24th Sunday Ordinary Time, Year A

"...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.