To forgive is to love
Gospel Reflection
Forgiveness.
To give forgiveness is one of the highest witness of our being Christians and of living out the teaching of Christ - to love our neighbors.
Today is Tuesday of the 11th week in Ordinary Time, and our readings would show us how we should live out the love of God, especially in loving our neighbors, in people who have caused us pain, sorrow, fury, difficulties, anxiety; people who have caused us pain in our hearts, in our mind, of our bodies.
In our first reading we heard how the prophet Elijah went to King Ahab to tell him of God's anger for him and how God intends to punish him because of what he and his wife, Jezebel, did to Naboth. They killed Naboth because they wanted to own his land, which he refused to sell to them.
Land grabbing continues to happen even up to this day and our farmers continue to suffer, just like what happened recently in Hacienda Tinang in Tarlac where 90 farmers and their supporters were forcefully and violently apprehended by members of the police simply because they participated in the communal cultivation of their land - a protest action to assert the ownership of their land and their right to food. (Context, click here).
Ahab was scared and so he repented, asked for forgiveness, and promised to change his life. For this, God forgave him.
Our forgiving, merciful and compassionate God forgives those who regret their wrongdoing and sincerely ask for forgiveness by promising to change their ways. And just as our father forgives, he also asks us to forgive.
St. Paul reminds the Christians of Colossae and Ephesus that they must learn to forgive just as God forgives through Jesus Christ.
And as we pray the Lord's prayer, we are reminded as we ask, "Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us."
If we are able to forgive others, we would receive God's overflowing love, but for this, we need to ask the Holy Spirit to guide us and to help us, because our being humans, being pained and wounded, it would be very difficult to forgive. Our bodies, our mind, our hearts would not forget the pain that it has received because of the cruelty of others.
The love that our Lord Jesus Christ is asking from us in our Gospel reading, we can only give through the Holy Spirit, through God's indwelling in us, in our hearts, in our life, because God's love is overflowing, and it is this love that will flow through us to everyone, including those people who have caused us pain.
That is why, we continue to pray and to ask God that He would open our hearts for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that we may be able to love our enemies, the people who have wronged us and has caused us pain.
Jesus said to his disciples:
“You have heard that it was said,
You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.
But I say to you, love your enemies
and pray for those who persecute you,
that you may be children of your heavenly Father,
for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good,
and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.
For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have?
Do not the tax collectors do the same?
And if you greet your brothers only,
what is unusual about that?
Do not the pagans do the same?
So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
Forgiveness.
To give forgiveness is one of the highest witness of our being Christians and of living out the teaching of Christ - to love our neighbors.
Today is Tuesday of the 11th week in Ordinary Time, and our readings would show us how we should live out the love of God, especially in loving our neighbors, in people who have caused us pain, sorrow, fury, difficulties, anxiety; people who have caused us pain in our hearts, in our mind, of our bodies.
In our first reading we heard how the prophet Elijah went to King Ahab to tell him of God's anger for him and how God intends to punish him because of what he and his wife, Jezebel, did to Naboth. They killed Naboth because they wanted to own his land, which he refused to sell to them.
Land grabbing continues to happen even up to this day and our farmers continue to suffer, just like what happened recently in Hacienda Tinang in Tarlac where 90 farmers and their supporters were forcefully and violently apprehended by members of the police simply because they participated in the communal cultivation of their land - a protest action to assert the ownership of their land and their right to food. (Context, click here).
Ahab was scared and so he repented, asked for forgiveness, and promised to change his life. For this, God forgave him.
Our forgiving, merciful and compassionate God forgives those who regret their wrongdoing and sincerely ask for forgiveness by promising to change their ways. And just as our father forgives, he also asks us to forgive.
St. Paul reminds the Christians of Colossae and Ephesus that they must learn to forgive just as God forgives through Jesus Christ.
And as we pray the Lord's prayer, we are reminded as we ask, "Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us."
If we are able to forgive others, we would receive God's overflowing love, but for this, we need to ask the Holy Spirit to guide us and to help us, because our being humans, being pained and wounded, it would be very difficult to forgive. Our bodies, our mind, our hearts would not forget the pain that it has received because of the cruelty of others.
The love that our Lord Jesus Christ is asking from us in our Gospel reading, we can only give through the Holy Spirit, through God's indwelling in us, in our hearts, in our life, because God's love is overflowing, and it is this love that will flow through us to everyone, including those people who have caused us pain.
That is why, we continue to pray and to ask God that He would open our hearts for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that we may be able to love our enemies, the people who have wronged us and has caused us pain.
Photo: Gus Moretta on Unsplash
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