“There is a limit to Human charity” Said lady Outram trembling all over.

“There is,” Said father brown dryly “and that is the real difference between human charity and christian charity…….for it seems to me that you only pardon the sins that you don’t really think sinfull. You only forgive criminals when they commit what you don’t regard as crimes, but rather as convention. So you forgive a conventional duel just as you forgive a conventional divorce. You forgive because there isn’t anything to be forgiven.

“We are to touch such men not with a barge pole but with benediction.”

“We have to say the words that save them from hell. We alone are left to deliver them from despair when your human charity deserts them.”

“Leave us with men who commit the mean and revolting real crimes, mean as st. Peter when the cock crew, and yet, the dawn came.”

A couple of weeks ago one of my friends found a discarded copy of ” The Complete Father Brown” and since then I have been hooked. Father Brown often makes profound statements with the humility of Moses and the authority of Paul, all this while getting into the mind of the criminal and solving with incredible ease what are seemingly, the most incredulously unsolavable crimes. The theological richness of his words is astounding, and inspite of their depth, they gel in perfectly with the rest of the story and the character of Father Brown.

Jesus came for those terminally ill with sin and much of his time was spent in ministering to the outcasts. Though the scripture reminds me again and again that I too am to follow in his footsteps to minster to the “sick”, often it is a judgemental attitude that comes from me. It seems impossibe to me at times that a man could “fall’ so much. Going by what what Jesus said, I am part of the “lost” the ones he cames to find, part of the crowd of harlots, tax collectors, thieves, adulterers and christ killers. I am forgiven, yet I am unforgiving like the cruel servant, and proud like the pharisee. My life has been denying him for years now, yet I look down on the ” god forsaken sinners”.

In today’s world many of the “big” sins are easily forgiven, I am quick to stand for accepting the gay christian yet my brother in church who takes credit for what I do, now thats a hard sin to forgive.

Father, thank you, for loving me so much, for giving me Jesus who died for a deparved dead man like me, for the forgiveness of sins, for grace to live each day and for blessing me with all the heavenly belssings. Grant me the humilty and love to forgive those who sin against me and the grace to minister to the real sick. Remove form me the pharisee’s mind, relace it with your forgiveness.May not my life deny the Christ my mouth professes. Amen.

Technoati tags: Christianity Devotional Father Brown Chesterton Forgiveness Christian Living