9/13 - 24th Week in Ordinary Time

Dear Parish Family,

 The Gospel opens today with a straight on question from Peter – How many times are we to forgive?  This is an unsettling question if we ask it to ourselves!  Among all the tragedies that struck our nation may be 9/11 (we just celebrated the memorial here at St. John with a special Holy Mass) may be the one that has forged deeply in our minds. It is because that day was not a singular act of evil, but rather it came on the heels of a spate of other such attacks on planes, ships, Embassies, trains, Churches, Synagogues, Mosques and marketplaces.  When we think of all the people whose lives were ended or forever disrupted and they were of all religions and nationalities, it is tempting to rationalize or to categorize such acts in a class of their own, ‘unforgivable”.

So if we go by today’s Gospel, is Christ asking the mother to forgive the drunk driver who killed her child?  Is He asking us to forgive every Judas who has ever betrayed us?  Is he asking us to forgive our cheating spouse or the one who robbed us of our wealth? We must make an important observation here; we have to distinguish between crime and sin.  You punish crime and you forgive sin.  Forgiveness is not condoning, we may forgive without approving of the offense.  Forgiving is not forgetting, some wounds are simply unforgettable. It takes a lot of courage and God’s grace to help us to separate the individual from the heinous act or behavior.

Some years ago, Saint Pope John Paul went to visit Mehmit Ali Agca, the man who tried to assassinate him.  He held his hand and forgave him but he did not ask the Italian Government to release him.  The Pope forgave the sin within the crime.
What about the people who are unwilling to forgive us; the people we may have wounded by our deliberate acts or unintentional folly? We can do one of two things, we can nurse our guilt, turn into ourselves and destroy ourselves or else we can turn to God.  When others will not forgive us, God comes in and takes on their identity in the person of his son.  He steps into the place of those we have hurt and he tells us – all is forgiven. One of the most comforting words in the Bible is, “I cast your sin into the deepest ocean.” We must stop going out to fish them out!!!

When people will not forgive, Jesus will.  When people cannot forgive, Jesus will.  When people are unable to forgive, Jesus will.  Just look at the Gospel, they tell us the Shepherd left ninety-nine sheep to look for the one or the Gospel of the Prodigal Son when the son repented, the Father went to meet him.  He gave him hugs and kisses and said “all is forgiven.”  This is the God who goes after the lost sheep, runs towards the prodigal and allows his Son to die on the cross as a definitive way to give the grace of forgiveness

Some of us need to forgive and others need to be forgiven.  This is, why He invented the sacrament of confession.  It is the place Jesus has set up where you and I are reconciled to the Father.  It is the one place where we can be reassured during our broken and dying moment that the Lord will come and say “Go in peace, your sins are forgiven.  I on behalf of your mother, your brother, your daughter or anyone who will not forgive you, I will forgive.”
If you are among those who find it hard to forgive, remember the words of Archbishop Tutu of South Africa who lived with apartheid,  “sometimes the victim has to forgive in order just to live.  You cannot carry around resentment forever, sometimes for our own sake, we just have to let go.” In fact forgiveness is the best gift we give ourselves. The focus of our forgiveness should not just be on the person we are forgiving, or even the particular action we are forgiving, because the prisoner we are setting free is ourselves.  
      Fr. Tom Kunnel C.O.