On this day of Lent we are commanded by God to do something that is usually quite impossible to do on the purely human level: that is: to forgive people for seriously wronging us – and an unlimited number of times at that. There is just something about human nature that rails against such a gesture of seeming inequality and injustice.
But in actuality it is all about equality and justice. It is all about not human equality and justice, but divine equality and justice: the only kind of equality and justice that really counts.
God would have us deal with one another as we really are, as fellow sinners who are called to a transformed reality of life. We are never to settle for or wallow in our sinfulness, we are always to hope and reach for God's graciousness and mercy – which he so eagerly and freely distributes to those who seek it.
God's equality and justice are about seeing ourselves as we truly are: members of fallen humanity who must never look upon one another in a superior or condescending sort of way – not even the seemingly most vile and repulsive among us.
In the gospel passage Jesus tells Peter that if his brother sins against him he must forgive him a limitless number of times, just as God forgives us each and all a limitless number of times. In the first reading it was those who realized what they did not have because of their sin who turned to God with their whole heart and prayed that they be dealt with kindness and great mercy: and God did this - for he seeks a humble and contrite heart!
Forgiveness of others has everything to do with having a humble and contrite heart one's self. For it is those who know they are in need of mercy and who ask mercy who can give mercy and forgiveness in very much the same way that God does. And we are called to be merciful as our Father is merciful.
Remember you mercies, O Lord: guide us in your truth and teach us: for you are God, our Savior! Lord, you show sinners the way: you guide the humble to justice: you teach the humble your ways!
No comments:
Post a Comment