In the first reading Sirach insists that anger and
resentment are hateful things. He also admonishes us to show mercy towards
others, since we look to God to have mercy for ourselves. If we hold on to
resentment and anger against others who have hurt us, how can we demand
compassion from God? And if we show no pity for a fellow human being, how can
we plead for pity for ourselves? We make it difficult for ourselves to receive
God’s forgiveness if we do not want to forgive.
Don’t wait” Too many people take too much unfinished
relational business to their graves. A man on his deathbed told the following
story. “I had a very good friend called Bob. But he and his wife moved to
another country. A little while later, my wife, Charlotte, had to have a very
severe operation. Bob and his wife never got in touch with us. I know they knew
about it. I was very hurt because they never called to see her or ever enquire
about how she was. So I dropped the relationship. Over the years I met Bob a
few times and he always tried to reconcile, but I didn’t accept it. I wasn’t
satisfied with his explanation. I was prideful. I shrugged him off. A few years
later he died of cancer. I feel so sad. I never got to see him. I never got to
forgive him. It pains me so much. My advice is: don’t wait.”
Flor McCarthy in “New Sunday & Holy Day Liturgies”
This Sunday’s parable of the ‘unforgiving servant’ is only
found in the gospel of Matthew and is intended to be a moral exhortation for
the Church on the need for forgiveness. To Peter’s question: “How often must I
forgive my brother if he wrongs me? Seven times?” In the Bible, seven indicates
completeness; and yet Jesus goes far beyond by replying: “Not seven but seventy
times seven!” Implying that there is no limit to forgiveness because God’s love
is a forgiving love. The position of the servant in Jesus’ story is absolutely
hopeless. He owes the king so much money that even if he worked forever, he
would not be able to repay him. This is the strong point of the story. All he
can do is plead for forgiveness. Our situation before God is similar to that of
the servant. We can’t win God’s forgiveness. All we can do is plead for it. But
God is generous with his forgiveness. We then must be willing to extend to
others the forgiveness God has extended to us. To refuse to forgive those who
have sinned against us would be to exclude ourselves from receiving God’s
forgiveness for our own sins. This has a real application in Church life.
The thing that is most likely to turn people away from the Church is when they
don’t find forgiveness there. Forgiveness is never easy, it is difficult but
not impossible. Resentment and bitterness are dangerous things and we can’t be
healed of them unless we forgive. To forgive is, first and foremost a duty we
owe to ourselves. We forgive for the sake of our wellbeing. We forgive to
cleanse ourselves and to receive God’s forgiveness and become instruments of
His peace for others. Forgiveness is one of the highest and most beautiful
forms of love. It is a holy task. Only God can help us to accomplish it fully.
“I give you the power to forgive” Think, for example,
the case of Timothy McVeigh, who admitted to the terrorist bombing in Oklahoma
for which he showed no remorse. The evening before he was executed, various
survivors and relatives of survivors were interviewed. I was struck with the
sense that those who thought that his execution was going to bring them a sense
of closure and peace were deceiving themselves. Far more reasonable was the
‘unreasonableness’ of a father whose daughter was killed in the disaster. He
had already come to peace and closure. He had found the grace to let it go and
believed that Timothy McVeigh should not suffer the death penalty. For this
grieving father, even McVeigh’s life sentence was not to punish him, but to
give him a chance, perhaps gradually, slowly to see the light and repent of his
crime. He remarked that he and his family had no more energy for grievance and
retribution. They had to go on living and wanted McVeigh to have the same
chance. John Pichappilly in “The Table of the Word”
Bridging the Gap: Even before the six-day war, Israel
and Jordan had been mutual enemies. But in the summer of 1994 King Hussain of
Jordan and the late President Rabin of Israel signed a peace accord. They said
they did so that their children would not need to fight any more. To prepare
the way for the signing of the peace treaty, Israel’s foreign minister, Simon
Peres, crossed the Dead Sea by helicopter to end nearly half century of enmity.
He was the first high-ranking official from Israel to openly visit Jordan. He
said, ‘It took us a mere 15 minute to ride over. But it took us 46 years to
arrive at this time and this place of peace and promise.’ On signing the treaty
King Hossain said, “Out of all the days of my life, I don’t believe there is
one such as this.” Peace is a process. So too is reconciliation. They both take
time. Flor McCarthy
An Interrupted Life: The book ‘An Interrupted Life’ is a beautiful
testament of a Dutch Jewess, Etty Hillesum, who died in the Auschwitz concentration
camp in 1943. Despite the sufferings she underwent she wrote: “it’s too easy to
turn your hatred on the outside, to live for nothing but the moment of
revenge…. Despite all the suffering and injustice, I cannot hate others.” She
forgave her tormentors because of her communion with a compassionate God. Francis
Gonsalves
Asking for forgiveness: Once in Poland an elderly
rabbi boarded a train to travel home to Warsaw. He entered a compartment in
which three salesmen were playing cards. In need of a foursome, the salesmen
asked the rabbi to join in, but he politely refused, saying he had been too
busy the whole day and needed to catch up on his prayers, and that in any case
he didn’t play cards. They tried to persuade him, but he still refused. At this
they got very hostile and started to abuse him. When he still refused, they
threw him out of the compartment, so that he had to stand in the corridor for
the rest of the journey. On arriving at Warsaw the rabbi got off the train. So
did the salesmen. The rabbi was met by a large crowd of his followers. On
seeing this one of the salesmen asked, “Who is that man?” “That’s Rabbi
Solomon, the most revered rabbi in the whole of Poland,” came the answer. On
hearing this the man regretted what he had done. He had no idea who he had
offended. So he quickly went to the rabbi and asked for forgiveness. However,
the rabbi refused to forgive him. The rabbi’s followers were taken aback at
this. They could not figure out how their rabbi, a man renowned for gentleness
and holiness, could refuse to forgive someone. So they asked him, “When someone
who has offended us asks for forgiveness, should we forgive him?” “Yes,” the
rabbi replied. “Well then, why didn’t you forgive that man?” “I can’t for him.
The salesman didn’t offend me, the chief priest of Warsaw. He offended a common
man. Let him go to him and ask for forgiveness.” In other words, he was asking
for forgiveness only because he had offended a famous person. But had it been
just an ordinary person that he had offended, it would never have occurred to
him to ask for forgiveness. – Fortunately, in our communities there are many
who are willing to forgive others. But alas, there are very few who are willing
to ask and seek forgiveness from others. Flor McCarthy
It is in forgiving that we ourselves are forgiven: Once,
two prisoners shared the same cell. A dank, dark cell it was. One of them was a
strong cruel individual. The other was gentle and timid. The prisoners were
hand-cuffed to one another. The strong man was mean and cruel to the timid man.
One day, while his companion was asleep the timid man found the key to the
cell. He desperately wanted to get away from this horrible cell. But at the
same time he did not wish to do any favours to his obnoxious companion.
However, he soon realized he could not set himself free unless he also set his
companion free. –It is like two people living in the same room, one of whom
closes the blind because he doesn’t want the other to enjoy the sunlight. But
in doing so he also deprives himself of the sunlight. Flor McCarthy
God’s fore-giving love: Perugini, an Italian painter of the Middle Ages,
stopped going for confession because he felt that people stayed sway from the
sacrament hoping to confess just before they died as a kind of ticket to
heaven. Perugini considered it sacrilegious to go to confession if, out of
fear, he were seeking to save his skin. Not knowing his inner disposition, his
wife inquired whether he was not afraid of dying unconfessed. Perugini
replied, “Darling, my job is to paint and I have excelled as a painter. God’s
profession is to forgive and if God is as good at his job as I’ve been at mine,
I’ve no reason to be afraid!” Francis Gonsalves
****
From Fr. Tony Kadavil:
1: “Adopt an orphaned Muslim child and raise him as a
Muslim in your Hindu family”: In the motion picture of the life of Gandhi,
there is a scene in which a Hindu father whose child has been killed by a
Muslim comes to Gandhi in great grief and remorse. Out of a sense of
retribution he has killed a Muslim child. He now kneels before Gandhi asking
how he can get over his guilt and regret. Gandhi, who is gravely ill, tells the
man that he must go and adopt a boy and raise him as his very own son. That
request seems reasonable but then comes a requirement: In order to find inner
peace, the Hindu man must raise the boy to be a Muslim. Overwhelmed at the
inconceivable thought of raising a son as a Muslim, the man leaves Gandhi’s
room in total disarray. Later, however, he returns and again kneels beside
Gandhi’s bed. He now understands. He must take the hostility from his heart and
replace it with love. That kind of forgiveness is more than passive resignation
to a bad situation. By the grace of God we can use forgiveness as a positive,
creative force bringing light into a darkened world.
2: “I spoke to a brother whom I have pardoned.” Thirty-nine
years ago (1981) there was an attempt on the life of Pope St. John Paul II.
Fortunately, the Pope lived. After he recovered, he shocked the world when he
made a visit to Rome’s Rabbibia Prison on Christmas Day to see the man who had
attempted to assassinate him. Millions watched on television as the Pope, on
Christmas Day, visited with Mehmet Ali Agca, who only two years before had
tried to assassinate him. The white-robed Pope and jean-clad terrorist huddled
in the dark prison cell for 20 minutes, talking in low voices that could not be
heard. When he emerged John Paul explained, “I spoke to a brother whom I have
pardoned.” We will never forget the headline the next week in Time
Magazine, “Why forgive?” That is a good question, one that has been asked
for centuries. Today’s readings give the reasons. Three months after the
terrible attack of September 11, 2001, Pope St. John Paul II, in his message
for the annual World
Day for Peace, taught clearly that there can be no peace
without justice, and there can be no justice without forgiveness. That’s a
message that has gone largely unheard and unheeded on all sides of today’s
conflicts. It’s kind of like what Chesterton said about Christianity itself –
it hasn’t been tried and found wanting; it’s been found difficult and left
untried.
3: Unforgiven sins according to Dostoevsky and
Shakespeare: Dostoevsky’s novel, Crime and Punishment deals
with unforgiven sin. The novel is little more than the tale of a young, poor,
Fascist student who murders a rich, old lady so he can get her money and
continue his studies. But the student, hounded by guilt, pursued by his sins,
finally confesses his crimes and is punished. Eloquently, so eloquently,
Dostoevsky shows us what the real world is really like, a world where sin comes
due like all debts and must be paid in full as the creditor comes calling us to
account. The same is true of Shakespeare’s play Macbeth. A man is
killed so Macbeth can usurp the crown, and Lady Macbeth, tormented by her part
in the murderous sin, is driven to insanity. She pitifully raises her hands
imagining them still to be stained with blood, and frets, “Will these hands ne’er
be clean?” Can’t we identify with Dostoevsky’s and Shakespeare’s characters? We
are sinners as they were. Some of us owe a lot. Some are sin-indebted a little.
But each of us, like the debtors in the Gospel text, must settle accounts with
the King, God Almighty Himself. Forgiveness Is Available. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)
4. A woman testified to the transformation in her life that
had resulted through her experience in conversion. She declared, “I’m so glad I
got religion. I have an uncle I used to hate so much that I vowed I’d never go
to his funeral. But now, why, I’d be happy to go to it any time.”
5. In a recent issue of Reader’s Digest, Janey
Walser wrote these words: “I once worked in a grocery store and often assisted
elderly people when they came in. One woman shopped nearly every day, asking
for just a few items each time. After a month, she said to me, “I suppose you
wonder why I’m here so often. You see, I live with my nephew. I can’t stand
him, and I am not going to die and leave him with a refrigerator full of food.”
6. Two little brothers, Harry and James, had finished
supper and were playing until bedtime. Somehow, Harry hit James with a stick,
and tears and bitter words followed. Charges and accusations were still being
exchanged as their mother prepared them for bed. She said, “Now boys, what
would happen if either of you died tonight and you never had the opportunity
again for forgiving one another?” James spoke up, “Well, OK, I’ll forgive him
tonight, but if we’re both alive in the morning, he’d better look out.”
7. A catchy little epigram by Sarah Hewit:
Every day I pass the
Church,
I stop and make a visit,
For fear that when I’m carried there
The Lord will say, “Who is it?
31- Additional anecdotes
1) “Now Abraham Lincoln belongs to the ages.” In
his sermon “Loving Your Enemies,” Martin Luther King, Jr., described an event
from history: When Abraham Lincoln was running for the presidency of the United
States, there was a man who ran all around the country speaking ill of Lincoln.
He said a lot of unkind things. “You don’t want a tall, lanky, ignorant man
like this as the President of the United States!” However, Abraham Lincoln was
elected President of the United States. When the time came for him to choose
the Secretary of War, he looked across the nation, and decided to choose a man
by the name of Mr. Stanton. When the president made this proposal before his
advisors, they were surprised: “Mr. Lincoln,” the senior adviser said, “Are you
a fool? Do you know what Mr. Stanton has been saying about you? Did you read
all of those derogatory statements that he made about you?” Abraham Lincoln
stood before the advisors around him and said: “Oh yeah. I know about it; I
read about it; I’ve heard him myself. But after looking over the country, I
find that he is the best man for the job.” Mr. Stanton did become the Secretary
of War. Later, when Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, one of the greatest
statements ever made about him was by this man, Mr. Stanton. After describing
the nobility of the president, his spirit of unconditional forgiveness and the
integrity of his character in superlatives, Stanton emphatically added, “Now
Abraham Lincoln belongs to the ages.” If Abraham Lincoln had hated Stanton, and
acted accordingly, Stanton might well have gone to his grave hating Lincoln and
Lincoln might have gone to his grave hating Stanton. But through the power of
Abraham Lincoln’s forgiving love, God was able to redeem Stanton.
2) “Richard, I want you to know that I love you and I
forgive you.” Before her death, Judy Lawson became the spiritual
Mother of scores of hardened criminals. On her last Mother’s Day, according to
Bill Myers, she received 40 Mother’s Day cards from former criminals whose
lives she touched. Her prison ministry began eighteen months after her son was
brutally murdered. She knew it was God’s will for her to forgive the murderer,
and she had spoken the words, but she continued to harbor ill will toward the
man who had robbed her of her son. She had agreed to never say “no” to God, so
when she heard Him saying, “I want you to love the man who killed your son,”
she had no choice but to fight the natural rage boiling up and to practice
Christian love and forgiveness. While visiting a prison to support a friend at
a parole hearing, she came face-to-face with the murderer. Controlling her
inner struggle in faith, she spoke to the man. “Richard,” she said, “my name is
Judy Lawson–you murdered my son and I want you to know that I love you and I
forgive you.” The man began sobbing and the prison guards had to remove her
from the facility. She sent the murderer letters. He sent them back. But she
continued to write. Her family said, “Stop.” Her pastor said, “Stop.” But her
God said, “Continue.” Soon, God’s grace broke through and the vicious killer
and the victim reconciled and began a ministry together with Judy proclaiming
grace and forgiveness to inmates. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)
3) Are you ready to forgive your neighbor? Graham
Staines, an Australian missionary, along with his family, was working among the
socially outcast lepers in the state of Orissa, India. On January 23, 1999, he
along with his two little sons – Philip and Timothy, were brutally burnt alive
in their jeep by a group of Hindu fundamentalists led by one Dara Singh. The
aftermath of this gory incident was nationally televised. What moved us to
tears when we watched TV was the sight of Mrs. Staines asking Jesus to forgive
her husband’s murders. She prayed that Jesus might touch the heart of these men
(murders) so that they might not do to others what they had done to her husband
and children. In the brutal murder of Mr. Staines and his children by Dara
Singh and his gang, we see the triumph of barbarism, and in the forgiveness of
Mrs. Staines, we see the triumph of Faith and goodness; we see in her
forgiveness the triumph of the human spirit touched by Christ. (John Rose in
John’s Sunday Homilies; quoted by Fr. Botelho). (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)
4) Loose cannon inside the ship in storm: French
author Victor Hugo has a short story titled, “93.” In the midst of this tale, a
ship at sea is caught in a terrific storm. Buffeted by the waves, the ship
rocks to and fro, when suddenly the crew hears an awesome crashing sound below
deck. They know what it is. A cannon they are carrying has broken loose and is
smashing into the ship’s sides with every list of the ship. Two brave sailors,
at the risk of their lives, manage to go below and fasten it again, for they
know that the heavy cannon on the inside of their ship is more dangerous to
them than the storm on the outside. So it is with people. Problems within are
often much more destructive to us than the problems without. Today, God’s word
would take us “below decks” to look inside ourselves concerning the whole
matter of forgiveness.
5) “Why don’t people forgive?” You may remember
Herman Melville’s classic novel, Moby Dick. The most prominent
character is the cruel, obsessive, vengeful Captain Ahab, skipper of the ship.
He hates Moby Dick, the great white whale, with a terrible passion. Every
waking hour is consumed with the question of how to destroy this leviathan that
has crippled him. Soon we see that it is not Moby Dick that is the victim of
Captain Ahab’s hatred but Ahab himself. In his obsession he kills everything
around him – the whale, the crew and finally himself. How could anyone let rage
get so out of control? Why do we find it so hard to forgive? Obviously the
first answer is that the pain is too deep. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)
6) “I left my anger and regret at the gates of that
prison.” Pete Peterson was appointed U.S. ambassador to Vietnam in the late
1990s. Long before that, however, Peterson had served six years as a prisoner
of war in the dreaded “Hanoi Hilton” prison camp. He endured unspeakable brutality,
starvation, and torture at the hands of his captures. They robbed him of six
years of his life he will never get back. Never. And when asked how he could
return to this land as an ambassador, he replied, “I left my anger and regret
at the gates of that prison when I walked out in 1972. I just left it behind me
and decided to move forward with my life.” [Shoulda, Coulda, Woulda:
Live in the Present, Find Your Future by Dr. Les Parrott, (Grand Rapids, MI:
Zondervan, 2003).] “How many times may my brother sin against me, and I
forgive him?” asked Peter. “As many as seven times?” Jesus
answered him, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy times seven
times.”
7) “It’s a list of people I plan on biting before I die.” A
man was bitten by a dog. Later it was discovered that the dog had rabies. This
was back when there was no cure for rabies. His doctor brought him the bad
news. “Everything possible will be done to make you comfortable,” he said, “but
we can’t offer any false hope. My best advice to you is to put your affairs in
order as soon as possible.” The man very calmly got out a piece of paper and
began furiously writing. The doctor said: “What are you doing, making out your
will?” He said: “Oh no, I’m writing out a list of people I’m going to bite.”
Our subject today is forgiveness. How many times must I forgive someone who has
hurt me, abused me, exploited me? That is Simon Peter’s question. How many
times? Would seven times be enough? (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)
8) “I have many more bridges to build”: Once
upon a time two brothers, who lived on adjoining farms, fell into conflict. It
was the first serious rift in 40 years of farming side by side, sharing
machinery, and trading labor and goods as needed without a conflict. Then the
long collaboration fell apart. It began with a small misunderstanding and it
grew into a major difference, and finally it exploded into an exchange of
bitter words followed by weeks of silence. One morning there was a knock on
John’s door. He opened it to find a man with a carpenter’s tool box. “I’m
looking for a few days’ work” he said. “Perhaps you would have a few small jobs
here and there I could help with? Could I help you?” “Yes,” said the older
brother. “I do have a job for you.” “Look across the creek at that farm.
That’s my neighbor; in fact, it’s my younger brother. Last week there was a
meadow between us and he took his bulldozer to the river levee and now there is
a creek between us. Well, he may have done this to spite me, but I’ll do him
one better.” “See that pile of lumber by the barn? I want you to build me
a fence –an 8-foot fence — so I won’t need to see his place or his face
anymore.” The carpenter said, “I think I understand the situation. Show me the
nails and the post-hole digger and I’ll be able to do a job that pleases you.”
The older brother had to go to town, so he helped the carpenter get the
materials ready and then he was off for the day. The carpenter worked hard all
that day measuring, sawing, nailing. About sunset when the farmer returned, the
carpenter had just finished his job. The farmer’s eyes opened wide, his jaw
dropped. There was no fence there at all. It was a bridge — a bridge stretching
from one side of the creek to the other! A fine piece of work, handrails and
all — and the neighbor, his younger brother was coming toward them, his hand
outstretched. “You are quite a fellow to build this bridge after all I’ve said
and done.” The two brothers stood at each end of the bridge, and then
they met in the middle, taking each other’s hand. They turned to see the carpenter
hoist his toolbox onto his shoulder. “No, wait! Stay a few days. I’ve a lot of
other projects for you,” said the older brother. “I’d love to stay on,” the
carpenter said, “but I have many more bridges to build.” (Fr. Eugene Lobo S.
J.).
9) General Patton learned to forgive: They said
that World War II military hero George Patton couldn’t or wouldn’t control his
temper as a young officer. Patton once ordered a mule shot. Why? It had gotten
in the way of his jeep. He forced members of an antiaircraft unit to stand at
attention for being sloppily dressed, despite the fact that they had just
beaten off an attack, and some of the men were wounded. In one notorious
incident, he slapped a hospitalized, shell‑shocked soldier, and denounced the
man for being a coward. Patton’s commander, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, did
not believe that Patton lacked self‑control, only that he was refusing to
practice it. He ordered Patton to publicly apologize for slapping the soldier,
put Patton on probation, and postponed his promotion to general. Notice this:
after this reprimand by Eisenhower, there were no more reports that Patton
committed acts of emotional or physical abuse during the two remaining years of
World War II. In other words, Patton could control himself when motivated to do
so. [Joseph Telushkin, The Ten Commandments of Character (New
York, NY: Random House, Inc., 2003), pp. 37-38.]
10) Forgiveness extended to the wife of the murderer of
President Kennedy: A couple of days after President Kennedy was
tragically gunned down in Dallas, Texas, a Presbyterian church from the state
of Michigan wrote to the wife of Lee Harvey Oswald. They had heard that she
wished to stay in America and learn the English language. They took it upon
themselves to write to her and invite her to come to their community with the
promise of finding her a home that she might get a fresh start on a productive
life. Unfortunately, many persons both in the local community and from around the
nation got wind of this plan and began writing many critical letters about
their offer to this widow. One person probably described the situation most
correctly when she said, “I never heard of a Church doing anything like this
before.” She knew that forgiveness is not often found even in a group of
believers who could probably best be called and known as “sinners anonymous.”
Forgiveness is so hard. Forgiveness is very difficult unless we follow the
example of Christ.
11) “No, that man was my deadly enemy.” During
the Revolutionary War, at the town of Ephrata there lived a very reputable and
highly respectable citizen who had suffered an injury from a worthless and vile
man in their town. This wicked man enlisted in the army, and there lived up to
his evil record in civil life. Presently he was arrested for a serious offense,
convicted by a court martial and sentenced to be hanged. The news of the
sentence got back to Ephrata. Then that citizen whom this convicted man had
wronged set out for the army, walking all the way to Philadelphia and beyond.
When he found his way to President Washington’s headquarters, he pleaded for the
life of this convicted man. Washington heard him through and then said he was
sorry, but he could not grant the request. But seeing the disappointment in the
man’s face when he turned to go, Washington said, “Are you a relative of this
man?” The man said, “No.” “Then,” said Washington, “are you his friend?” “No,
that man was my deadly enemy.” Nothing that we must forget and forgive and let
go is even remotely close to what God has had to overlook and forgive in
us.
12) Hostility index and death rate: There was an
interesting study conducted by the Gallup Organization and reported in 1994. In
this study, Philadelphia ranked first among U.S. cities on what was called the
“hostility index.” The hostility index was based on a nine-question scale that
asked people how they felt about such things as loud rock music, supermarket
checkout lines, and traffic jams. Other cities on the hostility top five were
New York, Cleveland, Chicago, and Detroit. Perhaps you saw in the newspapers
just a few months ago that New York City has a much higher death rate than
average from coronary disease. At the bottom of the hostility index were Des
Moines, Minneapolis, Denver, Seattle, and Honolulu. Medical experts looking at
the results felt it was no coincidence that the cities that rated high on the
hostility index also had higher death rates. Commenting on the study, Dr.
Redford Williams of Duke University Medical School said, “Anger kills. There is
a strong correlation between hostility and death rates. The angrier people are
and the more cynical they are, the shorter their life span.” [Contemporary
Illustrations for Preachers, Teachers and Writers. Craig Brian Larson, ed.
(Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Books, 1996), p. 17.] — Dr. Robert R. Kopp puts
it this way: grudge-holders are grave-diggers and the only graves that they dig
are their own. Or as John Huffman once said, “The world’s most miserable person
is one who won’t forgive. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)
13) “But how can I keep the sun from going down?” Richard
W. DeHaan tells the story of a little boy who had a fight with his brother. As
the day passed, he refused to speak to his brother. At bedtime, their mother
said, “Don’t you think you should forgive your brother before you go to sleep?
The Bible says we should not let the sun go down on our wrath.” After some
perplexed reflection, the boy replied, “But how can I keep the sun from going
down?” [Herb Miller, Actions Speak Louder than Verbs (Nashville:
Abingdon Press, 1989).] We can all appreciate what he is saying, but the truth
is that nurtured resentment hurts most the one who nurtures it.
14) “Perhaps, you would prefer, after all, to take the
money?” There is a story about a judge in a middle‑eastern country who
was trying to resolve a difficult case. The wife of a deceased man was asking
for the death sentence to be imposed upon the man who had killed her husband.
It seems that while he was in a tree gathering dates, the man had fallen upon
the woman’s husband and fatally injured him.
“Was the fall intentional?” the judge inquired. “Were these
men enemies?”
“No,” the woman replied. “Even so,” she said, “I want my
revenge.”
Despite the judge’s repeated attempts to dissuade her, the
widow demanded the blood price to which the law entitled her. The judge even
suggested that a sum of money would serve her better than vengeance. No dice.
“It is your right to seek compensation,” the judge finally declared, “and it is
your right to ask for this man’s life. And it is my right,” he continued, “to
decree how he shall die. And so,” the judge declared, “you shall take this man
with you immediately. He shall be tied to the foot of a palm tree; and you
shall climb to the top of the tree and throw yourself down upon him from a
great height. In this way you will take his life as he took your husband’s.”
Only silence met the judge’s decree. Then the judge spoke: “Perhaps,” he said,
“you would prefer after all to take the money?” She did.
(http://frtonyshomilies.com/)
(http://www.dbcity.com/churches/res/01‑08‑06.htm).
15) “Fred Snodgrass, 86, Dead; Ballplayer Muffed Fly in
1912.” Fred Snodgrass was a successful baseball player for the Giants,
but he was remembered for one of his failures. In the 1912 World Series, he
dropped a pop fly. His error set up the winning run, for the next batter hit a
single. Consequently, the Giants lost the game and the Series. When he died in
1974, the New York Times printed this headline: “Fred
Snodgrass, 86, Dead; Ballplayer Muffed Fly in 1912.” Sixty-two years later, and
yet they could not forget his mistake. Never mind the fact that Fred later
became mayor of the city of Oxnard, California, was a successful banker and
rancher and raised a fine family. He dropped a pop-up in the 1912 series, and
they couldn’t forget his mistake. How different from Christ who not only
forgives our mistakes but forgets them! Forgiveness is not easy; but it is
always the will of God. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)
16) “I went and sowed seed in my enemy’s field that God
might exist.” The Norwegian writer Johan Bojer, in The Great Hunger, tells
of a man whose little child was killed by a neighbor’s dog. Revenge would not
long satisfy this man, so he found a better way to relieve the agony of his
heart. When a famine had plagued the people and his neighbor’s fields lay bare
and he had no corn to plant for next year’s harvest, the troubled father went
out one night and sowed the neighbor’s field, explaining: “I went and sowed
seed in my enemy’s field that God might exist.” (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)
17) “You know that it is in my power to pardon you?” A
captive was once brought before King James II of England. The King chided the
prisoner: “You know that it is in my power to pardon you?” The scared, shaking
prisoner replied, “Yes, I know it is in your power to pardon me, but it is not
in your nature.” The prisoner had keen insight to know that unless we have had
a spiritual rebirth we have no nature to forgive. The good news of the Gospel
of Jesus Christ, is that it is both in the power and the nature of Jesus to
forgive and to pardon. Yes, Jesus doesn’t forgive the sin as much as he
forgives us.
18) They had been praying for him all night. Ron
Lee Davis, in his book, A Forgiving God in an Unforgiving World, tells about a
moment when God’s remarkable spirit of forgiveness became real to him. His best
friend Jim had been hit and killed while out riding a motorcycle. The driver of
the car, Mr. Smith, simply hadn’t seen Jim in time and had plowed right into
him. As Ron drove to visit Jim’s parents, he struggled with anger against Mr.
Smith. He was amazed to discover, however, that Jim’s family felt only
compassion for the man who had accidentally killed their son. In fact, the first
question they asked when Ron walked through the door was, “Do you know how Mr.
Smith is doing?” They had been praying for him all night. [Ron Lee Davis, A
Forgiving God in and Unforgiving World, p.13. Used in “In His Own Words:
Your Sins Are Forgiven” by C. Thomas Hilton, The Clergy Journal (October
1998), p. 30.] There are people like that in this world. They forgive those who
have done them wrong. They are called Christians.
19) War of the Roses : In a
real life parallel to the movie War of the Roses, a couple
waged a battle of mayhem. It all began when the husband canceled one vacation
trip too many for his wife. She expressed her disappointment by pouring
bicarbonate of soda into the fish tank, wiping out his rare tropical fish. A
long argument followed. Finally, he grabbed a selection of his wife’s diamond jewellery
and threw it into the garbage disposal. She responded by flinging all his
stereo equipment into the swimming pool. He then doused her $200,000 wardrobe –
fur coats, designer gowns and all – with liquid bleach. Then things began to go
downhill. She poured a gallon of paint all over his $70,000 Ferrari. So he
kicked a hole in a $180,000 Picasso original she loved. She had just opened the
sea cocks of his 38 foot yacht, causing it to sink at its dock, when the
couple’s daughter came home and saw what had been going on. She called the
police. They were powerless to do anything. It was not illegal for the couple
to destroy their own property. Eventually the family lawyer managed to arrange
a truce. [William A. Marsano, Man Suffocated by Potatoes, (New
York: New American Library, 1987).] Unhappy marriages probably produce the
largest number of houses of spite. Divorce doesn’t help. A recent survey showed
that many divorced couples still feel rejected a decade after the breakup.
Though they marry again, they stay angry and bitter. Forty-one percent of the
remarried woman were still furious at their first husbands a decade later.
Thirty-one percent of the men felt the same. How do we let it go? How do we
keep our resentment and anger from destroying us? Simon Peter asked Jesus,
“Lord, how many times must I forgive my brother? Seven times?” That is
certainly a relevant question. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)
20) “The Woman Who Beat the Ku Klux Klan.” Beulah
Mae McDonald is a black woman who has earned a reputation as “The Woman Who
Beat the Ku Klux Klan.” On March 21, 1981, Mrs. McDonald had a dream in which
she saw a steel-gray casket sitting in her living room. Every time she tried to
move closer to the casket, someone told her, “You don’t need to see this.” But
Mrs. McDonald knew that she did have to see it. And when she awoke from her
dream, the first thing she did was to look in the other bedroom where her
youngest son Michael was supposed to be sleeping. He was not there. When the
boy didn’t come home the next morning, Mrs. McDonald knew that something was
wrong. The phone rang. The caller said, “They had a party here, and they killed
your son. You better send somebody over.” A few blocks away, in a racially
mixed neighborhood, about a mile from the Mobile, Alabama, police station, they
found Michael McDonald’s body hanging from a tree. Around his neck was a
perfectly tied noose with 13 loops. On a front porch across the street,
watching police gather evidence were members of the United Klans of America,
one of the largest and most violent of the Ku Klux Klans. Looking across the
street, Bennie Jack Hays, the 64-year-old Titan of the United Klans, said, “A
pretty sight. That’s gonna look good on the news. Gonna look good for the
Klan.” The men who killed Beulah Mae McDonald’s son thought they would go free.
But they were wrong. Not only did the young black man’s killer receive the
death penalty, but Mrs. McDonald won a seven-million dollar lawsuit which broke
the back of this hate group which is driven by the power of Satan. Mrs.
McDonald was a single mother who had to raise her children alone and in poverty.
She says this about raising her children: “I wasn’t able to get everything for
them, but I let them know the value of things.” Her method of childrearing was
that of love and religion. On Sunday morning, Mrs. McDonald would take her
family to Church in the morning and remain there all day. “I’m a strong
believer,” she explains. “I don’t know about man, but I know what God can do.”
It was the power of God that enabled Beulah Mae to do that which would have
been impossible for an unbeliever. Her faith in God enabled her to forgive even
those who had murdered her son. At the civil trial, one of the Klansmen
implicated in the crime named Tiger Knowles turned to Mrs. McDonald. They
locked eyes for the first time. Knowles spoke of the seven million dollars which
he and the others were going to have to pay as the consequence of their crime.
“I can’t bring your son back,” he said sobbing and shaking. “God knows if I
could trade places with him, I would. I can’t. Whatever it takes — I have
nothing. But I will have to do it. And if it takes me the rest of my life to
pay for it, any comfort it may bring, I hope it will.” By this time, the jurors
were crying. The judge had tears in his eyes. Then Beulah Mae McDonald said
these words: “I do forgive you. From the day I found out who you all was, I
asked God to take care of y’all, and He has.” Who among us could show that kind
of forgiveness? The answer is that none of us could ever do it without faith in
God. [“The Woman Who Beat the Klan,” New York Times Magazine (November
1, 1987), pp. 26-39.] (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)
21) Power to forgive: Corrie ten Boom lived
in Amsterdam in the Netherlands during World War II. Her family owned a
watchmaker’s shop. When the Nazis occupied the Netherlands, her family began to
help Jews, who were systematically being rounded up and sent to death camps.
Eventually someone turned the family in, and they were sent off to
concentration camps. Corrie and her sister, Betsy, were sent to the infamous
Ravensbruck camp. Only Corrie survived the family ordeal. After the war she
travelled about Europe, lecturing on forgiveness and reconciliation. After one
talk in Munich, Germany, a man came forward to thank her for the talk. Corrie
couldn’t believe her eyes. He was one of the Nazi guards who used to stand duty
in the women’s shower room at Ravensbruck. The man reached out to shake
Corrie’s hand. Corrie froze, unable to take his hand. The horror of the camp
and the death of her sister leaped back into her memory. She was filled with
resentment and revulsion. Corrie couldn’t believe her response. She had just
given a moving talk on forgiveness, and now she herself couldn’t forgive
someone. She was emotionally blocked, unable to shake the guard’s hand. As
Corrie stood there, frozen, she began to pray silently: At that moment, she
said, her hand, as if empowered by another source, took the guard’s hand in
true forgiveness. At that moment, she discovered a great truth. It is not on
our own forgiveness that healing in our world hinges, but on His. When Jesus
commands us to love our enemies, he gives along with the command the grace we
will need to forgive them. (Mark Link in Sunday Homilies). (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)
22) “I use your toothbrush!” A certain married
couple had many sharp disagreements. Yet somehow the wife always stayed calm
and collected. One day her husband commented on his wife’s restraint. “When I
get mad at you,” he said, “you never fight back. How do you control your anger?”
The wife said: “I work it off by cleaning the toilet.”
The husband asked: “How does that help?”
She said: “I use your toothbrush!” (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)
23) When did your last forgive? You may
remember the story of the grandmother celebrating her golden wedding
anniversary who told the secret of her long and happy marriage. “On my wedding
day, I decided to make a list often of my husband’s faults which, for the sake
of the marriage, I would overlook.” A guest asked the woman what some of the
faults she had chosen to overlook were. The grandmother replied, “To tell you
the truth, I never did get around to making that list. But whenever my husband
did something that made me hopping mad, I would say to myself, “Lucky for him
that’s one of the ten. Application: When was the last time it was very
difficult to forgive? If we did forgive, how did it feel? (Gerard Fuller in
Stories for all Seasons; quoted by Fr. Botelho). (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)
24) God’s forgiving love: Perugini, an
Italian painter of the Middle Ages, stopped going for confession because he
felt that people stayed away from the Sacrament hoping to confess just before
they died as a kind of ticket to Heaven. Perugini considered it sacrilegious to
go to confession if, out of fear, he were seeking to save his skin. Not knowing
his inner disposition, his wife inquired whether he was not afraid of dying
unconfessed. Perugini replied, “Darling, my job is to paint and I’ve excelled
as a painter. God’s profession is to forgive and if God is good at his job as
I’ve been at mine, I’ve no reason to be afraid!”-The book, “An Interrupted
Life,” is the beautiful testament of a Dutch Jewess, Etty Hillesum (27), who
died in the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1943. Despite the sufferings she
underwent she wrote: “It’s too easy to turn your hatred loose on the outside,
to live for nothing but the moment of revenge… Despite all the suffering and
injustice, I cannot hate others.” She forgave her tormentors because of her
communion with a compassionate God. (Francis Gonsalves in Sunday Seeds for
Gospel Deeds; quoted by Fr. Botelho).
25) Forgiveness given by the Lebanese hostages: When
their ordeal as hostages in Lebanon had come to an end, most of the more than a
dozen men, who were held for all or part of eight years (AD 1984-1991),
committed their experiences to writing. Their books contain accounts of
desperate loneliness, brutal torture, incessant interrogations and emotions
which ran the gamut from rage to fear, from resentment to hope, from hatred to
forgiveness. One of the hostages, Brian Keenan, recounted “Each of us had to
reach inside himself to find that which was necessary to survive.” For Catholic
priest, Reverend Lawrence Martin Jenco, captured in 1985, survival included
forgiving those who made pain and abuse an integral part of each of his nights
and days. In the published report of his experiences (Bound to Forgive, Ave
Maria Press, Notre Dame: 1995), Rev. Jenco traced what he called his pilgrimage
to reconciliation and forgiveness. “One day in Rome”, wrote Rev. Jenco, “within
days of my release from captivity, a paparazzi shouted at me
from a distance, ‘Father Jenco, what are your feelings toward the terrorists
who held you?’ I responded without much thought: ‘I’m a Christian. I must
forgive them’.” Then he realized the lengthy process which had enabled him to
offer this almost glib, automatic response. Forgiveness had not come easy. How
does a person forgive being forcibly abducted, thrown into a car trunk and
robbed of five hundred and sixty-four days of life? How does a person forgive
being gagged with a dirty rag, wrapped from head to foot with packing tape? How
does a person forgive being stripped of clothing and chained to a radiator? How
can being kept for six months in dark isolation and deprived of food and water
for days at a time be forgiven? How can a person forgive another who
deliberately breaks his glasses, leaving him unable to see? How can being
kicked and beaten until senseless be forgiven? How can a person forgive another
who sprayed toxic chemicals in his mouth to prevent his snoring? How? But, Rev.
Jenco was able to forgive his captors and abusers because he kept, uppermost in
his mind and in the depths of his heart the teachings of Jesus. He wrote, in
what he called his hostage journal, all the scripture texts he could remember
concerning forgiveness. Among these texts were a section of today’s first
reading: “Forgive your neighbor’s injustice; then when you pray, your own sins
will be forgiven” (Sirach 28:2), and from today’s Gospel: “Each of you must
forgive his brother from his heart” (Matthew 18:35). As Rev. Jenco noted,
“Writing these passages was the easy part, making them incarnate was no easy
task.” The fact that he had accomplished this difficult task was evident in the
conversation Rev. Jenco had with one of his guards named Sayeed. It was near
the end of his captivity, although Rev. Jenco had no way of knowing that he
would soon be released. Sayeed, who had brutalized him many times, had begun to
call Rev. Jenco “Abouna”, an Arabic name meaning “dear father.” Sayeed asked if
Abouna remembered the first six months of his captivity. Rev. Jenco responded
that he did remember all the pain and suffering he and his brother hostages had
endured at the hands of Sayeed and the other guards. Then Sayeed asked in a
quiet voice, “Abouna, do you forgive me?” Overwhelmed by this question, the
still blindfolded Rev. Jenco recognized Sayeed’s question to be a call from
God. Could he let go of his anger and vindictiveness? He realized that he was
being challenged to forgive unconditionally, not just one wrong but
hundreds of instances of persecution and abuse. He realized that he could not
forgive Sayeed on the condition that he change his behavior or conform to other
values. When he, at last found words to respond to Sayeed, Rev. Jenco said,
“Sayeed, there were times when I hated you. I was filled with anger and revenge
for what you did to me and my brothers. But Jesus said on a mountain top that I
was not to hate you. I was to love you. Sayeed, I need to ask God’s forgiveness
and yours.” After forgiving Sayeed, Rev. Jenco felt free and empowered by God’s
word. Those same words empower us today. When we make our own the message of
this Sunday’s readings, then the challenges to forgive, which are part of our
everyday lives can be met. (Patricia Datchuck Sánchez).
26) Two Million Dollar Mistake: John D.
Rockefeller built the great Standard Oil empire. Not surprisingly, Rockefeller
was a man who demanded high performance from his executives. One day, one of
those executives made a two-million-dollar mistake. Word of the man’s enormous
error quickly spread throughout the executive offices, and the other men began
to make themselves scarce, not wanting to cross his path. One man didn’t have
any choice, however, since he had an appointment with the boss. So, he
straightened his shoulders and walked into Rockefeller’s office. As he
approached Rockefeller’s desk, he looked up from the piece of paper on which he
was writing. “I guess you’ve heard about the two- million-dollar mistake our
friend made,” he said abruptly. “Yes,” the executive said, expecting
Rockefeller to explode. “Well, I’ve been sitting here listing all of our
friend’s good qualities, and I’ve discovered that in the past he has made us
many more times the amount he lost for us today by his one mistake. His good
points far outweigh this one human error. So, I think we ought to forgive him,
don’t you?” (Dale Galloway, You Can Win with Love, in The Tale of the
Tardy Oxcart, Charles Swindoll, Word Pub., p. 215).
27) “I give you the power to forgive.” Think,
for example, the case of Timothy McVeigh, who admitted to the terrorist bombing
in Oklahoma for which he showed no remorse. The evening before he was executed,
various survivors and relatives of survivors were interviewed. I was struck
with the sense that those who thought that his execution was going to bring
them a sense of closure and peace were deceiving themselves. Far more
reasonable was the ‘unreasonableness’ of a father whose daughter was killed in
the disaster. He had already come to peace and closure. He had found the grace
to let it go and believed that Timothy McVeigh should not suffer the death
penalty. For this grieving father, even McVeigh’s life sentence was not to punish
him, but to give him a chance, perhaps gradually, slowly to see the light and
repent of his crime. He remarked that he and his family had no more energy for
grievance and retribution. They had to go on living and wanted McVeigh to have
the same chance. (John Pichappilly in The Table of the Word; quoted by Fr.
Botelho). (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)
28) Bridging the Gap: Even before the six-day war, Israel and Jordan had been mutual enemies. But in the summer of 1994 King Hussein of Jordan and the late Prime Minister Ytzhak Rabin of Israel (assassinated November 4, 1995), signed a peace accord. They said they did so that their children would not need to fight any more. To prepare the way for the signing of the peace treaty, Israel’s foreign minister, Simon Peres, crossed the Dead Sea by helicopter to end nearly half century of enmity. He was the first high-ranking official from Israel to openly visit Jordan. He said, ‘It took us a mere 15-minute to ride over. But it took us 46 years to arrive at this time and this place of peace and promise.’ On signing the treaty King Hossain said, “Out of all the days of my life, I don’t believe there is one such as this.”– Peace is a process. So too is reconciliation. They both take time. (Flor McCarthy in ‘New Sunday Holy Days and Liturgies’ quoted by Fr. Botelho). (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)
29) Forging community of the forgiven: Anglican
Archbishop Desmond Tutu has been a driving force in promoting peaceful
relations among the various political factions in his native South Africa.
Aware that forgiveness and mutual respect for the differences of others are
necessary to any peaceable union, he once said, “We witness… by being a
community of reconciliation, a forgiving community of the forgiven.” Moreover,
Archbishop Tutu declared that the community of believers, who are both salt and
light for the world, have no other choice but to serve its needs. Said he,
“We must transfigure a situation of hate and suspicion, of
brokenness and separation, of fear and bitterness. We have no option; we are
servant to the God who reigns and cares.” In chapter fourteen of his letter to
the Roman church, Paul acknowledged that there were factions and differences
within the community which threatened its unity. Like Archbishop Tutu, Paul
reminded his readers that their belonging to God, in both life and death, meant
that they should conduct themselves as responsible servants. As such, they were
to treat one another with the same quality of love and understanding as they
themselves experienced in their relationship with God. (Sanchez Files).
30 Those who forgive best are those who are
forgiven. The following personal reflection of Mario
Estrella, my former student and member of the religious congregation Opifices
Christi is insightful. When I was working as one of the
training officers of the different training programs of the Department of
Education, I had made a decision that was detrimental to the mandate of the Department
to provide continuous service to teachers and principals. My immediate superior
called it to my attention when he discovered my irresponsibility and
incompetence. I thought I would be reprimanded and incriminated for negligence
and my conduct, which was unbecoming to a government employee. The superior
asked me if I was guilty of the offense and I replied affirmatively. He
surprised me when he asked, “If I keep you in your present capacity, can I
trust you in the future? “I replied, “I am sorry, sir. I have learned my lesson
and you surely can trust me again.“ He must have detected the sincerity of my
repentance. “I am not going to press charges anymore, and you can continue in
your present responsibility,” he said. He told me then that he had once succumbed
to the same situation, but he was given mercy and was asked to learn from it.
His position now in the Department can attest how far he has gone because of
the opportunity accorded to him. Truly, according to Steve Goodlier, those who
forgive best are those who are forgiven.– The story is centered on the fruit of
forgiveness. Forgiveness multiplies when freely given to the offender. Whether
we like it or not, something good may come out from the experience and could
probably change the person for the better. (Lectio Divina). (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)
31) Wasn’t bullying wrong? The
following is a personal testimony of forgiving a neighbor’s injustice (cf.
Joshua Sundquist in Daily Guideposts 2015, p. 373). I
entered high school after eight years of home-schooling. I knew very few people
and had just lost a leg to cancer, so I was worried about how the other
students would treat me. As if to confirm my worst fears, an upperclassman
deliberately tripped me as I walked down the hall on my artificial leg and then
made fun of me. When I told my mom what had happened, she cried. Years have
passed, and a few weeks ago I got an unexpected message online. It was from the
upperclassman. He tracked me down to say how guilty he has felt about that day
and wanted to know if I would forgive him. I wasn’t sure. Would forgiving him
be tantamount to condoning his actions? Wasn’t bullying wrong? I talked it
over with a few friends, and the advice was split. But then I remembered that
God forgives and loves me despite much greater shortcomings than those
displayed by that bully. So it was not my place to withhold forgiveness. It was
not my job to evaluate the merits of his apology or decide whether he deserved
forgiveness. I wrote him back and told him that it was no big deal. Because
really, it wasn’t. And I’m certainly not going to let a bully trip me up in my
relationship with God. (Lectio Divina). (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)
***
From the Sermons.com
As with so many of the stories of Jesus, the parable of the
debtors arose out of a question that was posed to Jesus. Simon Peter said to
him: "Master, if my brother sins against me, how many times should I
forgive him? Seven times? Even as he asks that question my mind cannot help but
think about children and how they will sometimes confess something they do
wrong expecting to get praise from a teacher or a parent because they were so
honest.
"If a man transgresses one time, forgive him. If a man
transgresses two times, forgive him. If a man transgresses three times, forgive
him. If a man transgresses four times, do not forgive him." What Peter has
done is to take this law of limited forgiveness, multiply it by two and add
one, and then sit back with a smile on his face and say: Now how is that for
being a great guy? And he surely must have been taken aback when Jesus said you
must forgive seventy times seven.
Then Jesus proceeded to tell a story. There was a certain
king who had a day of reckoning for his servants...
Most adults recognize it is their "job" to teach
children right from wrong, good from bad, safe from scary, yes from
no.
But there are some lessons that children are better at teaching us. Think about
celebrations like birthdays (especially Christmas), and Easter, and any other
special days that have the possibility of "presents" attached. Kids
LOVE them, anticipate and adore them. Children love and accept presents with
unabashed enthusiasm. Receiving a gift is "all good."
For adults it is a bit more difficult. We worry about the
cost of the gift. We worry about reciprocating the gift. We worry about whether
the gift has invisible "strings" attached. Suddenly
"receiving" is a bit more complicated than just joyous. Receiving a
gift is hard for most of us. We either feel beholden, or suspicious, or
overwhelmed, or unworthy of the freely given gifts (gratuities) that bless us.
That's why adults often become better givers than receivers.
The adult vs. child version of acceptance is even greater
with the other tremendous "gift" young children are good at offering
and accepting. Kindergarten kids might get into a heated battle over who gets
custody of a Ninja Turtle figure. Tears and blows might even be involved. But
after a truce is called, and apologies are offered (or sometimes enforced), in
a short time all is forgiven, and (play) time goes on. Forgiveness is offered
and the play date goes on.
There are no thoughts of revenge. There is no nurturing of
anger. There are no dreams of retaliation...
Forgiveness Written in Stone
A story is told of two friends who were walking through the
desert. During some point of the journey they had an argument, and one friend
slapped the other one in the face. The one who got slapped was hurt, but
without saying anything, wrote in the sand, "Today my best friends slapped
me in the face."
They kept on walking until they found an oasis, where they
decided to take a bath. The one who had been slapped got stuck in the mire and
started drowning, but the friend saved him. After he recovered from nearly
drowning, he wrote on a stone, "Today my best friend saved my
life."
His friend asked him, "After I hurt you, you wrote in
the sand and now, you write on a stone, why?" The other friend replied
"When someone hurts us we should write it down in sand where winds of
forgiveness can erase it away. But, when someone does something good for us, we
must engrave it in stone where no wind can ever erase it."
So real forgiveness keeps on leaving the sins of others and
our hurts in the past. Yet Jesus understands the difficulty of such
forgiveness. To keep on forgiving is a God-like characteristic. It is contrary
to human nature. So He gives a parable beginning in v.23 which will help us
obey His commandment to keep on forgiving.
Stephen Felker, How Often Should I Forg_
To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable
because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you. C.S. Lewis
The Danger within Us: French author Victor Hugo has a
short story titled, "93." In the midst of this tale a ship at sea is
caught in a terrific storm. Buffeted by the waves, the boat rocks to and fro,
when suddenly the crew hears an awesome crashing sound below deck. They know
what it is. A cannon they are carrying has broken loose and is smashing into
the ship's sides with every list of the ship. Two brave sailors, at the risk of
their lives, manage to go below and fasten it again, for they know that the
heavy cannon on the inside of their ship is more dangerous to them than the
storm on the outside. So it is with people. Problems within are often much more
destructive to us than the problems without. Today, God's word would take us
"below decks" to look inside ourselves concerning the whole matter of
forgiveness.
Stephen M. Crotts / George L. Murphy, Sermons For Sundays:
After Pentecost (Middle Third): The Incomparable Christ, , CSS Publishing Company,
Inc.
In the ancient world cruel treatment was practiced against
debtors, often without regard to the debtor's ability or intention to repay. In
Athens prior to the establishment of democratic rights, a creditor could demand
slave labor of his debtor or of members of the debtor's family as surety of
payment.
Roman law provided punishment by imprisonment to the
debtors. The reason for imprisonment and cruel treatment was to force the
debtor to sell whatever property he might secretly own, or to have the debtor's
relatives pay his debt.
The creditor would demand slave labor of the entire family
so that the debt might be worked off. There were legal restrictions to prevent
extreme cruelty, but in spite of the laws the entire system of debts and
sureties was recklessly abused in the ancient world.
The prophets frequently condemned violations of the
laws.
James R. Davis, The Unmerciful Servant
Saved by Forgiveness: Since nothing we intend is ever faultless, and nothing we attempt ever without error, and nothing we achieve without some measure of finitude and fallibility we call humanness, we are saved by forgiveness. David Augsburger
Forgiveness Is Not Innate
William Willimon writes: "The human animal is not
supposed to be good at forgiveness. Forgiveness is not some innate, natural
human emotion.
Vengeance, retribution, violence, these are natural human
qualities. It is natural for the human animal to defend itself, to snarl and
crouch into a defensive position when attacked, to howl when wronged, to bite
back when bitten. Forgiveness is not natural. It is not a universal human
virtue." Will Willimon
Two Million Dollar Mistake: John D. Rockefeller built
the great Standard Oil empire. Not surprisingly, Rockefeller was a man who
demanded high performance from his executives. One day, one of those executives
made a two million dollar mistake. Word of the man's enormous error quickly
spread throughout the executive offices, and the other men began to make
themselves scarce, not wanting to cross his path. One man didn't have any
choice, however, since he had an appointment with the boss. So he straightened
his shoulders and walked into Rockefeller's office. As he approached
Rockefeller's desk, he looked up from the piece of paper on which he was
writing. "I guess you've heard about the two million dollar mistake our
friend made," he said abruptly. "Yes," the executive said,
expecting Rockefeller to explode. "Well, I've been sitting here listing
all of our friend's good qualities, and I've discovered that in the past he has
made us many more times the amount he lost for us today by his one mistake. His
good points far outweigh this one human error. So I think we ought to forgive
him, don't you?"
Dale Galloway, You Can Win with Love, in The Tale of the
Tardy Oxcart, Charles Swindoll, Word Pub., p. 215.
What God Can Do with Forgiveness: By the grace of God we can use forgiveness as a positive, creative force bringing light into a darkened world. Nobody does that kind of thing better, of course, than God. Who could imagine 2,000 years ago that the symbol of the Christian church would be a hangman's noose, an electric chair, a guillotine? Those analogies may be necessary for us to keep from being too sentimental about "the old, rugged cross." A cross is a terrible thing. It was indeed a symbol of suffering and shame. Humanity nailed God's own Son on a cross. What barbarity! What unspeakable evil! Yet God turned that cross into the means by which you and I may find our salvation. That is what God can do with forgiveness. What can you do? King Duncan,
Forgiven: Too Poor to Pay
(A good sermon closer)
When the books of a certain Scottish doctor were examined
after his death, it was found that a number of accounts were crossed through
with a note: "Forgiven--too poor to pay." But the physician's wife
later decided that these accounts must be paid in full and she proceeded to sue
for money. When the case came to court the judge asked but one question. Is
this your husband's handwriting? When she replied that it was he responded: "There
is no court in the land that can obtain a debt once the word forgiven has been
written."
And that is the good news that the Gospel offers us this
morning....
***
Once upon a time two brothers, who lived on adjoining farms,
fell into conflict. It was the first serious rift in 40 years of farming side
by side, sharing machinery, and trading labor and goods as needed without a
conflict. Then the long collaboration fell apart. It began with a small
misunderstanding and it grew into a major difference, and finally it exploded
into an exchange of bitter words followed by weeks of silence.
One morning there was a knock on John’s door. He opened
it to find a man with a carpenter's tool box. “I'm looking for a few
days' work” he said. “Perhaps you would have a few small jobs
here and there I could help with? Could I help you?”
“Yes,” said the older brother. “I
do have a job for you.”
- “Look across the creek at that farm. That's my
neighbor; in fact, it's my younger brother. Last week there was a meadow
between us and he took his bulldozer to the river levee and now there is a
creek between us. Well, he may have done this to spite me, but I'll do him one
better.”
- “See that pile of lumber by the barn? I want you to
build me a fence –an 8-foot fence — so I won't need to see his place or his
face anymore.”
The carpenter said, “I think I understand the
situation. Show me the nails and the post-hole digger and I’ll be able to do a
job that pleases you.”
The older brother had to go to town, so he helped the
carpenter get the materials ready and then he was off for the day. The
carpenter worked hard all that day measuring, sawing, nailing. About sunset
when the farmer returned, the carpenter had just finished his job. The farmer’s
eyes opened wide, his jaw dropped. There was no fence there at all. It was a
bridge - a bridge stretching from one side of the creek to the other! A fine
piece of work, handrails and all - and the neighbor, his younger brother was
coming toward them, his hand outstretched. “You are quite a fellow to
build this bridge after all I've said and done,” the older brother
said to the carpenter.
The two brothers stood at each end of the bridge, and
then they met in the middle, taking each other’s hand. They turned to see the
carpenter hoist his toolbox onto his shoulder.
“No, wait! Stay a few days. I've a lot of other
projects for you,” said the older brother.
“I'd love to stay on,” the carpenter
said, “but I have many more bridges to build.”
Jesus Christ is also a carpenter who builds the bridges. It is he who reconciles man to God and man to his neighbor, and brings them together by building bridges in-between. Today, he calls us too, to build bridges among ourselves and to be reconciled to one another.
