam's Lament,

which is like the hymns we heard last night,

he writes this. He said, Adam knew great grief

when he was banished from paradise. But when

he saw his son Abel slain by Cain, his brother,

Adam's grief was even heavier. His soul was heavy

and he lamented and thought, peoples and nations

will descend from me and multiply and suffering

will be their lot. And they will live in enmity

and seek to slay one another. And Adam's sorrow

stretched wide as the sea. And only the soul

that has come to know the Lord and the magnitude

of his love for us can understand. Father Silouan

says, I too have lost grace. And I call out with

Adam, be merciful unto me, O Lord. Bestow on

me the spirit of humility and love. That's all

today is about. Let's not imagine, however, whatever

Adam said. And however St. Paul frames through

death. Through one man comes death, but through

Christ, the new Adam, comes life. Let's not imagine

that our world is full of suffering and we are

the victims of Adam. You are not the victim of

Adam. We can't say, things are miserable, I'm

miserable because someone else, Adam, it's his

fault. I would never do that. That's simply not

true. We know Christ. We know the gospel. We

know the saints. We await the resurrection, and

we share in the resurrection and communion at

the divine liturgy and our baptism. We have the

divine liturgy. We have miracles and stories

and icons, and yet we still sin. So it is not

Adam's fault. We may be created in the image

of God, but we act in the likeness of Adam. And

Lent. It's repentance. It's turning away from

that. To be created in the image of God and to

live according to that image. And the good news,

the gospel, the victory news, the news that the

war has been won. And yes, there's skirmishes,

but the war is won. We're celebrating the fact

that God sends his son, our Lord Jesus Christ,

to be the real and final and last Adam who does

not sin. We may, but he does not. We're celebrating

the fact that he has searched us out. And he

has found us. And he forgives us. And he cleanses

us. and he washes us, and he refreshes us, and

renews us, and restores us, and resurrects us

from the dead, and takes us home to the house

of the Father, the church, where we have communion

with one another, and our lives, our relationships,

are restored to the way they're supposed to be,

and we come to paradise again. We start with

the beginning, but we are going to end with paradise

too. And that's our aim now, now as we begin

to enter Lent. Lent is the time for the way back.

So during Lent, we begin the whole season by

remembering our exile by the waters of Babylon.

There we sat down and wept. If I forget thee,

O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither. Let my

tongue cleave in my mouth if I forget thee. We

remember our status, we remember who and what

we are, and we try to be honest with ourself.

And turn that attention from out there, everybody

else's problems, political problems, societal

problems, whatever, and we turn that spotlight.

And what is that spotlight? It's the light of

Christ. And you will hear on Wednesday at the

Presanctified, when I come out of these doors

with the candle, The deacon will say, let us

attend. Command. And I'll say, the light of Christ.

And you will all fall down on your face. Because

the light that shines in the darkness is shining

in our heart of the glory of God. And we can

only fall down in adoration. I'll say, the light

of Christ illumines all. So we see ourselves

in that light today. And we become like him,

especially in the divine act, the divine act,

the act that God gives us to be like him. Father

Zacharias, and that's forgiveness, Father Zacharias

from England says that in order to come into

the living presence of the risen Lord, which

is what Pascha is, there's so many things we

need to die to in this world. We need a heart

enlarged by the grace of God, he says. A heart

free from passions and hatred and lies and sin.

From every form of hatred, a heart free from

evil which resists divine love. A heart where

the light of the humble spirit of Christ has

driven back the black darkness of pride. For

this reason, he says, at the beginning of this

period, the Lord's word to forgive one another

An absolute condition. It's not magic, and it's

not a sudden transformation for us. We will struggle

mightily. The Lord's mercy is not an instantaneous

alteration of our character or wiping out of

our past history. We heard the parable of the

prodigal son. He was given a second chance. He

came home. It wasn't automatically changed because

of it. That guy... has serious struggle ahead

for him if he hopes to remain in the father's

house. So does the older brother. When we hear

these words from the gospel, if you forgive men

their trespasses, your heavenly father will also

forgive you. That sounds good theoretically.

But then we hear, but if you do not forgive men

their trespasses, neither will your father forgive

you. your trespasses, and we hear that as a threat

in our modern ears. Sounds like a threat. How

dare he? He can't know. Yes, he does know your

circumstances. It's not a threat. It's a condition

of reality that without it, our heart cannot

receive any forgiveness. The entire gospel, the

entire Christian faith. is essentially the conviction

that God forgives us. There's plenty of people

who say, well, what does God have to forgive

me for? What have I done? No matter what we do,

however stupid, however silly, however ridiculous,

however obscene, however rebellious, God forgives

us and God loves us. And when we come before

the face of God, we begin to see ourselves because

that light of Christ is shining on us. He relentlessly

loves us. Can we discover that during Lent? God's

love for us. And the sign of his love is that

he forgives us. He sets the sin aside. Think

of the cross. Father, forgive them, for they

know not what they do. He didn't say, Father,

forgive them. It's okay. Not a problem. I'll

let it go. Because that's not forgiveness. That's

some kind of psychological game. Forgiveness

is knowing the evil and to expel it and to destroy

it, to kill it, we forgive. That's how evil is

expelled. That's why the cross is so great and

that's why we stand before it in such, not only

adoration, but fear and trembling and the mystery.

of how great God is. He forgives us before we

ask. He forgives us before he even created us.

He created us, forgiving us. Our way to paradise

depends on doing the same for others, not approving

the evil, but defeating it by forgiveness. We've

had so many lessons so far, my dear friends,

to inspire us to give God... all the space in

our heart for a dwelling place and we begin this

season with the prayers of the great forerunner

john the baptist his icon is here today is the

feast of the finding of his precious head of

course you know he was beheaded by herod we have

his prayers as we begin And what does Jesus say

about him? He says, the kingdom of God is taken

by violence and the violent bear it away. The

moment you oppose yourself, you say no to the

simple things, to the hamburger during Lent,

to the mayonnaise, to the cheese, to the whatever,

to this act, to that act, to clicking on this

thing on that screen on your phone. The moment

you say no, that's when the violence starts.

Not by you, but against you. St. John was free.

He was absolutely a man of freedom. Just look

at his life and what he said. Let his example,

let him lead the way for us through Lent. Crying

in the wilderness to us, the wilderness of the

spiritual life here in this world. Let him lead

the way for us as we go weak. by week, by week,

to reach Holy Week and to then participate in

the passion and the suffering and the death of

Christ ourself. In that way, we will participate

in his very resurrection. O Lord, have mercy

on us and lighten our way as we go towards that

feast. To him be glory now and ever, to ages

of ages. Amen.