From
the Catholic Liturgy for the 24th Sunday of Ordinary Time, September
17, 2017. Gospel: Matthew 18:21-35. Theme: Forgiveness is the Pathway to Peace
& Healing. It really hurts when someone
sins against us, when they betray us or commit an act that robs us of happiness,
of relationships or even of material belongings. The pain can be deep and the wounds long
lasting. These wounds can turn into
anger, bitterness, resentment if we do not treat them with the medicine of
forgiveness. They can consume us from
the inside out like a cancer. Refusing to forgive can become a spiritual and
emotional poison that slowly but surely kills us, while we foolishly believe it
is hurting the other person and not ourselves. And more so, this spiritual
disease can spread out from us like an infection, either contaminating others
or driving them away from us because we are toxic.
But Jesus, our God of Love
came in the flesh among us, teaching us that forgiveness is at the very center
and root of our faith, so much so, that if we refuse to forgive others, God
will not forgive us. Now on a human level this seems impossible, and it is! But
we Christians do not live on a purely human level. Jesus did not ask the impossible and then leave
us to our own resources to try and live up to it! Because of God’s gift of
grace, His life and love within us, we can live on a super-human, a
supernatural level, due to the Holy Spirit who dwells and acts within us.
This Spirit makes it
possible for us to become like the Forgiving Jesus, no matter who we are or
what has been done to us. The divine power of the Holy Spirit in us enables us
to truly forgive from the heart, just as Jesus tells us to do in today’s Gospel. The Spirit makes it possible for us to break
free of the prison bars of resentment and bitterness. Through our forgiveness, the Holy Spirit brings
healing and new life to both the one who forgives and to the one who is
forgiven. So, I think the very important question on our minds should be: how
do I learn to do this?
I personally believe that
St. Francis of Assisi, who has been called the most Christ-like man to walk
this earth, gives us a way to do this in his simple Peace Prayer. St. Mother
Teresa of Calcutta agreed with this and made it a mandatory daily prayer for
her Missionaries of Charity. The
founders of Alcoholics Anonymous, a group famous for their emphasis on
forgiveness and making amends to others agreed with this, and made it one of
their official prayer, too. It goes like this:
Lord, make me an instrument
of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.
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