Let us attend to our relationships, because the remedy to cure them is not pride, not revenge, is not the “eye for an eye”, but forgiveness and mercy.
“Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful” (Luke 6, 36).
What is the measure, which is the thermometer that God will use to measure and to judge each of us? It is the same measure that we use to measure each other. It’s the way we treat others when they fail, err, err and do not correspond to what we want or expect them. First, when looking at the heart of the Father, for the Father’s face, we were shaken and, as the first reading of the Mass today, we were stained with shame and our face fall, because God is so good, is so merciful and has so much compassion of our faults that cause us shudder at heart.
We often abuse this goodness of God, we even say, “God forgives everything.” Yes, God does not deny himself, in fact, He forgives everything, just as long as there is repentance, sincerity, purpose, and in the best sense of the word, “shame in the face” on our part. The Lord helps us to rise from any fall, any hardness, and any errors that we have committed in this life.
God’s forgiveness is not automatic, He is always willing to forgive us, however, we must, for our part, ensure there is sincerity and deep regret.
If we prostrate before the Lord, as did the prophet today [of today’s liturgy], we recognizing that we deserve, in fact, punishment, and if we are truly with a contrite heart, God will show us His forgiveness and His merciful face.
God’s forgiveness is priceless, He does not charge anything to forgive us. The Lord asks us to do only one thing: go to meet our neighbor, to meet our debtors, those who hurt us and “screwed up” with us and let us act just as He treats us and measures us.
We need to stop having dual identity! We want both God’s forgiveness, but, unfortunately, it is very hard and difficult to forgive others. We want God to be as good for us as we are so demanding with each other.
God is so merciful to us, while we cheat mercy and forgiveness to each other, we want to play in his face of our enemy and make him suffer so he deserves a bit of our self-sufficiency and our pride.
However, the remedy to heal our relationship is not pride, not revenge, is not the “eye for an eye”, but forgiveness and mercy. God treats us with so much mercy, that you and I do the same by meeting our neighbor with the merciful face of God printed on our face and in our souls.
God bless you!
Fr. Roger Araujo