Since I did not write an entry for last week, I will include some of Brother Marva’s reflections here also. He presided at the liturgy last week and today. Outside, the cool breeze sometimes mirrored his statements about us not being in control. We had to stake down the tents before his homily because
the “Spirit” in the form of a strong wind threatened to topple his covering.
He reminded us that last week’s gospel was the roadmap for forgiveness, encouraging us to address our grievances directly, one on one, with the person involved instead of speaking about them to others as a first recourse. Today’s gospel focused on the frequency of our forgiveness. In the gospel, after hearing the importance of forgiving our neighbor, Peter is asking “Do I really have to keep forgiving for as long as I have to?” Jesus’ “No” is really a “Yes”. Brother Marva emphasized that Jesus reminded Peter to “do more” forgiving—“seventy-seven times”, a never ending process.
Last Sunday Brother Marva caught our attention with Tina Turner’s hit song “What’s love got to do with it” remarking that Paul’s letter to the Romans might have a title “love’s got everything to do with it”. It is stressed again in the readings today. Sirach calls us to “Remember your last days, set enmity aside” in order to receive God’s mercy by granting it to others in the form of forgiveness. Holding grudges and fueling our anger with resentment controls us after a while and destroys the bonds of love. How many of us have witnessed peaceful deaths after moments of reconciliation. Just as the gospel’s indebted servant was forgiven by his master, we can remember the unconditional love and perpetual forgiveness of God. Then, unlike the servant, we are charged with passing on this loving forgiveness to others.
As Brother Marva mentioned last Sunday and today, forgiveness is hard. Often, we cannot believe God could forgive us, either through the sacrament of Reconciliation or in our private prayer. He said, “we are asked to let go of our ‘stuff’ so we can release the burden in others”. For as St Paul wrote in Romans, “Whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s”. We think we are in control, but we are not. We are invited to examine our behavior and relationships and do the hard work of asking and granting forgiveness. We ask it of God, ourselves and each other. We commit to moving forward each new day, leaving behind our old habits so we don’t fall back to old behaviors. The hope of today’s message is “no matter how hard or difficult our lives feel, no matter how we fail, God forgives and loves us over and over”. Can we live fruitfully to do the same?
Peace, Anne Butts
