"O consuming Fire, Spirit of Love, 'come upon me,' and create in my soul a
kind of incarnation of the Word: that I may be another humanity for Him in
which He can renew His whole Mystery. And You, O Father, bend lovingly over
Your poor little creature, 'cover her with Your shadow,' seeing in her only
the 'Beloved in whom You are well pleased.'"
- Elizabeth of the Trinity, 19th-20th Centuries
Amen!
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Dn 3:25, 34-43; Psalm 25:4-5ab, 6 and 7bc, 8-9
Mt 18:21-35
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.
That is why the Kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king
who decided to settle accounts with his servants.
When he began the accounting,
a debtor was brought before him who owed him a huge amount.
Since he had no way of paying it back,
his master ordered him to be sold,
along with his wife, his children, and all his property,
in payment of the debt.
At that, the servant fell down, did him homage, and said,
‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full.’
Moved with compassion the master of that servant
let him go and forgave him the loan.
When that servant had left, he found one of his fellow servants
who owed him a much smaller amount.
He seized him and started to choke him, demanding,
‘Pay back what you owe.’
Falling to his knees, his fellow servant begged him,
‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.’
But he refused.
Instead, he had him put in prison
until he paid back the debt.
Now when his fellow servants saw what had happened,
they were deeply disturbed, and went to their master
and reported the whole affair.
His master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant!
I forgave you your entire debt because you begged me to.
Should you not have had pity on your fellow servant,
as I had pity on you?’
Then in anger his master handed him over to the torturers
until he should pay back the whole debt.
So will my heavenly Father do to you,
unless each of you forgives your brother from your heart.”
Reflection on the Scriptures
Of the lessons that emerge from Jesus’ parable, two really caught my attention:
- My being forgiven is inextricably linked to my forgiving others. These are two sides of the same coin. Jesus must really want us to know this because he states it more explicitly in two of his most famous teaching episodes. His Sermon on the Plain states, “Forgive, and you will be forgiven” (Luke 6:37). In the Sermon on the Mount, He includes “forgive us . . . as we forgive others” in
the Lord’s Prayer, then immediately follows the prayer with: “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Matthew 6:14-15)
- Forgiveness is an all or nothing enterprise. He is instructing Peter not to bother with counting. Just forgive, and keep forgiving, never partially or with limits, but repeatedly and endlessly. You can’t dole out forgiveness case by case or person by person. You either are someone who forgives or you are not. Forgiving partially or conditionally is not an option.
Don’t count, Peter (and the rest of us), because that conflicts with forgiving. Remember, Jesus commanded us to love one another as He has loved us (John 13:34), and love keeps no record of wrongs (I Cor 13:5). In the words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “you do not notice that as long as you are still counting, for that long you are
still reckoning that earlier sin against the person, for that long you still have not really forgiven that person, not even for the first time.” As long as we keep track, we still hold onto the first (and second and third) wrongs done to us, and they are festering, ready to hurt us over and over. The mere act of counting, of adding to the list, dredges up painful memories.
So forgive, instead of counting, as an act of obedience that yields immense benefits. Recognize that being able to forgive fully and completely is not a burden, it is a blessing. When we are able to forgive, we are freed from feelings and forces that harm us and those around us. We can let go of anger, hatred, bitterness, hurt, even judgmental self-righteousness. Letting go frees us from
those pains (and from the chore of keeping count), and it allows us to change our focus away from what was done to us so that we can recall the many good things done for us. You may not feel that the person who offended you deserves to be forgiven – but you deserve the blessing of being able to forgive.
- by David Crawford
The Existence of God
by Francois Fenelon
SECTION IX. A Particular Examination of Nature.
After these comparisons, about which I only desire the reader to consult himself, without any argumentation, I think it is high time to enter into a detail of Nature. I do not pretend to penetrate through the whole; who is able to do it? Neither do I pretend to enter into any physical discussion. Such way of reasoning requires a
certain deep knowledge, which abundance of men of wit and sense never acquired; and, therefore, I will offer nothing to them but the simple prospect of the face of Nature. I will entertain them with nothing but what everybody knows, and which requires only a little calm and serious attention.
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