The Impossible

David spoke this morning about kindness and forgiveness. These are difficult things that often are simplified into simplistic notions like being nice and tolerant and accepting. Yet, being nice and tolerant and accepting do not require much of us. In fact, we can be nice and tolerant and accepting by just not caring one way or another, by being apathetic, by merely ignoring others.

The biblical notion, by contrast, is quite demanding. John Caputo, drawing on Jacques Derrida, has even called it impossible (or the im-possible). By that he means we can never completely get outside of the circle of exchange, of reciprocity, because gifts form a circular economy.

When you forgive me, I am then indebted to you, which really cancels the act of forgiveness. So, I try to do something for you, which then puts you in debt to me. And so on. In short, a chain is formed. (Incidentally, the French for gift, cadeau, is actually derived from the the word for chain, catena.)

The problem is this: we are stuck between the world of forgiveness and the world of economics. We can't choose one or the other, but have to negotiate the space in between. We can't simply get outside of give and take, of reciprocity, just as we can never reach the act of pure forgiveness.

But that's okay.

We can't get outside the circle of reciprocity, but we can expand and widen its boudaries. We can bust through the perimeter, if only for an instant, before it closes back up again. Yet, it never closes the same way twice. Rather, each time we bust it open, we force its radius outward, thus creating a larger and more inclusive circle.

The point becomes twofold. We must forgive, but remember that forgiveness cancels itself out and so never actually is. And we must have economy, the circle of exchange and reciprocity, but don't let the circle close too tightly.

May the impossible drive us, let it be our passion. May we work towards true forgiveness. May we embrace the impossible, try to do the impossible. In the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, who has already done the impossible by offering himself.