THE COMMUNION OF FORGIVEN SINNERS

THURSDAY, NINTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY

Ezek 12:1-12; Ps 78:56-59,61-62; Mt 18:21-19:1

The Debt of Forgiveness

Saint Paul helps us understand that everything we have is a gift from God in 1 Cor 4:7: For every good thing comes from God our Father in heaven, and there is nothing that comes from him that is bad or evil for us. We are certain of this, because God is Good, and only goodness flows from Him to us. Among his gifts to us, pardon or forgiveness of our sins is among the essential gifts, for it is the foundation of our new life in Jesus Christ. Without the forgiveness of our sins, we cannot receive the life of the Son. Furthermore, the forgiveness of our sins, on which our redemption from evil and death was founded, is not a cheap gift; It cost the blood of the Lamb of God, the Son of God, who became man for our salvation. It is with the precious blood of his Son that the Father purchased us back from our captivity to sin, evil, and the devil. As Christians, we are the redeemed people, we belong to God. If we now belong to God and he redeemed us for his own purpose, Paul described that purpose as the singing of God’s praise and the proclamation of his goodness to all nations and peoples. Our vocation is therefore to tell everyone of God’s mercy and compassion, which is demonstrated in the forgiveness of our sins. God redeemed us and called us to be part of the work of redemption by extending Christ’s forgiveness to them. The most effective way to do this is by forgiving wrongs done to us.

God called the Israelites a set of rebels because of their stubbornness to the will of God revealed to them by the Law and the Prophets. The refusal to obey the will of God implies one is not yet free from sin but still a slave to a stubborn will. If we still live by a sinful will, then we are still in bondage to the devil. Though the Israelites were redeemed from the house of slavery in Egypt, they were still slaves in the Promised Land of Canaan. Hence, God decreed their banishment from the land. He directed the prophet Ezekiel to demonstrate this to them. “You, son of man, pack an exile’s bundle and emigrate from where you are to somewhere else while they watch. Perhaps they will admit then that they are a set of rebels. You will pack your baggage like an exile’s bundle, by daylight, for them to see, and leave like an exile in the evening, making sure that they are looking.” Their obstinacy and stubbornness made God ask his prophet to act out the message he wanted them to hear and understand. Slaves cannot live in the land of free men or in communion with God as sons of God. As Jesus informed the Jews in Jn 8:35, a slave has no permanent place in the house; only the son has. Their sins make them slaves and therefore liable to eviction from the land of Canaan.

The same lesson the Lord intends to press home in our minds. Because God has forgiven us our sins and brought us into the divine communion through the Holy Spirit in his Son, Jesus Christ, we must live the will of God. Because we are still sinning, He continually forgives us, for we are yet to internalise the Gospel message. We must also continually forgive others for their wrongs against us. The exercise of forgiveness helps work our redemption and the grace of God’s forgiveness deeper into our consciousness. Hence, the Lord urged us never to stop forgiving our brother because God is still forgiving us our sins. “Peter went up to Jesus and said, ‘Lord, how often must I forgive my brother if he wrongs me? As often as seven times?’ Jesus answered, ‘Not seven, I tell you, but seventy-seven times.” Who dares keep counting his brother’s or sister’s wrongs against him to know when to retaliate? Such a person is already guilty of not truly forgiving but keeping account of wrongs. The parable of our Lord was intended to drive home this lesson; it implies that our sins against God are infinite. But God has forgiven us and continues doing so, for we continue to sin. We must therefore live a life of forgiveness of sins and injury done to us. It makes us become like God. We automatically block or stop God’s forgiveness from reaching us when we do not forgive a wrong done to us. “And in his anger the master handed him over to the torturers till he should pay all his debt. And that is how my heavenly Father will deal with you unless you each forgive your brother from your heart.”

Let us pray: Almighty ever-living God, whom, taught by the Holy Spirit, we dare to call our Father, bring, we pray, to perfection in our hearts the spirit of adoption as your sons and daughters, that we may merit to enter into the inheritance which you have promised. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.