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Peace Through Forgiveness

Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven.”

Jesus makes it clear that there is no limit to giving and receiving forgiveness. When a wife loves her husband and when she forgives him when he does something wrong, and when a husband sees that his wife forgives him, their love can become even deeper and intense. God permits difficulties and even sin in our lives with the hope that they will deepen our faith in Him. He pushes us to make a continual choice—to choose Him, to return and ask for forgiveness. The dynamism of faith is evident in trials that polarize us. They lead to either a crisis or an intensification of faith, which should always grow and increase. Jesus’ mercy is our rescue from the chaos. When our lives are chaotic, when we are helpless and fall into sin, and when we do not know what to do, when we suffer and are confused, Jesus invites us to ask for His Merciful Love in the sacrament of Confession as often as we need. He invites us to seek His forgiveness. For when we are forgiven, when we experience God’s mercy, we also experience peace and are brought closer to Him.

The Holy Spirit wants to create in us new hearts that will not be disturbed by chaos—hearts that will find peace and security in God’s merciful Love. This weekend I would like to invite you to pray for those who seek to repay evil with evil, that they may experience God’s forgiveness and have a change of heart.

We pray, too, for ourselves and the members of the Church and our families, that our own hearts may become ever more merciful first by being open to God’s mercy and love.

Yours in Christ,
Father Arthur

Readings for the Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time: Lectionary 130