Mt 5:43-48
“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, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.
For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved.
The Gift of Forgiveness
I am often amazed when I encounter situations in which someone refuses to forgive another person. Honestly, I don’t understand it. I know individuals that have held grudges for over thirty years! Isn’t that exhausting? Think about what has been lost in those thirty years…relationships, opportunities and celebrations. What a loss! Simply because someone cannot forgive another person.
This is why Jesus included this directive in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus only desires joy for us. He knows that holding a grudge and refusing to forgive someone gets in the way of joy and love. When someone forgives you and when you are forgiven by someone, joy and love are immediately present. Just call to mind a moment when you have been forgiven by someone. Think about what a relief that was and how joyful that moment was. If you need to forgive someone, ask God for the strength to forgive them and do it today. Give that person the gift of God’s joy and love expressed through you and your forgiveness. Give yourself that gift as well.
Amen.
—Ed DeVenney is a campus minister at Saint Ignatius High School in Cleveland.
Prayer
Lord God, forgive me my trespasses, as I forgive those who trespass against me. Amen.
—Excerpt of Our Father