Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Praise be Jesus Christ – forever and ever. Amen
Jesus Christ invites us to love: love ourselves, love others as we love ourselves, and
love God, as He has loved us.
Forgiveness is essential to
hold this trilogy of love together. Today contemplate forgiveness.
Wrath and anger are hateful
things. Each and every one of us are sinners so we tend to hold on to them. We find it hard to forgive. And as long as we
live, we are probably going to experience these feelings, even if we try to
avoid them.
God gives us the freedom to
hold these unnecessary things. But God also gives us the freedom to let them go.
If we truly follow Christ and are
obedient to God’s will. We need to be able to forgive. To forgive someone who
hurts us or caused seemingly irreparable damage in our lives seems to be
difficult task. Many times, we get angry
for the same hurt over and over again.
Do not forget, the evil one
will pick at those hurts to bring them back again and again.
That may have been the reason
behind Peter’s question. Peter thinking that he was good and generous when he asked Jesus how often must he forgive, is it
seven times? (Jewish law said to forgive 3 times. Peter must have thought seven was
very generous.)
Jesus answered Peter: “Forgive…not up to seven times but seventy seven times.” Then
Jesus throws a further twist into his teaching - those who will not
forgive will not be forgiven!
Why we must forgive? This is
what we must contemplate. Here are three reasons:
First, forgive because we have been forgiven first. We are
the servant in today’s gospel who owes a great debt to the king. It was such a
great debt, the servant could have never paid it back. With mercy, the king forgave
his debt.
We are just like that servant.
We cannot pay back all that God has given us. Jesus Christ paid the debt for our
sins to forgive them all. In return we are asked to do the same for our
brothers and sisters.
Second, forgive for our own good especially for our healing. Not being able to forgive is a
spiritual pollution. The pollution of wrath
and anger can keep us from happiness, joy, and love.
When I thought about this, the children’s story of The Angry Bee came to
my mind.
In a beautiful meadow, there
lived a colony of bees. The bees were all friends and enjoyed doing bee things together.
Flying around in the sunshine and hunting for flowers. When they would find a flower,
they would do their happy bee dance, and work together to make honey.
Sometimes flying around, the
bees would accidentally run into to each other. “I’m sorry,” one bee would say.
“That’s OK. I forgive you.” The other would
answer and bees were happy flying and doing the things bee’s do together.
One day, something different happened
when two bees crashed into each other. “I’m sorry.” said the first bee.
“You got in my way!” said the
second bee. “I’m not flying with you anymore.”
The angry bee flew away. “I’ll
show that bee!” said the angry bee. He sat on the leaf and waited for the other
bee to feel bad.
Later, all the other bees went
to fly in the sunshine and hunt flowers together; not the angry bee. He sat on
his leaf being angry. He thought, “I’ll show that bee.”
The other bees hunted flowers, did the happy bee dance, and had fun doing things bees do. Not the angry bee, he just sat on the leaf being angry. “I’ll show that bee.”
When it was time to work
together to make honey, all the bees happily worked together. Not the angry bee,
he sat on the leaf being angry thinking, “I’ll show that bee.”
But it wasn’t working, the
other bees were still happy.
The next day, the bees
came to the angry bee and asked if the bee would come fly in the sunshine and hunt for
flowers. The angry bee said, “No, I am still mad at that bee.”
“Ok” said the other bees, see you
later. They flew off and were happy.
The angry bee felt sad. He
wanted to fly in the sunshine, hunt for flowers, do the happy bee dance, and make
honey with the other bees. The bee
thought, “I can be happy again, all I need to do is forgive.” And, He did.
Third, forgive because if we do not forgive we shall not be forgiven.
Jesus taught us to pray this
way, “Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who
sin against us.” By our own
prayers, we ask God - If there is someone I have not forgiven, then do not
forgive me!
Do we really mean this part of
the Lord’s Prayer? Every time we pray this and refuse to forgive others, our
prayer is not sincere. If our prayer is to be truly sincere, we must forgive
others.
We are adopted children of God.
Love should be the way we think and act towards others in a reflection of the Father’s
goodness. If we believe this truth, we live love others as Jesus taught us.
Love ourselves, love others as we love ourselves, and love God
as He has loved us. Forgiveness is the essential element that hold this trilogy
of love together.
Wrath and anger are hateful
things. By His love, God gives us the freedom and grace to let them go.
Be good, be holy, and preach
the gospel by the way we live our life, love, and forgive one another. Praise
be Jesus Christ – forever and ever. Amen
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