Dear friends in Christ,
The readings bring us to the very important theme of forgiveness. The whole issue of salvation is anchored on a forgiving God who seeks out his sinful children. The old testament is filled with God who relates with consistently disobeying people. Sometimes God allows them to suffer a little bit of the consequences of their wrong choices in a bid to make them reason differently before coming to their help. But the compelling picture of God in the relationship is that of a loving father tending his weak children, leading them to a better understanding of who they are as his children. Little wonder we say that to err is human, but to forgive is divine.
In the first reading, we see David who has been on the run because Saul seeks to kill him. Having been rejected as King of Israel due to his failure to adhere to the injunctions given to him through the prophet Samuel over the Amaleks (1 Samuel 15), David was chosen to replace him as the new king of Israel. Naturally, such action would raise jealousy in the heart of most normal persons. King Saul’s response was to seek out David and kill him so that the kingship would remain in within his household. In one of those pursuits, it was king Saul who ended up vulnerable to his enemy.
What would you ordinarily do when you discover that the very person seeking to end your life or your carrier or marriage has fallen into your net? You have all the opportunity and evidence needed to nail him or her. Would you let such occasion pass you by? That was the challenge before David. His servant Abishai said to him, “God has given your enemy into your hand this day; now therefore let me pin him to the earth with one stroke of the spear, and I will not strike him twice” (1 Samuel 26:8).
We always have such friends whenever such situation arises. They are ever willing to show us ways to avenge, even to do it themselves on our behalf. That is simply human. But David would not have king Saul killed, for the sake of the anointing that resides on Saul as the King of Israel. His love for God would not allow him to touch the Lord’s anointed.
Jesus went further in the Gospel to advocate love for the enemy. “I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you” (Luke 6:27-28). This goes far beyond the standard of the normal norm to treat others the way they deserve. You don’t just have to forgive or let go, but get involved in seeking the good of your enemies, praying for them and wishing them well. This would have sounded too theoretical if Jesus himself did not practice forgiveness at that length even while hanging on the cross (“Father forgive them for they do not know what they are doing” Luke 23:34) and his disciples did the same (“Father do not hold this sin against them”, said Steven while being stoned – Acts. 7:60). Even Pope John Paul II was glad to meet and forgive the man who shot him. There are other numerous examples that show us that forgiveness, even in worse situations, is possible.
As Christians, we recognize the need for forgiveness for ourselves and for others. However, looking at events in the society around us, we often discover that there are lots of hurts and effects of unforgiveness. We see families torn apart and people live cold over events that took place long ago. Worse still, a lot of Christians and men of other religions today are imprisoned by hate in the name of God, while others derive joy in destructively criticizing others. This proves that the understanding of God’s love that is rich in mercy and acceptance of the other is not yet a reality, and the negative consequences are readily visible.
The crippling effect of unforgiving hurts is so much that it not only constitutes a struggling with anger and resentment, but causes much difficulty both for the person who harbors it and those around him or her. It preoccupies the mind, interferes with present relationships and cripples self realization. A lot of stress related illnesses either stem from or are aggravated by anger and depression resulting from unforgiving hurts. And our loving God would not have us live that way. That is why Jesus asks us to let go, clean up the mind and enjoy the peace that forgiveness brings. Only thereafter that we can learn to extend true love to those we may have considered as enemies.
If unforgiveness hurts, why then do we have difficulty forgiving? Probably because we are still too logical about it. Popularly held consequences of forgiveness still influence us. We accept the belief that lessons are not learnt when forgiveness is readily granted. In other words, the culprit must be made to suffer something in other to ensure that he or she does not repeat similar actions the next time. So forgiveness becomes tentative and conditional upon future action. But this form of conditional forgiveness contradicts the love of God who died for us when we were still sinners and enemies of God (Rom. 5:8) and Jesus’ command to forgive in today’s gospel.
In Matthew 18:15 Jesus placed the initiative for forgiveness and reconciliation on the offended party to thereby demonstrating how necessary it is to forgive and live in peace and love with one another. Beyond conditional forgiveness, there are occasions we notice the desire to “get even” becoming so dominating that those unable to actualize their longing for vengeance resort to praying for the death of their enemies. Jesus would rather that we love our enemies (Today’s gospel; Matthew 5: 43-44).
Dear friends, do we realize that when one allow others to make him or her angry, for instance, what it really means is that someone else controls the person’s feelings? The person loses his or her freedom and concede to the other the power to decide when he or she should be happy or sad. Worse still, harboring the negative feeling keeps one continually chained to the influence of the other. The act of forgiving is, therefore, primarily beneficial to the forgiver. By forgiving, a person regains his or her freedom from negative emotional feeling to enjoy a more congruent and healthy mind-body relationship.
As Christians, we share in the divine nature through our baptism and the Holy Spirit strengthens our resolve to live as the children of God that we are. The Holy Spirit enables us to live such virtues as forgiveness which is ordinarily difficult under normal human circumstances. St. Paul reminds us in the second reading (1 Corinthians 15: 45-49) the very important distinction between Adam – the natural man of dust from the earth – , and Jesus – the spiritual man from heaven. Colossians 3: 3 affirms that we belong, not to the natural man, but to Christ who indeed is our life. What is naturally difficult is therefore supernaturally possible. Hence, forgiveness is a necessary condition for living the Christian faith. Whenever we pray the Lord’s prayer – The Our Father – we affirm this condition for the forgiveness of our own offenses (“forgive us our sins as we forgive those who offend us”, Matthew 6:12). Jesus added that unless we forgive our brothers and sisters from our hearts, our own offenses would not be forgiven (Matthew 6: 14-15).
As we advance in our daily walk with the Lord, let us ask for the grace to always forgive others in the manner that Christ has forgiven us (Lk. 23: 34; Col. 3:13). In this way, our love for God and humanity will be sincere and our Christian witness will be fruitful.
Homily 7th Sunday year c. 24-02-2019 by Fr. Marcel Uzoigwe, cssp.