Jesus embracing the Prodigal Son, unknown provenance.

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Jesus said to his disciples: “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have won over your brother.    Matthew 18:15.

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At the heart of the Christian message is the challenge and reality of forgiveness. It can be desperately hard to forgive, but the Lord himself managed it, forgiving those who had crucified him. And with forgiveness comes freedom, because anger, retribution, hatred and revenge are all chains, limiting our freedom to be our true selves, children of God. A recent article in the APS magazine says “Behavioral scientists have observed that instead of quenching hostility, revenge can prolong the unpleasantness of the original offense and that merely bringing harm upon an offender is not enough to satisfy a person’s vengeful spirit.”  In other words, revenge doesn’t work, does not bring peace and seems to be able to make a bad situation even worse. It seems to be a sort of cancer of the mind, able eventually to dominate the individual who gives way to it. And the healthy opposite of all that is forgiveness. Jesus in today’s gospel offers a practical alternative to such destruction, with a culmination which seems to be a shunning of the individual who is unable to forgive, to be treated aa “a Gentile or a tax collector”, someone disliked by society. But then we must remember that Matthew was a hated tax collector, but Jesus went to his (shunned) house for dinner! So the message would seem to be, keep trying! Indeed, today’s first reading seems to mandate an effort for us all to attempt to “dissuade the wicked from his way” whether we like it or not! And today’s second reading appears to provide the strength to do all this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no evil to the neighbor; hence, love is the fulfillment of the law.” Love, which can be expressed in many ways is the antidote. Here are some real stories of forgiveness where it seemed it was impossible to do so.

It is possible that each one of us has been damaged, insulted or ridiculed by another at some time in our lives. Perhaps it was a parent, or an apparent friend who truly wasn’t, or a colleague at work who turned out to be the opposite of what we had hoped for. So be it – but how did we deal with it? It can take a really long time for many of us to come to forgiveness. I often suggest to people who mention such blighted moments in their lives, that the person responsible who reacted unacceptably might well be acting in best way they can. It may well be far from the way each of us would act – but it might be their best way, and who are we to reject it? We can quietly pity them in their cold world of being always right and we always wrong. But it is their choice, and our challenge as children of God is to act in such a good, loving way that will sow seeds of love which might well take root in that other and change them. I think that is the root of today’s message. Not easy, but at least full of hope. After all, if we demonstrate the behavior we wish others would copy, then there is the best model for them. If we can do it, so can they! Take a look at this.

So today’s readings seem to challenge all of us, all in different situations, different milieux, different backgrounds and so on. But the challenges may well be very similar, and this Sunday the Lord is asking each of us to look around, assess those around us and see where is the greatest challenge (or challenges). Then decide on an appropriate course of positive action, and begin! And never forget; when we look inside ourselves, do we find what we hope for there? Is that perhaps the place we should begin? Look at today’s readings, and each of us could begin at comparing the ideals we find there to the ideals we find in our own hearts…..

Ave Christus Divinus.

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