The gospel reading today is very beautiful and profound, but the first reading for Mass today from the book of the prophet Jeremiah is also beautiful. It is also worth stopping for a moment to reflect on these words in scripture. God said:
“I will place my law within them, and write it upon their hearts; I will be their God, and they shall be my people … I will forgive their evildoing and remember their sin no more.”
This is still very true for us today. God wrote His law in our hearts. Our conscience is what Catholics refer to as the ‘natural law’. All human beings are born knowing right from wrong. Everyone knows what their conscience is, and even those who do not believe in God acknowledges the existence of their conscience. Yet, how can atheists explain a person’s conscience? If we evolved from mere chemical reactions, then why do we have this natural law inscribed in our hearts that teaches us right from wrong?
Atheists can only explain the external elements of science, but not the spiritual dimensions of our existence, and the natural law is certainly one of them. Love also exists in such a manner that it can not be held in your hands or detected physically with your five senses, and yet, everyone knows that love is real.
Belief is something that can not be taught. Teaching alone does not reveal the truth of God’s existence, or that Jesus Christ is His son. Jesus recognizes this in today’s gospel, when he asked his disciples who did the people say that he was? There were many different answers the disciples gave, for who the people thought Jesus was. They had listened to him teach in their synagogues and witnessed, or heard about his many miracles, but yet, they still didn’t know who he really was.
When Jesus asked his own disciples who they thought he was, Peter answered without hesitation:
“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Peter did not come to this conclusion on his own. Jesus told him, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father.” You can almost feel the emotion and the Spirit, in Christ’s voice when he spoke to Peter:
“”And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the Kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
Everyone knows this passage is when Christ first established his church on earth, but it is also the basis for the Catholic belief in confession. The binding and loosening of sin was given to Peter, by Jesus himself. We take this for granted sometimes, this great gift of forgiveness. But, for those who have committed a very serious sin, when they are forgiven of their sin in the sacrament of reconciliation, they never take it for granted again. The more serious the sin, the more beautiful Christ’s forgiveness is.
Jesus and his Father think, act and feel the same way. God said in today’s first reading:
“I will forgive their evildoing and remember their sin no more.”
What a great gift this would be, if we could learn to do the same for others. Sometimes it is almost like cutting teeth to be able to forgive someone who deeply hurt us. We may forgive them, but we do not easily forget what they did to us. The memory can linger for the rest of our lives, lying like a dormant cancer on our soul, a scar that never heals.
However, if you have ever hurt someone and they forgave you and then acted like they never remembered it afterward, it is such a blessing. If they never treat you any differently because of what you did to them, this is a great sign of holiness. It is a pure gift, born from grace. We should pray for the ability to give this gift to others. Not to just forgive them, as God does, and as Jesus does in confession, but to forget the whole thing. Others have set the example for us in how to do this, so we should try to do the same for those who have offended us as well. It’s easier said than done sometimes, but it is definitely worth the effort.
Daily Mass Readings:
Jeremiah 31: 31-34 / Psalm 51 / Mt 16: 13-23
