The Great Forgiveness

Ah, Equinox!  Today our Earth will put away her winter jewels – her cold snow pearls and glistening ice diamonds stored until distant December.  With them, she lays aside her cool reserve, the stark elegance of silhouetted trees against a white landscape.  She says, “I have finished my silent retreat”.

Instead, Lady Earth unveils her costume jewelry – that improbable mix of pinks, purples, greens and yellows. Even though this morning in Philadelphia, she wraps them in a shimmering chill, we know it hides a riotous, tumbling April.

Every year we wonder if those bare trees and barren hillsides will ever green again. But they do!  Spring is the act of “Great Forgiveness”.  It is the time when Nature mirrors the Infinite Mercy of her Creator and says, “Fear not, Sweet Earth.  I am deeper than your cold.  My resilience has redeemed us both for another chance at life”.

We human beings, too, are capable of such resilience.  I remember my mother’s infinite patience with an annoying neighbor whose seemingly innocent conversation harbored veiled references to her economic superiority.  Little wintry comments like, “It’s a shame you didn’t choose a Hoover.  It would make your life so much easier!”  Even as a child, I was nettled almost beyond tolerance by her chilly comparisons.

But my mother, who was no push-over and who did not suffer fools gladly, was patient and faithful.  She would tell me that Mary never had the love of family and friends that we enjoyed.  She helped me understand that sometimes people can’t help showing the December within their hearts if they have never been kindled by another’s kindness.  My mother wanted me to live from the “Great Forgiveness” that can warm any cold, indifference, or careless judgment.

At one point when I was still very young, my mother became quite ill and after a long hospitalization, returned home for an extended recuperation.  During that time, Mary came every day to cook for our large, working family.  Weekly, she cleaned our house with the same decrepit vacuum she had earlier criticized.  Without a word, Mary challenged me to learn another lesson about the nature of fidelity and true friendship and the opportunity to give it voice without words.

Years later, I read a quote that captured these lessons: “Always be kind.  We never know the battles someone else may be fighting.”  These are lessons I remember with gratitude today in this equinox of another “Great Forgiveness”. It is a largesse we can imitate if we simply remember the mercies we have received from the hand of our forgiving God.

Blessings to you all and a joyous Spring!