“So will my heavenly Father do to you,
Matthew 18:35
unless each of you forgives your brother from your heart.”
Reflection
Peter asks Jesus how many times he must forgive his brother – as many as seven times? Jesus replies that he must forgive not only seven times, but seventy-seven times. He then tells a parable about a servant who is forgiven a large debt by his master, but then goes and demands to be paid back a much smaller debt from another servant. The first servant ends up being tortured until he pays back his original debt to his master.
Jesus instructs Peter to forgive his brother from his heart. This is not always an easy thing to do. Every time someone wrongs us, the little wrongs build up and can make it more difficult to forgive the next time something happens. Yet Christ says we must continue to forgive, not seven times, but seventy-seven!
The point is that forgiveness is continual, and does not have a limit. In exercising forgiveness towards others, we come to learn something of God. Our heavenly Father forgives us each time we sin when we repent and turn back to him. We sin daily against God – that is a lot of forgiveness doled out.
Our Lord is calling you higher, to forgive when it is not expected or easy, and to continually do so. Ask the Holy Spirit for a forgiving heart today.
Saint of the Day
St. Dominic Savio: 1842 – 1857
| “I can’t do big things. But I want all I do, even the smallest thing, to be for the greater glory of God.” St. Dominic Savio |
The Healing Word 