24th Sunday - Fr. Leo
The great forgiveness we have received from God, is to be our gift to others. If we do not forgive others, can we assume God’s forgiveness?
Our scriptures today make it clear that forgiveness is the way of God and to share in God’s spirit, is to strive for the same endless forgiving of others. We may object, “This isn’t fair,” and well, it is not. We have no claim on God’s forgiveness and therefore cannot disclaim others forgiveness from us.
The helpful piece to this puzzle is that the forgiveness and the desire for forgiveness must be real. While we need to be ready to forgive over and over, that does not mean that the idea of forgiveness can be used to take advantage of us or others. If we allow that, we would simply be enabling the sinner to sin.
What may be helpful here is to think of mercy as a state of being loving, and forgiveness as an act of mercy. The merciful person will be forgiving, but will also know what love requires. Tough love is sometimes love at its best and can lead to the healing necessary in a relationship that is broken.
This becomes most clear when addiction is involved. Mercy cries out for healing and begs the hurting person to follow the path of true love which reconciles him or her to himself, others, and the God who dwells in him or her.