Forgive your brother from your heart
Listening the Spirit
Lord, thank you for the gift of Your Word so that all Your people may know and love You more and understand You better.
As I go about my day, may I not forget the Scriptures You have opened up for me.
Help me to recognize how You want me to apply Your Word to my daily life. Holy Spirit, guided by Your Word, may You enlighten my mind and enkindle in my heart a greater love for You and for others in my family and in the world.
Amen.
Listening the Word: Matthew 18:21-35
Peter approached Jesus and asked him,
“Lord, if my brother sins against me,
how often must I forgive?
As many as seven times?”
Jesus answered, “I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times.
That is why the kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king
who decided to settle accounts with his servants.
When he began the accounting,
a debtor was brought before him who owed him a huge amount.
Since he had no way of paying it back,
his master ordered him to be sold,
along with his wife, his children, and all his property,
in payment of the debt.
At that, the servant fell down, did him homage, and said,
‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full.’
Moved with compassion the master of that servant
let him go and forgave him the loan.
When that servant had left, he found one of his fellow servants
who owed him a much smaller amount.
He seized him and started to choke him, demanding,
‘Pay back what you owe.’
Falling to his knees, his fellow servant begged him,
‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.’
But he refused.
Instead, he had the fellow servant put in prison
until he paid back the debt.
Now when his fellow servants saw what had happened,
they were deeply disturbed, and went to their master
and reported the whole affair.
His master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant!
I forgave you your entire debt because you begged me to.
Should you not have had pity on your fellow servant,
as I had pity on you?’
Then in anger his master handed him over to the torturers
until he should pay back the whole debt.
So will my heavenly Father do to you,
unless each of you forgives your brother from your heart.”
Reflection
Forgiveness: it is a Word which we repeat every time when we pray, since our childhood, when we learned the Our Father, which is a beautiful prayer which Jesus taught us when we want to communicate with the Father. It is interesting that when we pray, we forget the meaning of the words we are praying, or we just memorize without thinking of the meaning of the words. When we pray, we are asking the Lord, “forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
It may happen that for some of us it is quite complicated to say I forgive. Sometimes we may say I forgive but I do not forget, which means we are not able to forgive others fully. Jesus invites us to forgive our brothers and sisters from the heart, because the heart is a place where we can keep our feeling and emotions. When we are able to forgive from the heart it means that we are able to erase any resentment against people who did something wrong to us; we may not forget but at least we are at peace.
In this gospel Jesus asks us to forgive always. We heard how the man who was forgiven but could not forgive his neighbor. It is somehow part of our experience, sometimes it is difficult to forgive others but, after all, God asks us to forgive always. Every time we receive forgiveness from God, it is a call to forgive others, to forgive anyone. When we see how God or others forgive us, we need to be ready to forgive and forget the sins of others. We all, are sons and daughters of God, but we are not perfect, we are sinners. We beg God to forgive us, as Jesus forgives us, to be compassionate as Jesus is compassionate to us, to love so that we may be able to forgive by the heart. Let us remember that forgiveness is something divine. People who can forgive are people who are full of the Holy Spirit. Let us pray so that the Holy Spirit may inspire us to forgive others from the heart and always.
Reflection Questions
1.-Is there someone I say I have forgiven, but against whom I still carry resentment or hurt in my heart? What can I do to truly place that person in God’s hands?
2.-When I pray, “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us,” do I sincerely forgive others as God forgives me, or am I still holding on to their mistakes?
