11/09/2011 - 24th. Sunday in Ordinary Season - Year A
1Reading Ecc 27,30 - 28,7 Psalm 102 2Reading Rom 14,7-9 Gospel Mt 18,21-35
St. Paul is about to conclude his Letter to the Romans. Now he speaks of a great
truth regarding the life of all believers: "No one lives for himself".
Who really believes in God, and does not make out of faith a dress as to be kept
as a good christian, knows that this is the truth. Who answers to the call of Jesus
and welcomes the love of the Father, who enjoys the presence of the Holy Spirit
in his life, cannot know any more what is egocentrism. We dont live to enjoy the
pleasures of life and we dont live so that others see us nice and good more than
others. We live to give God the glory, to spread his love, we bring his wisdom to
the minds and hearts of all, so that all can live the peace and the joy of fraternal
comunion, the begining of paradise! "No one lives for himself", because
this won't be a life, but the begining of an existence without joy, with no motivation,
no significance, unable to overcome the difficulties and the commitments. "If
we live, we live for the Lord": our existence is a gift that we receive from
the Father, and therefore we ask him the reason why he created us and what does
he expect from us. The Father, then, gave us his Son, Jesus, as our life and as
foundation for all our activities: let us live for him! And, in a mysterious way,
joy springs and grows from within our hearts. This is what young and not so young
experience who are committed to Jesus! St. Paul continues to say: "we die for
the Lord". Our life is to find joy in the Lord until the end, so that death
wont hold it and wont influence it. On the contrary, the death of the believer brings
to perfection his love: the believer, in fact, makes out of death the most mature
offer of his life, a full act of love, the ultimate and complete sacrifice.
To live for the Lord the believer can never have qualms to live as he teaches. One
of the great teachings and for which man is very much tempted is that of forgiveess.
Jesus knows that even his disciples shall not be exempted from sin, and that sin
becomes a heavy weight and a sufferring for others, and that these would have a
problem to forgive. He takes the opportunity from a question of Peter to give him
and the rest of the disciples what he thinks. Peter, almost priding in knowing the
answer, asks whether one can arrive to forgive seven times. He thinks that he was
even more generous that his Master! But Jesus breaks it quickly: in this case, the
number seven does not represent the maximum, can be multiplied with the number seventy.
In this way no one is able to count...and practically it will end up with forgiving
always. The heart is never to keep to itself any kind of anger, hatred, vengenance.
The heart is made for the Lord and is to hold only and always his love. Jesus uses
a parable to deter anyone from any objection. The parable does not need to any comment:
who is forgiven or from big amounts of debts is ovious that he is to forgive with
joy the daily little things as other big things. If the one who is forgiven by God
does not succeed to forgive a brother, is a clear sign that he has not reverence
of God: he doesn't want to do as God does! The forgiveness of the Father won't have
any effect on the heart of the one who would not want to forgive: he remains for
ever in his own condamnation.
The Reading from the Book of Ecclesiaticus that we have heard is the background
and perhaps an inspiration to the teaching of Jesus: "The man who remains angry
for another, how can he ask the Lord's healing? He who shows no mercy to another
one like him, how can he ask for his sins?...Remember the end and stop hating."
Nothing is more beautiful than forgiveness and nothing can make one a great person.
Forgiveness the summit of love, and, as said by many saints, is the sign of the
presence of the Holy Spirit in one's heart. Because of this the one who forgives
is pleased by God, the one who forgives is rewarded by God. The one who forgives
purifies his heart and the world, because who forgives is like the Father who is
in heaven, but wants to manifest himself on earth. The one who forgives fulfill
the word of the apostle: "No one lives for himself......we live for him"!
Let us enjoy every forgiveness received, and let us continue to be ready to make
a gift to our brothers of that joy we have enjoyed. We are never to be ashamed because
of forgiveness!