SEVENTY
TIMES SEVEN
Then Peter came up to him and said, 'Lord, how often shall my brother
sin against me and
Alexander
Pope (1688-1744), gave us
seven
encouraging words on forgiveness in his famous quote:
"To err is human. To forgive, divine."
Some bags became heavy with remembered offenses. Students were told to carry the bags everywhere they went for one week, sitting it beside their bed at night, on the car seat when driving, or next to their desk at work. At the end of the week, the teacher invited the class to share what they learned from this task. With wry grins, the ones who had shouted "never" " said the hassle of lugging the heavy load around emphasized the burden they carried spiritually by being unforgiving of others. "That bag grew heavier as each day passed and it was constantly on our minds particularly when we could see the potatoes begin to shrivel up and die". Others said they kept remembering times they themselves asked the Lord to forgive them, and one student quoted Matthews 6: 15-16 saying, “If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive, your Father will not forgive your sins." The class burst into applause. The
weight of carrying grudges, spite,
bitterness,
rancor,
malevolence,
enmity, and
hatred represented within
those bags exemplify the load we carry by not giving forgiveness to
others. It is
the price we pay for
holding our pain and heavy negativity within our hearts without release! Too often we think of
forgiveness as a gift to the other person, but it is also clearly for ourselves!
And so, those of us who do not
forgive
will be like those potatoes which, in time,
will deteriorate into a nasty, odorous, and unbearable slime.
It
will lurk within our hearts and tear at our peace, stealing the
joy God wants us to have.
In Matthew 18:23-35, Jesus
tells Peter, "The Kingdom of Heaven can be compared to a king who decided to
bring his accounts up to date with servants who had borrowed
money from him. In the process, one of his debtors was brought
in who owed him millions of dollars. He couldn't pay, so his
master ordered that he be sold along with his wife, his children, and everything he owned to pay the debt. But
the man fell down before his master and begged him, ‘Please, be patient with me, and
I will pay it all.’ Then his master was filled with pity for him, and he released him
and forgave his debt. "But
after the
man left the king, he went to a fellow servant who owed him a few thousand
dollars. He grabbed him by the throat and demanded instant
payment. His fellow servant fell down before
him and begged for a little more time. "Be patient with me, and
I will pay it," he pleaded. But his creditor
wouldn’t wait. He had the man arrested
and put in prison until the debt could be paid in full. When
some of the other servants saw this, they were very upset. They went to the king and told
him everything that had happened. Then the
king called in the man he had forgiven and said, ‘You evil servant! I forgave you
that tremendous debt because you pleaded with me. Shouldn’t
you have mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you?’ Then the angry king sent the man to prison to be
tortured until he had paid his entire debt." Jesus then said, “That’s what my heavenly Father will do to you if you refuse to forgive your brothers and sisters from your heart".
Josef Pieper in "The
Concept of Sin" writes, ... "Forgiveness can be vouchsafed only to
the one who wants it, or at least is willing to accept it. If someone who were to be
forgiven who does not want forgiveness, that would mean declaring him literally incapable
of assuming responsibility of himself. …If we realize that perfectly consummated
human guilt finally means a decision against God, and ultimately against Him alone, then
it will suddenly dawn on us that man’s sin – despite his contrition and
confession of guilt – can really only be extinguished by one act, by one act alone:
the gift of forgiveness freely bestowed on us by God himself."
Josef Piefer (1904-1997) was a German Catholic philosopher, at the forefront of
the Neo-Thomistic wave in twentieth century Catholic philosophy.
Among his most notable works are The Four Cardinal Virtues,
Leisure, the Basis of Culture, The Philosophical Act,
and Guide to Thomas Aquinas "But let us also always be aware that we are not God, and cannot forgive as God forgives. We do not see the other truly and completely. There are hurts that we are not able, either individually or communally, to get around or grow past – to forgive or accept forgiveness for. And it is precisely in this humble condition of inadequacy and failure and even sin that we most truly implore the merciful God to forgive us, so that we might someday approach forgiving others as, we trust, God now already forgives them." - Anon An offense against others shows the momentary darkness of the offender's soul. If I am the wrongdoer through words or deeds, I must complete the act of asking for forgiveness, and by restitution if necessary, and making peace with our Lord through confession. The greatest example of forgiveness comes from Jesus Christ when He was nailed to the cross. Luke 23:33-34 reads, "And when they were come to the place which is called Calvary, they crucified Him there; and two robbers, one on the right hand, and the other on the left." It was from that cross Jesus said the powerful words: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." He looked down through the ages and saw you, and you, and me as we sin day after day, and He gave us the legacy of forgiveness for sin by His sacrifice. As He was dying He said, "It is finished", for He had accomplished the work God sent Him to do for us. The heavenly manifestation of forgiveness was complete. Over 2,000 years later this forgiveness is still valid. We, through faith, can repent of sin and receive with forgiveness the greatest gift of all... Eternal Life.
"For He has rescued us
from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into |
