Reading The Fine Print in The Gospel

Peter approached Jesus and asked him,
"Lord, if my brother sins against me,
how often must I forgive him?
As many as seven times?"
Jesus answered, "I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times.  
That is why the Kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king
who decided to settle accounts with his servants.
When he began the accounting,
a debtor was brought before him who owed him a huge amount.
Since he had no way of paying it back,
his master ordered him to be sold,
along with his wife, his children, and all his property,
in payment of the debt.
At that, the servant fell down, did him homage, and said,
'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full.'
Moved with compassion the master of that servant
let him go and forgave him the loan.

When that servant had left, he found one of his fellow servants

who owed him a much smaller amount.

He seized him and started to choke him, demanding,

'Pay back what you owe.'

Falling to his knees, his fellow servant begged him,

'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.'

But he refused.

Instead, he had the fellow servant put in prison

until he paid back the debt.

Now when his fellow servants saw what had happened,

they were deeply disturbed,

and went to their master and reported the whole affair.

His master summoned him and said to him, 'You wicked servant!

I forgave you your entire debt because you begged me to.

Should you not have had pity on your fellow servant,

as I had pity on you?'

Then in anger, his master handed him over to the torturers

until he should pay back the whole debt.

So will my heavenly Father do to you,

unless each of you forgives his brother from his heart."

The truth is simple, by Christ's death on the cross we were forgiven of our sins and on that day the gates of heaven swung open wide to admit believers into the bliss of eternal life with God in heaven.  This is truth in its simple yet glorious form, and God will certainly keep His end of the bargain.  

Do you remember Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, the first version with Gene Wilder?  At the beginning of the tour of his candy factory each child had to sign a contract. The contract started with huge print and as it cascaded down the wall the print got smaller and smaller until it was minuscule.  The words, no matter how large or small all formed the basis of the agreement between Willy and the children. God does not use fine print in His contract with us, but we as humans tend to read the "good" things and gloss over the things that obligate us.  

It is true that we are forgiven.  The sins we commit against the dignity of God are forgiven as soon as we confess them.  We, in turn, are expected to forgive our fellow humans for what they do against us.  I can hear them coming now, the "buts."  Some of us are willing to forgive everyone except him or her or this group or that group because the evil that they committed against us was so great.   Those of us who are "But" people are in a whole heap of trouble because we are the unforgiving servant in the reading above and as you can see, it does not go well for him 

Forgiveness is the one selfish thing we can do that is approved by God.  When we forgive someone who has hurt us deeply, we are accruing graces through that righteous act and we are making our soul more God like in its attitude and outlook and we are doing something good for ourselves.  By forgiving even the biggest grievance we have against another, it becomes easier to forgive the smaller things and our life and our serenity is not disturbed as much by the thoughtless acts of others.  We also become more thoughtful ourselves and gain greater ability to put ourselves into someone else's shoes and in doing this we are offended less. Forgiving is a win/win situation for us while not forgiving is a lose/lose. 

God could not make his desires any clearer, but He does repeat Himself so as to make sure we have the opportunity to absorb the requirements he has placed upon us. 

1.  "Father forgive them, they know not what they do"
2.  "Jesus answered, "I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times."
3.  "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us"  
4.  “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First, go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.”
5. So watch yourselves. “If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents forgive him. If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, ‘I repent,’ forgive him.”
6. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.”

So, I think it is easily seen that forgiveness is one of the most important parts of being a Christian.  The word "but" cannot be used to absolve us from this duty.  It is NOT easy for us to forgive everything.  The word everything encompasses evils that are unimaginable in their scope.  Can we forgive Hitler for the Holocaust? We have to!  Can we forgive Stalin the millions of people he killed? We have to.  Forgiving is not approving what a person has done. The judgement against the Hitler's and Stalin's and bin Laden's of this world will be rendered by God, not by us.  We need not and should not approve what these people have done but we should leave it to God to mete out what payment these evil people should receive. No, it is not easy to be a Christian, if done right, being a Christian will always cause at least a little inconvenience in your life as you look deep inside yourself to see where you and Christ are most alike and where you are not.  Forgiveness is a habit and like all habits, it becomes easier the more you practice it.  When someone offends you, just think of Jesus on the Cross and what He said, "Father forgive them, they know not what they do.   There is no law saying you can't use those same words is there?

PLEASE PRAY FOR THE POOR SOULS IN PURGATORY. PRAY FOR YOUR FRIENDS, FAMILY OF COURSE, BUT DON'T FORGET THE FORGOTTEN SOULS WHO HAVE NO ONE TO PRAY FOR THEM.  

Ambition

Ambition can be a good thing. It can make the difference between being a drifter with a backpack and a person with a corner office and a decent job. Of course there can be ambitions that are not good for us to have. For example, the ruler of a country looks to expand his borders at the expense of his neighbor. 

For us Christians, we should have the ambition of doing what Jesus commanded us to do.  His command is simple, love one another as I have loved you. This command is a game changer and takes what it means to be a Christian to a whole higher level than any other religion the world has ever known. 

We are given many examples of what we should be doing by Jesus himself. Let's examine just a few of them: 

Jesus is the second person of the Trinity, always present in Heaven at the right hand of God the Father.  Jesus came to earth, humbling himself to take on the form of the creature he created.  This shows that he is most humble and most loving.  

Jesus obeyed his parents, the Bible first tells us this after he was found conversing with the doctors in the temple he went with them and was subject to them.  Also, at the request of his mother he started his public life early when he provided wine at a wedding. 

Jesus was content to work at a humble job during the years leading up to his public ministry. Jesus created the world yet he worked for his bread at the job of his earthly father, a carpenter. 

Jesus in all things conformed his will to the will of his Father. As a human in all things but sin, Jesus was tempted but he set his will aside and followed the will of the Father.  This led to the Cross and to death and the redeeming of all of us.

Jesus at the Last Supper showed us what we were to do. He, the God who created the universe took basin and towel and took on the role of the lowest servant in the household and washed the feet of his apostles. 

Jesus humbly accepted death on the cross. In the garden we see Jesus making the most human of prayers, one that each of us would have made and probably do make during the hard times of our life. "Father, take this cup away from me."  This is where most of us would stop. He added, "but not my will but yours."

So our ambition as Christians should be like our Master. We should be ready and willing to serve, to put our needs behind the needs of others.  It is this selfless giving that will attract people to give up their pagan ways and come home to God.  Jesus himself said that they would know his followers by the love that they showed. 

This week I am going to try and do at least one good turn to another in secret and thus try to be like my Lord and Savior and try to love others as He has loved us keeping ever in mind that he did not spare himself from the cross. 

Mother Teresa saw a man in the street  dirty, with sores, flies all about him. People were just passing him by. She immediately went to him and cradled him and began to pick the maggots off of his soars.  A man passing by said, "I wouldn't do that for a million dollars!"  Mother answered, "Neither would I."