The context in which we hear God’s word really
matters. What goes on in our lives
affects the meaning and significance of God’s word for us. Last week, our Gospel reading told us that he
who had been wronged had the responsibility to confront the man who committed a
sin against him, detailing a series of steps he would need to take in order for
his brother to achieve forgiveness, justice, and reconciliation. In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus tells us a
parable about forgiveness, as he responds to Peter’s question about how many
times we must forgive a brother who has sinned against us. In our modern world where vengeance,
retribution, and revenge are played out on our streets, in our schools, and in
our homes each day, this reading has a deep significance for us. Today is also September
11, 2011, the tenth anniversary of the terrorist attacks that shocked our
nation and the world. We saw many lose
their lives that day; we saw many police and firefighters sacrifice their lives
trying to save others. So, as we hear
today’s Gospel reading on a day that has so much meaning for us, we are called
to listen to the ways that God’s word interacts with this specific reality.
We can listen to God’s message about forgiveness
as an abstract teaching, knowing that we are called to forgive abundantly for
our own sake and for the sake of our neighbors in the context of our
faith. But, when we try to put
forgiveness into practice in a specific real-life situation, it’s quite another
thing altogether. We all know that we
need to forgive in order to move on with our lives and to really live out the
Gospel, yet this isn’t so easy in those hurts that exist in our lives, that
tear us up inside. Maybe intellectually
we can understand the need to forgive, maybe we can even forgive someone who
has sinned against us up here, in our minds, yet when we look into our hearts,
at the deep-seeded emotions and feelings that reside there, forgiveness might
be hard to come by. I remember one
morning at the mission site where I served as a missionary in Ecuador, a woman
came into our parish office to give us money for a mass intention; she wanted
us to pray that the strong arm of the Lord would come down on her husband. When we asked her what she meant by this, she
explained that her husband had harmed her in a terrible way – in fact he had
abandoned her and her children for another woman; she now wanted God to get
revenge on her husband, for God to do something violent and horrible against
him in retribution for the harm he had committed against her. We had to explain to her that this was not
the purpose of mass intentions. I think that may of us in our society are like
this lady, in that deep down in our hearts, we may want God to punish someone
who has harmed us, to get revenge.
Let us look at what our first reading says about
forgiveness. Ben Sirach was a Jewish
scribe who wrote in Jerusalem in the 2nd century BC. The book of Sirach that we have in our
Catholic Scriptures, but which is not included in the Protestant Bible,
addresses many ethical situations that we face in our daily lives. Today,
Sirach tells us that although wrath and anger are hateful things in our lives,
we often hold onto them very tightly.
According to Sirach, God’s wisdom tells us to forgive our neighbor’s
sins and injustices, so that when we pray, our Lord will likewise forgive us
our own sins. If we nurture anger and
hatred in our own lives, where will we find healing? Where will we be on our journey of faith?
In recent decades, we as
a Church have not only focused on the sins and injustices that we commit as
individuals, but also on those sins that are a part of the structures and
framework of our society. As we remember
the 9/11 anniversary today, perhaps God is calling us to look at the ways we as
a community can implement forgiveness and reconciliation. Perhaps this is the best way in which we can
honor those lives that were lost on that day.
In our Gospel reading, God calls us to extend forgiveness in a way that
goes beyond what a reasonable person would do.
We might think that forgiving someone once for a sin would be
compassionate and noble. But Jesus tells us to forgive not once, not twice, not
seven times, but seventy-seven times, forgiving in a manner that far exceeds
whatever sincerity the sinner might offer us, forgiving in a way that goes far
beyond the seriousness of the offense the sinner had committed. Perhaps in
telling us to forgive so many times, Jesus is showing us the abundance and
magnitude of God’s own love and mercy, of the many times God forgives us for the
sins we have committed, for the ways we have broken God’s laws and have strayed
from the path of faith.
Jesus shows us in
today’s parable that forgiveness can affect great change in our lives and in
the lives of others. When we forgive
others, as opposed to engaging them in a cycle of revenge, we help them find
reconciliation and liberation, helping to free them from guilt, shame, and all
that is weighing them down. In
forgiveness, we also liberate ourselves from bitterness, vengeance, and a cycle
of violence that could eventually consume us and lead us away from the path of
salvation. The terrorists who attacked
us on 9/11 did wish us harm and did wish to destroy us, that is true, but there
are also many people throughout the world and from the countries from which the
terrorists came that have paid a big price for the terrorist attacks as well;
they are in need of reconciliation and healing in their lives.
Yet, we recognize that the world is a tough
place right now. Many are out of work or
are settling for work that is far below their skill level. The economies of many countries are on the
brink of disaster. Many in our world
today don’t feel as safe as they did before 9/11. Yet, as we mark the anniversary of 9/11, as
we look at the ways we as a nation still need to forgive and heal, may we as
individuals and as a nation somehow find a way to use the commemoration of this
date to bring about goodness and reconciliation in our lives, in our nation,
and in the lives of our neighbors. I think that is what God is calling us to
do.
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