Today’s gospel was about forgiveness, especially forgiving others.
This is, in my opinion, a perfect time of year to hear this gospel, because it is the beginning of a new school year. We all have someone in the backs of our minds that we have been hurt by, and we need to let this go. But making that step to letting that go is one of the most difficult things to do. We go back to school, and see people that we haven’t seen since June. Some of them may have hurt us in some manner. Perhaps they have "back stabbed us" or they have told a secret of ours, or they simply didn’t agree with us on something, and this led to an argument. Now is the time to forgive them. We must let go of all of the things bothering us and start anew. How can we do this? How can we let go of a weight that is so heavy inside of us? To make the step into a new start, you have to sit back, and think about all of the times you have been in the same situation.
You may have in the past done the exact same thing that you are upset about. I think that one of the best ways to see how much you need to do this is to put yourself into their position, and imagine the way it must feel. Once you see how the other person feels, it usually becomes easier to think of what you want to say, how you want to go about healing the wound. Once you know what you would want to hear, it is easier to say what you feel is best. Jesus said that we must infinitely forgive them, start everything with a clean slate and forgive all wrongs. He tells us that we must forgive our neighbor "not seven times, but seventy times seven times." In this He doesn’t mean saying "you are forgiven" 490 times, per say, but that we should always forgive everything.
In the Lord’s Prayer, the Our Father, we all say together, "forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us." Perhaps we can all take that in reverse. God forgives us all completely. So maybe if we take that line from our prayer, and create a new request to God, "to help us forgive those who trespass against us, as He forgives our trespasses," our sins.
We
should all think about the things we want to change in our lives
in this new year, and the best way to begin is to cleanse our hearts
of grudge and regret. Forgive my metaphor to an impending chore,
but we can begin our autumn cleaning by raking the leaves of regrets,
remorse, hatred, sorrow, grudges, and unforgiven wrongs into a pile,
and burning them as we let these bad feelings become smoke and drift
away. A better way to think of it is this: We are like doves trapped
in a cage, and we don’t want to be there. this cage trapping us is
all the things we have not forgiven. But once that door is opened,
the doves, the peace trapped inside, can be free once again. That
weight can be lifted, and perhaps a friendship or two may appear.
The peaceful feeling that you experience is one of the greatest
rewards, because it means that you have made peace with another
person, but it also means that you have followed one of God’s
hardest instructions. It takes time to get the courage to do this.
It may seem a difficult and painful task, but not if we remember
that we are not alone in our effort. God is there to guide us, we
need only open ourselves up to His strength. Ask Him for guidance,
with that short and simple phrase: "please help us to forgive those
who trespass against us, as you forgive our trespasses." If we open
our hearts to Him, He will help us take the steps to following His
words, to forgive "not seven times, but seventy times seven times,"
to forgive completely.
by Jena Marie
