Many of you know my son attends Christian Brother High School, an all-boys Catholic School in Memphis. As a protestant, it’s been an interesting experience for him and a blessing for our family too.<\/p>\n
Each day during Lent the school sends out a daily reflection with commentary from teachers, staff, alumni and friends. All have been excellent but yesterday’s caught my attention given the topic was forgiveness. Ah, forgiveness. It’s what we encourage others to do and ask for from others when we’ve messed up or offended someone. It’s also that incredibly difficult process we struggle with when someone has done something to us of such major proportion that we justify our decision not to forgive as righteous.<\/p>\n
It sounds and feels good but as I read scripture, that’s not what Jesus commands of us. In discussing this very issue over lunch with a friend yesterday they\u00a0asked if we were expected to forgive even when the offending party has never asked for it or for that matter, believes they’ve done nothing wrong.<\/p>\n
I encourage you to read the message below but in my interpretation\u00a0of scripture, my response was “yes.” We are commanded to forgive even when forgiveness is not sought. It’s something we should all pray about and seek God’s guidance on. Thanks to Buddy Adams for this wonderful commentary.<\/p>\n
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Let Us Remember We Are In the Holy Presence of God<\/strong><\/p>\n Tuesday, March 10<\/p>\n Matthew 18: 21-35<\/p>\n Peter approached Jesus and asked him, \u2028”Lord, if my brother sins against me, \u2028how often must I forgive him?\u2028As many as seven times?”\u2028Jesus answered, “I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times.<\/p>\n That is why the Kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king\u2028 who decided to settle accounts with his servants.<\/p>\n When he began the accounting, \u2028a debtor was brought before him who owed him a huge amount. \u2028Since he had no way of paying it back,\u2028 his master ordered him to be sold, \u2028along with his wife, his children, and all his property, in payment of the debt.<\/p>\n At that, the servant fell down, did him homage, and said,\u2028 ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full.’\u2028\u00a0Moved with compassion the master of that servant\u2028let him go and forgave him the loan. \u2028When that servant had left, he found one of his fellow servants\u2028 who owed him a much smaller amount. \u2028He seized him and started to choke him, demanding, \u2028’Pay back what you owe.’\u2028Falling to his knees, his fellow servant begged him,\u2028 ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back. ‘\u2028But he refused.<\/p>\n Instead, he had him put in prison\u2028 until he paid back the debt. \u2028Now when his fellow servants saw what had happened, \u2028they were deeply disturbed, and went to their master\u2028and reported the whole affair. \u2028His master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! \u2028I forgave you your entire debt because you begged me to. \u2028Should you not have had pity on your fellow servant,\u2028as I had pity on you?’<\/p>\n Then in anger his master handed him over to the torturers\u2028until he should pay back the whole debt. \u2028So will my heavenly Father do to you,\u2028unless each of you forgives your brother from your heart.”<\/p>\n Reflection<\/strong><\/p>\n Whenever I listened to this gospel passage I always wondered about the Lord’s instruction to Peter to not forgive seven times but to forgive seventy-seven times. That seemed to be excessive but I believe it was the Lord’s way of getting his point across that we forgive and forget.\u00a0\u00a0 Forgiveness…you frequently read accounts in the newspaper or hear a story on radio or TV of someone forgiving another for an unspeakable act or crime. Do you wonder how they are truly able to forgive? Do you believe they have drawn upon the lesson in this gospel passage of the master forgiving the servant his debt?<\/p>\n Preparing to write this reflection on these verses from Matthew’s Gospel caused me to read and re-read them several times and to think about times in my life when I needed to forgive someone. Was I reluctant to do so?\u00a0\u00a0 Was their action that serious that forgiveness was difficult? When I look back now the instructions to Peter to forgive not seven times but seventy-seven times should be all the guidance we need.<\/p>\n Buddy Adams,\u00a0CBHS Class of 1957<\/p>\n Alumni Board Member<\/p>\n St. John Baptist De Lasalle, pray for us.\u00a0Live Jesus in our hearts forever.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Many of you know my son attends Christian Brother High School, an all-boys Catholic School in Memphis. As a protestant, it’s been an interesting experience for him and a blessing for our family too. Each day during Lent the school sends out a daily reflection with commentary from teachers, staff, alumni and friends. All have been excellent but yesterday’s caught my attention given the topic was forgiveness. Ah, forgiveness. It’s what we encourage others to do and ask for from others when we’ve messed up or offended someone. It’s also that incredibly difficult process we struggle with when someone has done something to us of such major proportion that we justify our decision not to forgive as righteous. It sounds and feels good but as I read scripture, that’s not what Jesus commands of us. In discussing this very issue over lunch with a friend yesterday they\u00a0asked if we were expected to forgive even when the offending party has never asked for it or for that matter, believes they’ve done nothing wrong. I encourage you to read the message below but in my interpretation\u00a0of scripture, my response was “yes.” We are commanded to forgive even when forgiveness is not sought. 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