"...unless each of you forgives his brother from his heart."
Lectionary Readings for the 24th Sunday Ordinary Time, Year A
http://catholic.pcentral-online.net/lectionary/24th-sunday-a.html
One of the important elements of our spirituality as Christians is to be forgiving and merciful to those who have wronged us or those who have done an injustice to our family or community. In today's gospel, we see Peter asking the Lord about the number of times we must forgive our brother. And Jesus replied, "not seven times but seventy times seven times". This reply by Jesus is simply saying that we should infinitely forgive our brother even though he has wronged us many times.
In our human experiences, whether it be in the family, in religious communities, or in diocesan structures, there is always the possibility of abuse of power or abuse of language or abuse of action. This is because our sinful humanity tends to make us dominate the other rather than to serve. When power is our goal or aim, it is most likely that we will abuse it sooner or later. But this is not what the Lord Jesus asks us to do. He asks us to serve as He did by His example of washing the feet of His apostles in the Last Supper. Also, He showed us that we can forgive even those who hurt us if we put our trust in God our Father like He did when he was scourged, mocked, nailed on the cross and left to bleed to death. But He nevertheless forgave all those who wanted His death. And we know that He was victorious in His faith because the Father raised Him by the power of the Holy Spirit on the third day.
How far we are from the One we wish to follow. In families, spouses often do not speak with one another for a long time because of a simple squabble. It could be because of differences in the way they want to raise the children or in how they want to budget the family income and savings. In religious communities, it may be because of the politics among the members of the community. One religious may want to ingratiate himself to the superior of the community and in his desire to do so, he makes his fellow religious appear bad to the superior of the community. This of course creates enmity among the brothers or priests in the community. And the same can be said for diocesan priests in relation to their parishioners or in relation to the politics in the diocese.
It all really must be based on the Lord's spirit of service and sacrifice. If we want to forgive in the way that He did, then we must follow His teaching of "denying ourself, taking up our cross, and following Him". This injunction may appear difficult and arduous, but with much prayer and gift of God's grace and blessing, we can follow His will and be faithful to the end. It will not be all the time that we can do so. And there will be indeed times when we cannot find it in our heart to forgive our brother. Wounds indeed take time to heal. And it also depends on many factors that are often beyond our control. But let us have faith that God is in control and that in the end, goodness will be victorious. That the ideal of service and not power and domination will prevail. Let us pray that we shall always have the faith to see and to believe that we will be always forgiven by the Lord for our human weakness and frailties and that we too shall have the same strength from the Lord to forgive our brother from the heart.
Sunday, September 11, 2005
Sunday, September 04, 2005
23rd Sunday Ordinary Time, Year A
"If he listens to you, you have won your brother over."
Lectionary Readings for the 23rd Sunday Ordinary Time, Year A
http://catholic.pcentral-online.net/lectionary/23rd-sunday-a.html
We often experience people correcting us or we ourselves correcting others. It could be actualized or done sometimes in our thoughts and hearts through prayer. Whatever be the way we correct others, most of the time, the reaction of the one corrected is, "who is he to say that to me?". This reaction is one of pride. It is very rare for people to accept correction because humility is very rare. It is a very important virtue but one people do not really seek for. For it is in humility (how we see ourselves before God), that we discover what is the reason for the correction.
Jesus tells us that if we see a fault in our brother and go point it out to him, it should be done amongst ourselves alone. Only when our brother refuses correction do we appeal to a third party so that there may be witnesses in the case. At this level, the "legal" situation is somewhat serious. However, if the correction is only something personal and does not really involve anything serious, we can easily appeal to God to grant us the humility to receive the correction or we can pray to God that the person we corrected will also appeal to God to grant him the gift of humility. If however, the case involves more than just the personal level, then this is something that can be taken to others. In law, it means "appealing to a higher court".
Correction is good because it helps us in our pathway to God. If we do not correct others, we will be not doing our Christian responsibility of leading others to God. On the other hand, if we ourselves do not accept correction, then our pathway to God will be blocked and we will never grow in our relationship towards Him.
Let us pray that we Christians will always pray for the gift of humility before the Lord because it is this virtue that will help us correct our brother in the right way and for ourselves to accept correction in the right way. The pathway to humility is not easy but it is made available to us through the example of Christ himself who sought more to serve than to be served. Let us always have an attitude of a servant-leader who leads others by example to serve their brothers and sisters by teaching them that the pathway to God, the pathway to Jesus, the pathway to the eternal life promised to us, is through humility and service.
Lectionary Readings for the 23rd Sunday Ordinary Time, Year A
http://catholic.pcentral-online.net/lectionary/23rd-sunday-a.html
We often experience people correcting us or we ourselves correcting others. It could be actualized or done sometimes in our thoughts and hearts through prayer. Whatever be the way we correct others, most of the time, the reaction of the one corrected is, "who is he to say that to me?". This reaction is one of pride. It is very rare for people to accept correction because humility is very rare. It is a very important virtue but one people do not really seek for. For it is in humility (how we see ourselves before God), that we discover what is the reason for the correction.
Jesus tells us that if we see a fault in our brother and go point it out to him, it should be done amongst ourselves alone. Only when our brother refuses correction do we appeal to a third party so that there may be witnesses in the case. At this level, the "legal" situation is somewhat serious. However, if the correction is only something personal and does not really involve anything serious, we can easily appeal to God to grant us the humility to receive the correction or we can pray to God that the person we corrected will also appeal to God to grant him the gift of humility. If however, the case involves more than just the personal level, then this is something that can be taken to others. In law, it means "appealing to a higher court".
Correction is good because it helps us in our pathway to God. If we do not correct others, we will be not doing our Christian responsibility of leading others to God. On the other hand, if we ourselves do not accept correction, then our pathway to God will be blocked and we will never grow in our relationship towards Him.
Let us pray that we Christians will always pray for the gift of humility before the Lord because it is this virtue that will help us correct our brother in the right way and for ourselves to accept correction in the right way. The pathway to humility is not easy but it is made available to us through the example of Christ himself who sought more to serve than to be served. Let us always have an attitude of a servant-leader who leads others by example to serve their brothers and sisters by teaching them that the pathway to God, the pathway to Jesus, the pathway to the eternal life promised to us, is through humility and service.
Sunday, August 28, 2005
22nd Sunday Ordinary Time, Year A
"If a man wishes to come after Me, he must deny his very self, take up his cross, and begin to follow in my footsteps."
Lectionary Readings of 22nd Sunday Ordinary Time, Year A
http://catholic.pcentral-online.net/lectionary/22nd-sunday-a.html
We who are fortunate to be in an information rich society and context sometimes forget that there are poor among us who may not even know how to read and write. They may live below the poverty line - where they have to live on a very small amount of income. There are also those who are spiritually poor: the despondent, those who are discouraged and faint-hearted, those who suffer from lack of faith or hope, etc.
How often we forget that to follow in Christ's footsteps means denying much of our self and needing to go out of our comfort zones. Though we need not be missionaries who go out into the jungles of Africa or Papua New Guinea, or go up the mountains of much of Asia, we can just go out of our ordinary routine and help the person we know who is suffering from a problem or difficulty in life.
The communicant I give to (she is a senior citizen who suffers from shingles), tells of how she would, in our present hard times, encourage a friend not to give up hope and faith in God. Her friend has many problems and suffers from many difficult situations in life. However, this sick (not really very sick since she can still drive though she wants to stay at home on Sundays to take care more of her wheelchaired sister), goes out of her way to take time to encourage this friend of her to hold on to God, to continue to go to Sunday Mass and not to abandon the Catholic faith. And, after all her positive and encouraging proddings and through the own efforts of her friend herself, her friend was able to slowly recover from her difficult situation and slowly returned to a stronger faith in God.
This gospel passage is a call for us to go out of our comfort zones. To deny ourself some conveniences in order to take up the responsibility of Christ (share in His cross to build the Kingdom), and follow Him in His desire to save people from despondency, darkness, discouragement, loneliness, and all forms of realities that choke the gift of life that God has given us. How we will do this: to deny ourself, take up our cross and follow Christ - depends on our state of life and the social environment in which we find ourselves. One thing is for sure though. If we take to sincere heart this injunction and directive of Christ, we too shall share in eternal life with Him forever in His kingdom. And we will have glimpses of this kingdom when we ourselves have acted according to His will in our daily life.
Lectionary Readings of 22nd Sunday Ordinary Time, Year A
http://catholic.pcentral-online.net/lectionary/22nd-sunday-a.html
We who are fortunate to be in an information rich society and context sometimes forget that there are poor among us who may not even know how to read and write. They may live below the poverty line - where they have to live on a very small amount of income. There are also those who are spiritually poor: the despondent, those who are discouraged and faint-hearted, those who suffer from lack of faith or hope, etc.
How often we forget that to follow in Christ's footsteps means denying much of our self and needing to go out of our comfort zones. Though we need not be missionaries who go out into the jungles of Africa or Papua New Guinea, or go up the mountains of much of Asia, we can just go out of our ordinary routine and help the person we know who is suffering from a problem or difficulty in life.
The communicant I give to (she is a senior citizen who suffers from shingles), tells of how she would, in our present hard times, encourage a friend not to give up hope and faith in God. Her friend has many problems and suffers from many difficult situations in life. However, this sick (not really very sick since she can still drive though she wants to stay at home on Sundays to take care more of her wheelchaired sister), goes out of her way to take time to encourage this friend of her to hold on to God, to continue to go to Sunday Mass and not to abandon the Catholic faith. And, after all her positive and encouraging proddings and through the own efforts of her friend herself, her friend was able to slowly recover from her difficult situation and slowly returned to a stronger faith in God.
This gospel passage is a call for us to go out of our comfort zones. To deny ourself some conveniences in order to take up the responsibility of Christ (share in His cross to build the Kingdom), and follow Him in His desire to save people from despondency, darkness, discouragement, loneliness, and all forms of realities that choke the gift of life that God has given us. How we will do this: to deny ourself, take up our cross and follow Christ - depends on our state of life and the social environment in which we find ourselves. One thing is for sure though. If we take to sincere heart this injunction and directive of Christ, we too shall share in eternal life with Him forever in His kingdom. And we will have glimpses of this kingdom when we ourselves have acted according to His will in our daily life.
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