March 10, 2015 Tuesday: 3rd Week of Lent, Lenten Pilgrimage
A Lenten Pilgrimage
Tuesday of the Third Week
March 10, 2015
‘Should you not have had pity on your fellow servant,
as I had pity on you?’ Matthew 18:33
Concrete lessons in forgiveness are more powerful than mere verbal exhortations. We may never forget that St. John Paul II went to a prison to visit the man who shot him. St. John Paul presented the man with a silver rosary and his forgiveness. However, Nothing can compare with our Lord dying on the cross yet He still managed to say: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”
Jesus wants us to imitate the forgiving master in today’s parable. The genuine test of our Christian faith is our readiness to forgive. Love withstands anger and forgets offenses (1Cor 13:5). I don’t believe in God who looks for reasons to punish us for being less than perfect. God surely knows how complicated human life is, how difficult it is to be a good person all the time. Even the best people cannot get everything right every time. God does not expect a perfect life but an honest effort at a good one. Life is not a test in which the passing grade is 100 percent and anything less is a failure.
Today there are many of us carrying heavy loads and are disoriented in life simply because we don’t know the good effect of forgiveness. We cannot even forgive ourselves. We have to learn that God, who can forgive sins so easily because He loves us, initiates forgiveness. So, if we really understand how much God loves us and how much He longs to forgive us our sins, we too, will easily forgive others, including ourselves.
The parable of the unforgiving servant shows how little the servant knows of the value of forgiveness offered by the master. The fault of his co-servant might have been less serious and yet he attacked him with impunity. If only he had learned how great sins were, and how gracious the master was, he would have learned how to forgive others and himself as well. (Fr. Carlos S. Lariosa)
Tuesday of the Third Week
March 10, 2015
‘Should you not have had pity on your fellow servant,
as I had pity on you?’ Matthew 18:33
Concrete lessons in forgiveness are more powerful than mere verbal exhortations. We may never forget that St. John Paul II went to a prison to visit the man who shot him. St. John Paul presented the man with a silver rosary and his forgiveness. However, Nothing can compare with our Lord dying on the cross yet He still managed to say: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”
Jesus wants us to imitate the forgiving master in today’s parable. The genuine test of our Christian faith is our readiness to forgive. Love withstands anger and forgets offenses (1Cor 13:5). I don’t believe in God who looks for reasons to punish us for being less than perfect. God surely knows how complicated human life is, how difficult it is to be a good person all the time. Even the best people cannot get everything right every time. God does not expect a perfect life but an honest effort at a good one. Life is not a test in which the passing grade is 100 percent and anything less is a failure.
Today there are many of us carrying heavy loads and are disoriented in life simply because we don’t know the good effect of forgiveness. We cannot even forgive ourselves. We have to learn that God, who can forgive sins so easily because He loves us, initiates forgiveness. So, if we really understand how much God loves us and how much He longs to forgive us our sins, we too, will easily forgive others, including ourselves.
The parable of the unforgiving servant shows how little the servant knows of the value of forgiveness offered by the master. The fault of his co-servant might have been less serious and yet he attacked him with impunity. If only he had learned how great sins were, and how gracious the master was, he would have learned how to forgive others and himself as well. (Fr. Carlos S. Lariosa)
