Three Helps to Forgiveness

This is a computer-generated transcription that has been included to make the homily searchable.  It has not been verified by the author.

This gospel is maybe a gospel that we really don’t want to hear again, about forgiveness. It’s not our, probably our favorite topic. But the gospel of Jesus gives more detail, the gospel that those details are lost in translation we had today. But it gives more detail about the different sums that were owed. And so just to put it, if my calculations are correct to put in proportion, proportion for today, say someone owes you $10,000. So that’s a lot of money, right? And then they come and say, sorry, I can’t really pay back those $10,000. That’s not an easy thing to accept. But say you owe somebody $6 billion, 6 billion, how long would you have to work to pay back $6 billion? If your not Elon Musk would probably be a long time, it’d be impossible. And that’s, that’s the proportions that Jesus is talking there today. $10,000 and 6 billion. And say that person then said, Well, I’ll forgive you the 6 billion if you forgive that 10,000 that somebody owes you? Well, that seemed like a good deal to you. impossibly good deal. I mean, that’s not, you couldn’t find anybody, I think it would give you that type of deal. And that’s what Jesus is pointing out, that the Father is the difference between God and man. And nobody, not only because the money is that the proportion itself, so out of proportion, but also because what businessman would forgive you what you owe him. If you give money if you forgive somebody else, right? What it’s not in his interest. And that’s what Jesus reveals, and how mysterious and how extreme is the Father’s generosity, that the Father wants to free the world from evil. And He’s willing to pour out and that’s what the Divine Mercy image represents, He’s willing to pour out infinite oceans of mercy. But he also asks for our cooperation, for our participation. And so that forgiveness

of 10,000, which would have seemed extremely difficult to make, but then actually now becomes an unbelievable opportunity. Forgive 10,000 and receive forgiveness for 6 billion. And Jesus is using that amount just to give us an idea of the infinite gift that God wants to give. And so suddenly, forgiveness begins to seem very different. And instead of something that is costing us a lot, it does cost us a lot. But we begin to see that it also, and this is what we can’t see right now on earth, that Jesus has to tell it to us, but that how much we gain, unbelievably how much we gain, if we realize that, then we will be anxious for opportunities to forgive even for our own interest. I mean with that type of exchange. “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.” We pray all the time in the Our Father, “for if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you did not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your heavenly Father, forgive yours.” But one of the things that irks us about forgiveness, is does that mean that there’s no consequence when someone does evil? And Jesus is not saying that. Because that God is just, and that is between that person and God. And St. Paul said in the words of scripture, or St. Paul says, we pay no one evil for evil. Never avenge yourselves that think of that think of for instance, just for instance, all the movies that are about vengeance, somebody’s getting vengeance. And Jesus says, Is Paul St. Paul saying very clearly, never avenge yourselves. But the devil it doesn’t say never avenge yourselves because it doesn’t matter. But on the contrary, he says, but leave it to the wrath of God. For this written, “VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY, says the Lord.” I will repay, the Lord is willing to forgive infinite, infinite debt when the person humbly seeks that, but if the person does not turn to God’s mercy, then when He says I will repay, it means the person will have to repay what they have done. So there is His promising justice, VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY, He’s the only one who has the motives, the proper and proper intention, and also the power, and also the knowledge to truly return justice, as a reward or as a punishment. So, forgiveness is not saying that there is no justice, remember, this VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY. And that Saint Paul goes on to say, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” And so forgiveness does not mean surrendering to evil, giving up in the face of evil, but it’s actually the most, one of the most effective strategies for overcoming evil, because the Lord’s whole work of redemption is to overcome and free us from evil. And so, forgiveness is a great part of that, that great campaign against evil. But a lot of it, a lot of people, a lot of religions even don’t see forgiveness as even something positive. They see it as a weakness. But the striking thing is the one who has all power, Jesus, does not forgive out of weakness, but He forgives out of the infinite strength that He has. And so He’s wanting to share with us the power of forgiveness, the power of forgiveness. Forgiveness is so powerful for freeing us from evil. Because first of all, it permits us, as he said here, to receive infinite forgiveness for ourselves. God’s willing to forgive everything, when we turn to Him, asking humbly for His mercy, if we’re also willing to share that mercy. But also forgiveness is free. Already, as soon as we forgive, it begins to free our hearts from the evil that has been done to us. All of us have wounds from the evil that others have done to us, sometimes persons, and sometimes so much evil is like contaminating our whole society. And that evil becomes like an arrow that stuck in us, and that it’s infecting us and eating away at our health, and when we forgive, it’s like removing that arrow so that the healing can begin. So forgiveness is fighting against it. Forgiveness is not surrendering to evil, forgiveness is attacking evil, and its roots because what satan wants to do is cause one person to hurt another, then that person retaliates. And so it just becomes a vicious circle of retaliation. Satan is inspiring vengeance, and then he’s sitting back there and enjoying seeing both parties hurting each other more and more, or one person hurting another and then that person hurting the third person taking out on somebody else. And so forgiveness, on the contrary, is going through the very root of the what satan is trying to do and destroying it at the root. That’s what Jesus did at the cross. Instead of retaliating against those who are crucifying Him, which was what satan wanted, He forgave. And so forgiveness is so powerful to transform us. When we forgive, it acts so powerfully to unite us to Jesus and transform our soul. So forgiveness is powerful, but it’s so we’re going to have the opportunity in this Mass, this Mass is an opportunity to forgive, maybe to maybe to ask the Holy Spirit what is one person that He would like you to forgive in this Mass. And if you don’t have anyone, imagine you can think of somebody, whether it’s personal, somebody, person or somebody you know, maybe somebody who has an important person, and but if you don’t have any I’m sure there’s other people could lend you one to help out. So forgiveness is powerful, but we know it can be very hard. In fact, sometimes it can seem beyond our strength to forgive. So that’s what I wanted to look at today, three helps, that can help us when forgiveness is very difficult. And all of these are things that you can put into practice right now, in this Mass. So the first help is to come to Jesus crucified. That’s what signified by our crucifix right here. Because that’s what’s happening in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, we’re coming to Jesus crucified. So the Mass is a specially blessed opportunity. But even not just that Mass, but you can do this, that spiritual act of coming spiritually to the presence of Jesus crucified, you can do that whenever you choose to. And it can help you and it can help if, for instance, at home, or we have a crucifix or an image, for instance, an image of like that image from the Holy Shroud of Turin, that helps us visually, to come to Jesus crucified, because He is the one who knows what it is to suffer extreme injustice, and cruelty, to be wounded by others. So He understands us, and what we have suffered. And there at the cross, we hear Him say, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And we know that included in that forgiveness is each one of us. So that the first help to come to Jesus crucified, to not just be by ourselves, but to come to Him. The second help is to ask for His help. Ask Jesus, we come to Him, and then ask Him to help us. What does that mean? It means that we’re trying to forgive, that is we have the will to forgive. Or at least, so that’s important that we have the will to forgive. Or at least, we want to have the will to forgive. If we even feel like I’m not sure if I want, if I have the will to forgive or you can at least say Lord, help give me the desire for forgiveness, the will for forgiveness. And we can do it for Jesus, Lord, I’m forgiving not for the person who hurt me, but I’m forgiving for you. So that helps a lot to say this is for you, Lord, for all that you have done for me, not for that person, maybe that person, we can hardly think of them without anger. But we can say, Lord, I’m doing this for you. So we keep our eyes on Jesus. So just asking for His help, especially when we won’t, it’s very difficult. Just asking for Jesus help, is already helping to put our will on the right path, not letting satan control us, to manipulate us, but bringing our will to the Lord. And so that permits graces to flow from Him. The Holy Spirit can act when we’re turning towards the Lord.  This is very difficult but I’m asking for your help. Because again, that’s a sign that we’re trying to do it, that we’re wanting to do it. But maybe even that’s not enough. And so the third, the third help, is when we feel that even with His help, we can’t do it. We can say, Lord, I want to help but I don’t feel able to. So I’m asking You to forgive in me, your spirit, your Holy Spirit, to forgive in me, I give you permission, and I request that you forgive in me, I want to do it for your sake, but I can’t. And so I’m asking you to do it in me. Think of how important forgiveness is to Jesus because we know how enraged we can feel when people hurt us or hurt someone we love. And think of how important that must have been to Jesus on the cross with all that He suffered, can respond by forgiveness. And so to conclude, we can ask our Blessed Mother who was there at the cross and knows what it is to see someone you love and try to forgive the people who are hurting the one you love. And so You can if you want, you could close your eyes right now. And we can put these three helps into practice. So you could ask the Holy Spirit, who it is that He would like you to forgive in a special way, during this Mass and then, in this Mass here in the presence, we remember that we come spiritually to the presence of Jesus crucified, here in this Mass, where His sacrifice on Calvary is made mystically present. So at the presence, at the foot of the cross. And so we can ask here in the presence of Jesus crucified, ask Him to help us forgive and if necessary, we can ask Him to forgive in us. Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. Amen.

KEYWORDS / PHRASES:
Matthew 18:21-35
Forgiveness