Lenten day of reflection focuses on forgiveness

Father Joseph Moriarty elevates the Eucharist during a Feb. 11 Mass at the Our Lady of Fatima Retreat House chapel in Indianapolis on the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes and in observance of the World Day of the Sick. The Mass was also celebrated for the intention of Archbishop Daniel M. Buechlein, who is undergoing chemotherapy treatments for Hodgkin’s lymphoma. The day of reflection included instructions on the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola. (Photo by Mary Ann Wyand)

By Mary Ann Wyand

“Forgive and you will be forgiven.”

That Scripture passage from the Gospel of Luke (Lk 6:37) doesn’t always work with people, but God’s love, mercy and forgiveness are available to everyone.

That message of divine mercy was the theme for “Return to God,” a Lenten day of reflection presented by Father Joseph Moriarty on Feb. 11, the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, at Our Lady of Fatima Retreat House in Indianapolis.

Lent is the perfect time to turn to God in prayer, he explained, and ask for forgiveness, reconciliation and healing.

The first reading for the Ash Wednesday liturgy, which was taken from the Old Testament Book of Joel, reminds us that God awaits our prayers and petitions, Father Moriarty said, and wants us to turn to him for help right now.

He said that Scripture passage includes timeless advice: “Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with your whole heart, with fasting, and weeping, and mourning; Rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the Lord, your God. For gracious and merciful is he, slow to anger, rich in kindness, and relenting in punishment” (Jl 2:12-13).

“In this reading, there is a great urgency that says to us—as the season of Lent beckons to us—that now is the time,” Father Moriarty said, to return to God and seek conversion of heart in order to be reconciled and have a more intimate relationship with him.

“God says, ‘Return to me now. This is the time. This is the most important thing that you need to do right now,’ ” he explained. “There is great urgency for us to return to God, to make things right.”

For three years, Father Moriarty has served as associate director of spiritual formation at Saint Meinrad School of Theology in St. Meinrad and sacramental minister of Our Lady of the Springs Parish in French Lick and Christ the King Parish in Paoli.

Our spiritual relationship with God must be a celebration of love, he said, not a sense of obligation.

“I used to tell the kids when I taught at Cardinal Ritter High School [in Indianapolis] that, ‘You can’t cheat God. You’re not allowed to keep anything back from God.’ With your whole heart, God asks us to give over anything that we know that stands in the way [of a relationship with him].”

He said spiritual conversion, forgiveness and healing can only happen when people completely open their hearts to God, who first loved us and—from the moment of our conception—formed us and called us by name.

“It demands openness,” Father Moriarty said. “It demands a sense of transparency. … The key for anyone’s life, in order for us to grow in relationship with God, is to open our hearts and return to God. We have to stand transparent before God.”

To do that, he said, we must forgive others—even if they do not forgive us—and also forgive ourselves.

“I believe that forgiveness is one of the greatest tools for good in our world, in our nation, in our parishes, in our families and in our personal life,” he said. “I also believe it is one of the least used tools.”

Forgiveness is the essence of married love, he said, explaining that Redemptorist Father Jack Dowd of Chicago recommended during a parish mission that married couples make the commitment to say to each other, “I’m sorry. I love you. Forgive me. I forgive you.”

As a young priest, Father Moriarty read a “Homily Helper” about spiritual reflection that shaped his ministry.

“Imagine that you have died and you find yourself in a large room,” Father Moriarty told the retreat participants. “There are no windows and no doors in the room. The room is very bright. … You have been infused with the knowledge, so you know this already, … that what waits for you beyond this room is the life of heaven. You know that once you are out of this room that’s where you will go. There are two chairs in the room. You’re seated in one of the chairs, and there across from you is the person that you least love. Beyond knowing that heaven, the glory of God, participating in that beatific vision, lies beyond this room, you also know that the key to both of you getting out is being reconciled with one another.”

Smiling, Father Moriarty asked, “Who is sitting there? Is it a family member? Is it a friend? Am I looking at myself? Do I need to forgive myself for something?”

After sharing this reflection a few years ago, he said, a parishioner asked him, “Is there only one other chair? … Father, I was thinking of bleachers!”

Particularly in their individual relationship with God, Father Moriarty said, people often put more energy into defining themselves by the notion of their sins rather than by the notion of God’s abundant grace.

“I think God is less concerned about beating us up for the sin, for the disobedience,” he explained, “and more concerned about our taking responsibility for what we have done, such that we can participate in God’s abundant grace. … You are not this sin. You are not this brokenness. … That’s a part of your past, but here is your future, a future full of hope, a future of abundant grace. … You have been claimed for Christ through baptism and belong to God. This is how God loves us.”

In his homily, Father Moriarty noted that, “We do what we do because of who we are in belonging to Christ. … We pray to God that we will be nourished by the sacrament [of the Eucharist] and it will be efficacious—effective—in our life.” †