Of Love and Forgiveness

One week before Christmas, and time again for the penitence that always precedes big celebrations. So it may seem odd that I'm conjuring this blog post in my head while in the middle of penitential service. But this is reflection upon my sins after all; albeit not quite in the proper perspective.

Take a sufficiently Sim-like, macroscopic view of things (and I see no harm in this, for vain as we are, we are not quite significant enough that we cannot take a contextual view of the universe we live in and chuckle a little at our pompous self-importance), and a church looks nothing more like a redemption centre; a place where sins are cleared, hearts cleansed, guilty consciences soothed. Zoom in close enough, and bustling effort is evident; choosing of a priest (one who knows you well, or perhaps not so well), picking a queue that doesn't look lengthy, thinking about the words to say and how to phrase them.

At the end of the day isn't confession of one's sins really just an apology for failing to love God/others enough and promise to love God/them more? And yet that's really all that's needed, since God always forgives unconditionally. I can't help but smirk a little at the irony; we hurt others when we love them, and others hurt us when we love them; after all, the insults of enemies and strangers mean nothing, but the words our friends say mean everything.

And this whole - system (for want of a better word) - of penitence is seemingly intended just to preserve this Love, this thing that is the source of all hurt. From a logical point of view this is so preposterous that one would unwittingly chuckle at the thought. Yet this Love, given by God (a gift slowly evolved though millenia and over many generations of societal living, if you like) still exists today, bolstered no doubt by lots of penitence, whether crafted by religious intent, or otherwise.

I shall leave my musings here, and return you, my dear reader, to the canon definitions of love: religiously, "God is unconditional love"; secularly, "Love is the irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired" (Mark Twain); and all the other commonly quoted definitions (or perhaps you might prefer a Wikipedia hyperlink).