24th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Ecc 27:33–28:9
Rm 14:7-9
Mt 18:21-35
“…unless you each forgive your brother from your heart.“
The greatest act of forgiveness that you have received – the greatest act of forgiveness that you have given – does it come to mind easily?
I can think of a time or two I ‘generously’ forgave, and a time or two that I have been ‘generously’ forgiven as well. It’s easy to feel puffed up about the generosity of forgiveness we have bestowed – and it’s easy to, even still, want to explain away what I did/said and why (though I knew needed to ask for forgiveness) my actions were somewhat justified (especially compared to what others do).
Something that can never be humanly justified is the greatest act of forgiveness that all of us have received. “You go to Mass because you are a Christian. You believe in Christ as your divine Lord and Saviour. You believe that he saved you from your sins by giving up his own life, his own body and blood, for you on the cross. He paid your debt for you; he took your place so that you could take his place. We don’t have to understand exactly how that worked, the spiritual technology, so to speak, but we do know that it did work, that Christ has really saved us from our sins and from the eternal punishment at that our sins justly deserved. We rebelled against God; we divorced ourselves from God, and Christ reconciled us to God, remarried us to God, so to speak. Christ satisfied both God’s love and God’s justice on the cross. He paid our debt, our enteral debt, and set us free”. (Dr. Peter Kreeft, 24th Sunday in Ordinary time, Food for the Soul).
Dr. Kreeft goes on to say, “And it’s also easy for us to minimize great things if they are far above us and removed from us in time and space and seen not with the eyes of the flesh but with the eyes of faith – like Christ saving our souls, closing the door to hell and opening the door to heaven, by giving his life for us on the cross.”
The truth of those words is so big. Convicting and almost incomprehensible. Knowing that, how could/can I ever hold back forgiveness from anyone if I am to call myself a follower of Jesus? How can I say I love God and sit above anyone? How can I put myself above anyone in the sin department – thinking I’m ‘more worthy’ of His forgiveness than anyone else? Jesus shares a parable about this very thing – and I’ve always aligned myself to the one who forgives…but I don’t think that is the truth. Upon truly reflecting on today’s Gospel and WHO Jesus is and WHAT he did in the greatest act of undeserving forgiveness, I have fallen far short of imitating Christ.
So, I will pray for the grace to truly forgive, to truly surrender to the Father in all things. And I will pray with St. Bruno Lateri, “I will rise again as peaceful as if it were the first, knowing my weakness and knowing, Lord, your great mercy. And so, if I should fall even a thousand times a day, a thousand times with perfect repentance I will say immediately, ‘Nunc coepi’, now I begin.
(Today’s OXYGEN by Gina Ulicny)
Prayer: Come Holy Spirit, come. Give me the heart to forgive all those who cross me in any way, and most especially Father, to not see myself as better than them.
Thanksgiving: Father God, your mercy flows and we are redeemed. May we never neglect to thank you, praise you and imitate you in loving and forgiving all others.
OXYGEN 
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