Word to the Wise
Thursday, August 14, 2014 - Thursday in the 19th Week in Ordinary Time
[Ezek 12:1-2 and Matt 18:21-19:1]Peter approached Jesus and asked him, "Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? As many as seven times?" Jesus answered, "I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times....." [Matt.]
THURSDAY, AUGUST 14, 2014 ST. MAXIMILIAN KOLBE
I wonder how many of us pay attention to the words in The Lord's Prayer that we say thousands of times in our lives: "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us." [Matt. 7:12] Jesus makes it even plainer in the words that follow this prayer: "if you forgive others their transgressions your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions." [vv. 14-15]. In today's parable from the same Gospel of Matthew, we are given an example of what this means. The servant who is forgiven a debt well beyond his means to repay fails to show the same forgiveness to someone who owes him a minor debt.
Forgiveness and reconciliation are major themes in Jesus' preaching, especially in the Gospel of Matthew. We are told that we should be reconciled with our neighbor before we come to make our offering! [Matt. 5:23] In today's parable, we are told that we must forgive often and forgive from the heart!
It should be remembered that we always have control of forgiveness. We may not be able to compel someone to be reconciled to us, but we can still forgive. The gospel does tell us that we must at least strive for reconciliation. None of this means that we condone the behavior on our part or someone else's that led to the alientation. Nor does forgiveness absolve us from the duty to do justice where that has to be done. The task can be painful and messy but Jesus' teaching is clear and is an ever-present challenge to us. AMEN
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