FORGIVE!!! IT IS THE STRONGER YOU

HOMILY FOR THE 24^TH SUNDAY IN THE ORDINARY TIME, YEAR A

 

Rev. Fr. Ezekoka Peter Onyekachi

Holding a grudge does not make you strong. Swearing never to forgive the other does not make you a hard-liner. These make you bitter and weak. Forgiveness does not make you a weak person; it rather makes you better and stronger. Grudges are a waste of perfect happiness. Laugh when you can, apologize when you should. You must forgive those who hurt you, even when what they have done against you seems unforgiveable in your mind. Forgive them not actually because they deserve to be forgiven, but because you don’t want to suffer and hurt yourself any time you remember what they did to you. Forgiveness is your own mental healing. It is an act of sincere self-love. In his book, All men are brothers: Autobiographical Reflections, Mahatma Gandhi said in clear terms, the weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is an attribute of the strong.

It was on the 13^th day of May, 1981 that an assassination attempt was made on the life of St. Pope JohnPaul II the great by Mehmet Ali Agca. As the Pope was entering the St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican City, this man shot the Pope for not less than four times, and as a result the Pontiff suffered great blood loss. The assassin was apprehended immediately and was sentenced to life in prison by an Italian court. Following the shooting, the Pope asked people to “pray for my brother...whom I have sincerely forgiven.” In 1983, he had an audience with Agca, and ever since kept in touch with the mother and brother of the assassin, whom he described as his brother. In June 2000, he was pardoned of the life imprisonment by the Italian president, Carlo Ciampi at the request of the pope. The Pope was strong; and that’s why he was able to forgive.

In the Gospel (Matt. 18:21-35), the King was strong, and that was why he was able to forgive the servant the much he owed. However, the servant could not forgive a fellow servant the little he owed and that made him weak. As a result of such heart that does not pardon, he received a severe punishment from his master. This story was the consequence of the question Peter asked Jesus about how often an offender can be forgiven. In the opening chapters of the book of Amos (1:3013; 2:1-6), there is a series of condemnations on the various nations for three transgressions and for four. From this, it was thought that God’s forgiveness extends to three offences, and that he visits the sinner with punishment at the fourth.

 It was not then to be thought that a man could be more gracious than God; so forgiveness was limited to three times. Peter thought that he was even being generous with the number of times, and thus must have expected commendations from Christ. But Jesus’ answer was that the Christian has to forgive seventy times seven; and that is, limitlessly. That means that there is no reckonable limit to forgiveness. Jesus then told a story of a servant forgiven a great debt who went and dealt mercilessly with a fellow servant who owed him so little. The question comes, how do you expect God who pardons us great offences to react when we are unable to pardon our fellows? The development of a heart that does not forgive is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies. At last, it ends up killing you. We see this practical in the life of the unforgiving servant. He did not realize that forgiveness is the giving up of one’s right to return hurt for hurt.

The other servants were in grievance over such an act by the wicked servant. God’s true people are always grieved when they see people in suffering, mistreated, abused, and trampled upon. Cruel and mean treatment always troubles the Christian. It is true that the wicked servant was just in putting his fellow servant into prison, but the question is, was it a holy act? The man was just, very strict, legalistic, and rigid and mean, but he lacked holiness. Thus, his act was just but sinful.  Any act that is just but sinful is not to be seen as a good moral act. His strict justice causes more trouble and trouble, disturbance and oppression of people. The other servants had to do the only thing they could have done. They took the matter to the king. They were not silent. They must not allow the license of oppression and legalism to destroy a human spirit which must be enshrouded in mercy and compassion.

After he received pardon, he failed to pardon. And so he was thrown into prison and was given a more strict condition which he would not meet. If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God (Heb 10:26-27). And the First Reading (Sir 27:30 -28:7) was very clear about this. He that takes vengeance will suffer vengeance from the Lord, and he will firmly establish his sins. The moral lesson of all this is that we must forgive our neighbours their sins against us; then can ours be forgiven by God. We must forgive. We must distance ourselves from such philosophies that go in line with an eye for an eye. However, we must admit that forgiveness has many challenges. But these challenges have been conquered by the singular christological action of grace and salvation. The grace of God is sufficient for us.

What do you do when you find it challenging to forgive? 1) Be thankful of that experience. When someone has done something which challenges the virtue of forgiveness in you, simply develop some sense of thanksgiving as regards the experience which made you wiser. Oprah Winfrey had said: ‘true forgiveness is when you can say, thank you for that experience.’2) Try hard to wish the person well. You will be sure that true forgiveness has started in you when having recalled the hurts you still feel the power to sincerely wish the person well. When this is done, you will discover that you have set a prisoner free; that prisoner is you. 3) Work on your mind. It was Confucius who once told his followers that to be wronged is nothing unless you continue to remember it. If you continue to remind yourself of the hurts and pains you have experienced, you end up piling up grudges, but if you wave these aside, and allow fresh experiences to replace those ones, you end up forgiving and acquiring inner peace. 4) Don’t you want to move forward? Holding grudges is a sort of living in the past. The naked truth is that unless you let go, forgive yourself, forgive the situation, forgive the person and realize the situation is over, you cannot move forward. And finally, if you cannot forgive and forget, choose one. You will find yourself in the very act of forgiveness. Forgiveness is challenging; forgive anyway. I wish you a blessed week ahead. God bless you.