March 1, 2005

There is a grace that seems to come with ordination. It's called "forgetfulness." It's true that very soon all confessions become a blur in our memories, and many of the struggles that people share with us as well. In fact, this is a "gift" that many people associate with our entire CFR Community, not only the priests! If you don't know what CFR stands for, you might guess, "Can't Friars Remember?"

Some of you might have reached that delightful age where you not only forget where you left your glasses, but you keep forgetting that you're looking for them! That "delightful age" may be younger than we think.

Part of maturity is being able to forget. St. Paul makes this point in his letter to the Philippians when he says "But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way" (3:13-15).

What do we need to forget to strain forward? First of all, it seems that we need to let go of grudges, and all of the junk memories on which we wrote the label "That's not fair." This seems to be a popular phrase amongst children around the ages of 7-11. At the age of reason we begin to understand what is unfair, and then later on we begin to realize that we are often unfair and it's not fair for us to be whining. This is what St. Therese realized in her "Christmas conversion" when she suddenly grew up and stopped pouting. As adults we don't usually cry out "that's not fair" but we may be crying out on the inside. Sometimes we really need to respond to an injustice and prevent it, but sometimes the root of this is a whiny selfishness that needs to learn how to forget.

Cardinal Francis Van Thuan makes the wonderful observation in his book "Testimony of Hope" that God has the "flaw" of forgetting. Of course God doesn't exactly remember, forget or think like we do, but He speaks about Himself this way in the Scriptures to help us to understand how merciful He is. He will forget even "seventy-times-seven times."

Sometimes we need to forget about our successes. St. Bernadette gave us an amazing example of this when she spoke of herself as a broom that our Lord could use and then put back in the closet. After the apparitions at Lourdes became famous and many people were seeking after her, she opted for the hidden life in a convent, where she felt the Lord calling her forward, letting go of the spotlight she had been in.

Whichever way we may hear the Lord this day telling us to "forget about it", may He strengthen us to do so. (But your glasses are still on the table where you left them...)

Fr. Richard Roemer, CFR
Community Vicar, residing at St. Joseph Friary in Harlem, New York
________________________________________________________________________________


www.franciscanfriars.com



Go To Page 2


FastCounter by bCentral