The Art of Forgiving

According to the rabbinical tradition, forgiveness allows for three offences and the fourth offence calls for action, usually punishment. In our everyday life, how many of us are even that generous?

Dear Friends

The Gospel for the 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time opened with one of Peter’s straightforward questions: He asked Jesus how often he should forgive. Peter doubled the forgiveness of the rabbis and added one for good measure, considering himself very generous. To his surprise, Jesus was not impressed. Not seven times he tells him, but seventy-seven times! In other words, Jesus is saying that you cannot attach a number or a limit to the times you forgive. He then goes on to tell the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant.

Catechism Class

For the past fifteen years, I have been teaching children about the Sacrament of Reconciliation. In all those years I have prepared more than two hundred children to make their First Confession. In all that time, I have come to realize what an important Sacrament this is. Not so much the part about talking to the priest – it seems to me that’s the easy part. No, what’s important is the personal reflection of our own behavior and then comes the hard part: admitting what and where we have done wrong. The work ahead of us is going to that person and admitting our fault. I don’t think that is something anyone likes to do. No one likes to be wrong. We hope that the other person will accept our apology and through this encounter, our relationship with that person can grow. This is the human approach. In our Christian understanding of reconciliation, we experience God’s loving and forgiving grace. Inspired by the divine forgiveness, we repent and we extend the forgiveness others. God will forgive the soul that forgives others. 

The Gospel According to Matthew

In our parable, the king who forgave his servant’s debt meant it. But when the servant went out and failed to forgive his fellow servant, the king took back his pardon. By his action, the servant had shown that he didn’t appreciate the king’s graciousness and was not worthy of the pardon given to him. Is this a good analogy of how God deals with us? That seems to be the point of the parable. In other words, when God gives us His word of forgiveness, that doesn’t mean it is a done deal. Sure, we receive the forgiveness we are looking for but it is then up to us to go out and forgive those who sin against us. 

Letting Go

You know, we all experience hardships in life and many times our experiences seem unfair. It’s easy to hold a grudge and hold on to anger. Holding onto that anger keeps us from becoming the person God wants us to be. Forgiving another who has wronged you is hard work. The Gospel tells us to forgive others and our forgiveness should not be just once or twice, but seventy times seven. Forgiveness my friends is ongoing, day after day, week after week, year after year our entire life long, and without counting. We need to take this forgiving attitude out into the world so that we can help to make this world a better place to live in. As we pray together in Mass, let us remember the words of Jesus as he taught his friends how to pray, forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Amen.