TO FORGIVE, IN ORDER TO BE FORGIVEN.
September 13, 2020
Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time - A.
A Persian proverb says, “Forgiveness hides a pleasure that
you can't get back from revenge.” And an Egyptian proverb adds, “If there were
no wrongdoing, there would be no forgiveness.”
“Forgive your neighbor’s injustice; then when you pray, your
own sins will be forgiven.” Forgiveness has never been an easy task. Because,
to forgive means to overlook evil, recognize the rights of people to sin or
their fallibility, and apply mercy as a suppletive of justice.
Forgiveness or mercy does not destroy justice, neither
constitutes approval to evil. Instead, it opens to a new opportunity, it gives
a new chance because it sees the better and not the worst in the person. Forgiveness
is the only medicine that not only heals the one who receives it, but does more
good to the one who gives it. In this sense, it is the most perfect of all
purges and cathartics. Even though a man may fall in evil, he deserves respect
and his dignity as a person to be preserved. In God’s vocabulary, mercy is a
new chance he gives to sinners to amend their conduct and return to Him. God’s
mercy, in that sense, shows His boundless love, a love that sees and goes
beyond human weakness. The Lord hates wickedness, but his mercy is the canticle
of his love.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church, in its part three,
life in Christ, section one, man’s
vocation, life in the Spirit, chapter one, the dignity of the human person,
article seven, the virtues, and paragraph two, the theological virtues, states,
“The practice of all the virtues is animated and inspired by charity, which
"binds everything together in perfect harmony"; it is the form of the
virtues; it articulates and orders them among themselves; it is the source and
the goal of their Christian practice. Charity upholds and purifies our human
ability to love, and raises it to the supernatural perfection of divine love”
CCC. 1827.
We could start asking ourselves, ‘Why do we forgive others’
faults?” The answer is the most obvious because we love sinners. Even though we
hate and are grievously pained by evil, the evildoer remains a brother to be
loved and accepted despite his action. By forgiving, we make a clear difference
between the action, that is sin, and its actor, that is the sinners. Mercy
teaches us that sin is bad, but the sinner is capable of good. Forgiveness,
thus, is about washing the sinner from his sin and give him a new possibility
to return into communion and harmony with others.
Today’s readings are intrinsically linked to those of last
Sunday. Through them, we learn that forgiveness is the continuation and the
actuation of fraternal correction. We correct the brother out of love because
he remains a brother worthy of love. A common ground for our meditation could
be the question of Peter in the Gospel: “Lord, if my brother sins against me,
how often must I forgive? As many as seven times?”
Before getting into the answer of Jesus that elaborates the
theory of unlimited forgiveness, Peter’s quest gives itself some elements of
reflection on the need to forgive. The first element is about who the sinner
is? Peter says, “My brother.” If we accept the sinner as our brother, that sets
us in a relationship of intimacy with him. We share something in common with
him, our brotherhood. And that thing implies a common dignity. Sin comes to
deteriorate that dignity and our relationship. Will you however deny your
brother or cut off any relationship with him because of his faults?
There is an Ivorian proverb that says, “We don't throw the
baby away with the water that was used to wash him.” Your brother, for sure is
a big sinner but he remains your brother. Therefore, wash away his sin, but
keep your brother and your love for him. Thus, the answer of Jesus, “I say to
you, not seven times but seventy-seven times.” The parable given by the Lord to
illustrate the need to be merciful unlimitedly teaches us that the first
beneficiary of mercy is the one who knows how to be merciful toward others. “So
will my heavenly Father do to you, unless each of you forgives your brother
from your heart.”
Forgiveness appears as an investment. As much as you
forgive, as much you are forgiven. And the first reading will insist on that
fact. Sirach the wise man questions, “Could anyone refuse mercy to another like
himself, can he seek pardon for his own sins?” What you refuse to others, do
not expect to receive it yourself when you ask for it. That is a basic
principle of life. And it meets the golden rule, “Do unto others as you would
have them do unto you” (Leviticus 19:1; Matthew 7:12; Luke 6:31). It is all
about reciprocity; forgive, in order to be forgiven, as we ask in the Lord’s
prayer.
Sadly, many people are filled with an unforgiving spirit.
Many are they, who nourish revenge against others as if they were raising a
baby. We feed evil in our hearts against those who wrong us. Oftentimes, we
wish to deal out with them till the last penny. But strangely, we always come
to the Lord to ask him not to count our crimes and our transgressions against
love. Why don't we first try not to count the misconducts of our brothers and
sisters? Sirach sternly warns us, “The vengeful will suffer the Lord’s
vengeance, for he remembers their sins in detail.”
Let us keep this reminder of Paul in our minds and hearts,
we all belong to Christ. Therefore, in everything that we do, we should try to
imitate him. For, says the apostle, “None of us lives for oneself, and no one
dies for oneself. For if we live, we live for the Lord, and if we die, we die
for the Lord…” knowing that truth, we should prevent ourselves to entertain
evil or spirit of vengeance and unforgiveness. Vengeance does not satisfy the evil
done to you. Only love and forgiveness can quench the fire of evil and open the
evildoer and his victim back to togetherness and harmony. The spirit of
vengeance locks you in the prison of hatred. Forgiveness frees you and frees
the one who has offended you. It opens you to love which is greater than the fault.
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