So I am pretty sure in my life that I have blown way past the 7 times Peter thinks we should forgive someone. In fact, I think I used up my 77
times of needing to be forgiven just in my relationship with my wife. Luckily she follows along with Jesus’ view that 77 times is just a way of saying, “From Here to Infinity…and Beyond”!! In fact, Peter thought his suggestion of 7 times was pretty magnanimous as well since Jewish tradition held that you were obligated to forgive someone a whole 3 times (Amos 1:3,6,9 and Job 33:29-30). But as we have seen with the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is always raising the bar and asking us to take it to another level compared to what the world expects.
Why is this forgiveness thing so important? The best way I know to answer that is with an example. I have a cousin who thought that I was holding a grudge against him over some behaviors that I did not necessarily agree with. I needed to let him know that we were still cousins and I still cared for, loved and respected him greatly. However, I began the conversation in a judgmental tone. You know, forgot the whole “take the timber out of your own eye before telling another person to get the speck out of there’s” thing? He decided that we need not ever talk again. I felt awful and realized how I hurt him. So I apologized….several times. And asked for forgiveness. This was 2 1/2 years ago and he still will not talk to me and the whole affair has come between me and my other cousins. An entire generation on my Mother’s side of the family who will not speak to me. And we were very close growing up. All tossed away because of a brief lapse in judgment. And avoidable with a little bit of mercy.
I am sure all of you have similar stories. Jesus is not just talking in vague terms without practical implication here. It is real stuff. I have another relative whose brother did not speak to his Mother for years, including through the time of her illness and passing away. And are we limited to forgiveness only in small matters? Heck no!! The servant in Matthew’s parable owed the king 10,000 talents. What is that worth in dollars? 4 BILLION (with a “B”). A number that only pales in comparison to the United State’s debt level. It was a hopeless situation to expect the servant to repay this. And that is the very feeling that Jesus was trying to convey with the story…hopelessness. Because who do we turn to when things are hopeless? The Lord, of course. He is always there for us regardless of how lost we feel. No matter how much of a “Woe Is Me” moment it is.
In today’s first reading from Joshua, the Israelite people had to cross the Jordan to get into Canaan. But the banks of the Jordan were overflowing. Elise and I went to Israel 5 years ago and we went to the Jordan River….more like the Jordan trickle. It was not what we expected. Not the torrent being described in the reading. But so it was. A hopeless situation for them, as it was when they were faced with getting across the Red Sea to escape the Egyptians. But what got them across these obstacles, both times? Was it some engineering marvel? Did man’s innovation come up with a structural feat that saved the day? No way. It was simply trust. Joshua had trust that God would move mountains, or divide a river, for His people.
And where does trust come from? Directly from Faith. A belief that God will follow through on his word..to Moses and now to Joshua. You may have recalled from earlier posts that I enjoy riding motorcycles. In fact I try to work it into every Catholic Moment post. Where it relates here, is that my wife will ride behind me as a passenger on our rides. She has faith (misguided as it is) in my abilities to ride and she therefore trusts me, literally, with her life. Does that mean I am perfect? Hardly. We got stuck just this past weekend at a baseball game in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA (about 3 hours from Chicago), because I failed to check the wheel bearings. She stood by me as we got things fixed and is right back there behind me again. She FORGAVE my error and our relationship continues on.
Forgiveness breeds Trust which results in Faith. Or maybe forgiveness is the result of trust and faith in each other in, ultimately, God our creator. Like the parent who steps in when their children fight and insist on them forgiving each other. It is the parent who can see the whole picture. It is the parent who knows that these little squabbles are nothing when we compare it to our need to walk with each other on the road to salvation. In Joshua, the people of Israel are told to stand 1,000 cubits behind the arc. Now I am not sure how far 1,000 cubits is but I am guessing its a least a stone’s throw (how far is a stone’s throw you might ask? Not sure…how far can you throw a stone?…Sorry, couldn’t resist). The point is that they were told to stay back partly out of respect, I think, but also so they could see the entire picture. See the swollen river, see how the priest’s footsteps stopped the flow, and see the great wall of water being held back trying to continue downstream.
When we step back and see the miracles our God does for us every day, and how he is working these miracles for ALL of us. Every person that the rains falls on. And if he can offer the miracle of forgiveness for the big things that we do in moments of hopelessness…shouldn’t we be expected to do the same for the little things we do to each other?
Today’s Readings
