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Theo Tigno•
6/12/2003 12:35 pm
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Thursday, June 12th 2003 |
Matthew 5: 20-26
Jesus said to his disciples: "I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the Kingdom of heaven.
"You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment. But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment, and whoever says to his brother, 'Raqa,' will be answerable to the Sanhedrin, and whoever says, 'You fool,' will be liable to fiery Gehenna. Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, and there recall that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift there at the altar, go first and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Settle with your opponent quickly while on the way to court with him. Otherwise your opponent will hand you over to the judge, and the judge will hand you over to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison. Amen, I say to you, you will not be released until you have paid the last penny."
Dawg's thought:
Today's prayer intention is for reconciliation between yourself and the person(s) you are struggling with.
How can you live the Gospel message if you are unable to forgive? How can you serve the Lord with your whole heart when your heart is hardened? How can you love your neighbor as yourself when you see yourself as being better than your neighbor?
There will be many people in our lives that will hurt us. There are many people in our lives that will choose not to love us. There will be many people in our lives who are fearful of who they are and who we are. I wish I had all the answers.
I found out on Saturday that there are some friends of mine who are unwilling to forgive a decision I made a few months ago. I wish I had the answer for this dilemma, but there in lies the temptation. I want them to forgive me. I look at their actions and because their actions do not reflect my expectations, I look at them and I begin to elevate myself above them... "If it were me, I would have forgiven me a long time ago." There is another temptation waiting in the wings... "If they are unwilling to forgive me, then I am unwilling to forgive them." The temptation that is waiting is to harden my heart and seek selfish justice over mercy and forgiveness.
I wish I had all the answers. I wish I could tell you everything you need to do in those relationships that have fallen apart for you. I wish I could say a prayer and have everything in your lives reconciled and we could all live happily. We are all dealing with our brokenness and our pain. We are all dealing with hardened hearts. We are all dealing with our pasts.
When I think of forgiveness, I think of Jesus washing the disciples feet. He reminds the disciples that He is the teacher and we are the disciples. We can choose to be disciples of Christ and follow His example of forgiving those who crucified Him. We can choose to be disciples of Christ in sharing a meal with the one who would betray us. We can choose to be disciples of Christ in serving the one who would deny us. I may not have all the answers to these things, but Christ does, and we would do very well be remain His disciples. Take care and God Bless.
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