1
Sunday 24
“On the radio the other day there was a story about kids playing in a park in a town in New Hampshire. One of the kids was bi-racial and about eight years old. The other kids were older, about thirteen, and had a rope which was hanging from a tree branch. They tied the rope around the neck of the eight-year old who was standing on a picnic table and pushed him off it. In other words they lynched him. Miraculously the boy did not die and was able to free himself from the rope. Now what should be done with those thirteen year olds? The boy’s parents were interviewed on the radio. I cannot remember exactly what they said, but I believe the gist of their remarks was that these young boys must be taught that what they did was wrong, was attempted murder. They spoke rather quietly and modestly, given the enormity of what their child had suffered. However, they did make the point that these boys had to have learned this kind of thinking, this kind of behavior from their families.
That leads us to the sign unfurled at FenwayPark recently which said that racism is as much a part of our culture as baseball. When I first heard of this sign, I thought it was defending racism and white supremacy, but that was not its intention On the contrary, it wanted to warn us against the racism which is part of our culture.
Our gospel today and our first reading today are both telling us that we must both forgive those who have offended us and seek the forgiveness of those whom we have offended. One writer summarized the message of today’s Gospel in this way: “The sea of divine forgiveness in which we have been plunged must now so penetrate and mold our lives that we extend it graciously and without measure to those who offend against us.” Let us suppose that the parents of this bi-racial child were Christians and read this Gospel. Do you think that they would then say to themselves that they have to forgive these thirteen year olds who tried to kill their child? As I see it, they might say that first of all these boys must be taught the seriousness of what they did and punished for it. Then they would be willing to forgive them. But the teaching and the punishment would have to come first. If after the teaching and the punishment the parents still insisted on being unforgiving towards these boys, then, or so it seems to me, they would be hugging their wrath and anger to themselves and would become hateful people.
According to our Lord, our lives must be lives of lived forgiveness. We have to be willing to forgive those who have offended us, even it they do so again and again. Indeed, as someone has said, if we are counting the offenses, we have not really forgiven the people who have offended us.
Pope Francis has said: When we are indebted to others, we expect mercy; but when others are indebted to us, we demand justice.” How true that is! We want mercy from those whom we have offended, but we demand justice from those who have offended us. And by justice we mean at least an eye for an eye or a tooth for a tooth, that is, our so-called just deserts or rewards, the payment of the penalties. No mercy here. No sea of divine forgiveness into which the Lord Jesus, by his own passion and death, has plunged us. The Lord’s forgiveness has not yet so molded our lives that we almost unconsciously, almost naturally, extend it to others. But when it does, we are ready to love our enemies. Then we are willing to listen again to the Lord’s words about seeing the tiniest splinter in the other person’s eye but not being able to see the beam in our owneye.
Some people hug their bruises. It makes them feel important. They carry their grudges around with them as if they were ornaments or expensive clothing. They don’t realize that in doing this they are making themselves smaller and smaller and more and more unloving and unlovable. That restricted way of living is not the life the Lord Jesus lived and the life he now recommends to us in this parable today. We are to live big. We are to cover others with our forgiving love. We can do that because we realize that we have already received the Lord’s forgiveness and therefore should now share it with others. The other person who has offended us may refuse our forgiveness. But that does not affect our offer. Our forgiveness is there for the taking.
You may remember the terrible genocide that took place in Rwanda in 1994s. In one hundred days the majority tribe, the Hutus, killed 800000 members of the minority tribe, the Tutsis. Even religious sisters and priests were caught up in this slaughter. One Tutsi family went to their parish priest, a Hutu, seeking refuge, but he turned them away because they were Tutsis, even though he knew that it might mean they would be killed. But years later a boy from this family became a Jesuit priest, returned to his village, met the man who had killed his father and forgave him. Can you imagine that?
The stakes are smaller, I would imagine, for most of us. But the message of the Lord is the same for us: we must live forgiving lives because the Lord has forgiven us. “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. Amen.”