God asks us to forgive as He forgives us.

 

Twenty Fourth Sunday in OT  A  2023

 

In the Gospel, Peter wanted to know if he had to forgive seven times.  Jesus responds: “I say to you, not seven times, seventy-seven times.” Then Jesus tells the parable in which he insists that we have a forgiving spirit.  Forgiveness is a central characteristic of a Christian lifestyle.

 

Jesus’ mandate on forgiveness is followed by the parable of the unforgiving servant.  The tragedy of the parable is that the unforgiving servant never really experienced the forgiveness the king had granted him.  This servant never experienced in his heart what was given him and therefore he could never offer forgiveness to others.

 

The apostle Peter was shocked at the depth of forgiveness Jesus was asking of him.  We too can easily be shocked at the depth of forgiveness the Lord is asking us to extend to others.  I assure you that this Gospel sense of forgiveness will make sense only when we are grateful for the depth of the forgiveness that Jesus recklessly shares with each one of us.

 

The first Scripture from the Book of Sirach indicates that our willingness to forgive others renders us open to the healing forgiveness of God.  Our best insurance policy to receive God’s forgiveness is our willingness to forgive others.  You have heard the old saw of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.  Mohandas Gandhi, a Hindu, was once quoted as saying, “An eye for an eye and all the world goes blind!”  How true it is that we need to take the initiative in extending forgiveness and healing to people who stand in need.  When Mohandas Gandhi was shot three times in the heart by an assassin, he raised his arms in a gesture of forgiveness.  His last words before dying were Rama, rama, rama:  “I forgive you, I love you, I bless you

 

What about ourselves?  In what ways have you experienced forgiveness in your lives?  This is such an important question in the spiritual journey of each one of us.  Without any doubt, our salvation is not worked out by ourselves finally reaching a state of perfection.  While we seek to grow in living a Gospel way of life, we will always be sinners.  Our salvation is worked out by our experience of the healing forgiveness of God.  May we know the depth of God’s forgiveness in our lives.

The thought I invite you to think about and pray over is:  “When a deep injury is done us, we never recover until we forgive.”  We ourselves need to forgive to experience inner healing and to witness God’s healing love of all people.

 

During this past week, I was the recipient of the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  What a blessing for my life.  The experience of forgiveness leads us to a radical understanding of the doctrine of grace in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  We are saved not by finally getting it right, but by the love of Christ that redeems while we are getting it wrong.  Once more the grace of the Sacrament of Reconciliation leads us to that deep awareness that we are saved not by finally getting it right, but by the love of Christ that redeems us while we are getting it wrong.

Followers of Jesus can never be minimalist in matters of justice, charity and even forgiveness.  God shares with us an abundance of love and forgiveness.  We are to do likewise – sharing love and forgiveness in abundance with one another. 

May we be a people who love generously and forgive easily.  The truth of our lives for all of us is we all need to forgive, and we all need forgiveness.  That is the message of today’s Scriptures.  This is such an important message.  The future of our nation, the future of our Church, the future of the streets of our city, the future of the world is in the hands of those who forgive.  There is no way of understating the need for forgiveness in life.

 

May we begin each day in the same way we begin each celebration of the Eucharist:  Lord, have mercy.  Christ, have mercy.  Lord, have mercy.  This is not to say that our lives have no value or goodness.  Rather, it is to say as God’s beloved sons and daughters, we stand under the waterfall of God’s mercy.  This then motivates to share what we have been given.

We are members of a covenanted community.  As God forgives us, we are to forgive others.  Today’s Gospel message is to remember God’s mercy on us.  We then become that memory for others.  By passing his mercy forward, we receive the same.  Revenge and hate have no place in our relationship with God and others.   Treating others with mercy gives us a peace grounded in divine grace.

 

As we seek to reduce racial tensions in the streets of our cities, today’s Gospel message of forgiveness must touch the hearts of us all.  We need to surrender our right to get even.   Meanness of spirit needs to be replaced with a generosity of spirit, the spirit of forgiveness that is permanent and unconditional.

Lord God have pity on the many countries, including our own country that are being torn apart by traditional hatreds.  Send them men and women who will show their compatriots that unless they forgive from their hearts they will forever tortured by hatred and the desire for revenge.

As we know from the Lord’s Prayer, our best insurance policy to receive God’s forgiveness is our willingness to forgive others.  When we celebrate the Eucharist, we bring to God’s Eucharistic table personal memories of our journey with God, our joys and our challenges.  We pray with good memories of grace as well as times of anxiety and fear when God seemed far from us in all these memories.  In the green pastures as well as the dark valleys of life, today’s Scripture message is simple and direct:   God asks us to forgive as He forgives us.

 

Have a Blessed day.