Ezekiel 12: 1- 12,
Psalm 78:56-57.58-59.61-62,
Matthew 18 :21-19:1 Full Readings
Forgive and you will be Forgiven
The end of the community or ecclesial discourse of Matthew teaches us today another very important aspect of living in peace with one another as well as the whole Church. After being approached by Peter and being asked how many times we should forgive, Jesus responds seventy-seven times. He later tells a parable of a wicked servant who was forgiven the whole debt he owed his master and in turn the servant could not forgive the fellow servant which made his master withdraw his forgiveness from him and then put him in prison.
Brethren, today's Gospel teaches us if we want to be forgiven, then we must also be ready to forgive others, because you cannot receive what you are not willing to give away. Perhaps that doesn’t make sense at first, but it’s a very real fact of the spiritual life. If you want mercy, you must give mercy away. If you want forgiveness, you must offer forgiveness. But if you want harsh judgment and condemnation, then go ahead and offer harsh judgment and condemnation. Jesus will answer that act in kind and severity. Jesus is serious on this, He is ready to forgive us every time we come to him but we must also be able to forgive others in return, otherwise we will not be forgiven.
This parable continues and concludes the theme that forgiveness is the life’s-blood of any Christian community. We cannot live together without upsetting one another, unwittingly, or even deliberately. So forgiveness is the vital step. So important is it that two consecutive Sunday gospels are devoted to it. It expands and stresses our petition in the Lord’s Prayer, ‘Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive others.’ The importance of this petition was already underlined by Matthew; it is the only petition of the Lord’s Prayer to which he adds at the end a confirmatory saying of Jesus. We all pray our Lord's Prayer but do we mean what we pray or we are condemning ourselves as we ask forgiveness on a condition that we have forgiven others. If we haven't forgiven and then we pray this prayer, then we are just condemning ourselves.
Reflect today on your willingness to forgive as many times as possible so that you will also be forgiven as many times as possible. Pray that you will not be one like that wicked servant but always do to others what you would like to be done unto you.
Let us Pray
May your Holy Spirit always guide your church and every individual to live in peace through having mercy and forgiving each other as you always forgive us. Amen.
Be blessed.
May I always forgive as much as possible
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