7th Sunday Ordinary Time
February 17/18, 2007
Fr. Joe Mills
Once upon a time there was a wise old woman who had a deep faith
in Jesus. One day, after she been telling others how her faith in
Christ made a difference in her life, someone in the crowd threw a
potato which hit her. The old woman picked up the potato and put
it in the pocket of her apron. A few months later during a
Thanksgiving Day service when it was the custom for Christians to
bring some of the fruits of their labors to church, the old woman
arrived carrying a bag of potatoes. When asked about the bag of
potatoes, she explained that she had taken the potato that had
been thrown at her, cut it up, and planted it. Now she was
bringing the increase that had grown out of her forgiveness.
One act of forgiveness can bear abundant
fruit (or in this case, vegetable). The story
also answers the question that appeared in an article entitled “Do
Catholics forgive as they have been forgiven?”
The answer seems to be that many of us find it easier to throw a
potato at another than to cut it up, plant it, and eventually reap
the good results of forgiveness.
Forgiveness is a
process. Giving and seeking forgiveness seems to be an on-going
process. We are probably always at some stage or other of needing
to be forgiven or offering forgiveness to another.
It does not happen in an instant; it takes time.
Forgiveness of self, of others is a way of life.
Asking God’s forgiveness is a daily prayer of ours.
Sometimes we priests hear people in the confessional saying
that they cannot forgive themselves for something they have done
earlier in life. In their estimation, even God can’t forgive them.
(Guilty of pride here?)
We often hear from the pulpit,
as we should, that abortion is wrong; it is a crime, it is a
serious sin. But we also need to hear that
forgiveness is available for the woman herself and for those who
assisted n the abortion. Project Rachel
reaches out to those who have been involved in abortions.
Our people need to hear of the Church’s
compassion for those who have gone this way.
The Church IS a caring, and forgiving Church.
That means that You and I must be forgiving, for WE ARE THE
CHURCH.
Some years ago when we were into RENEW in
the diocese, I was asked to give a talk on “Hurting Catholics.”
The idea was to send out a signal that the Church wants to
apologize to all those who have been hurt by the Church. An ad was
placed in the Messenger-Inquirer advertising the talk at Lourdes
in Owensboro. We had a good crowd of people. I spoke of the many
hurts that people can experience from the Church, from the Pope,
the bishop, the parish priest on down to the member of
congregation, and those who were former members of the
congregation. The Vatican Council reminds us that we are all the
Church. Any one of us can hurt another. In a
sense, that is the Church hurting the Church.
Well, don’t you know one of
the priests of the diocese, now deceased, sent
me the ad out of the paper, all marked up. The
message was “How Dare you say that the Church has hurt people?”
I was put out, but really felt sorry that he had
misunderstood the gist of the presentation. Pope John Paul II on
many occasions asked forgiveness for the hurts that people have
suffered at the hands of the Church. Over a hundred times did the
Holy Father ask forgiveness of those in the Church and those who
were not Catholic.
Of course we hurt one another. Of course we
need to ask for forgiveness. Of course we need to forgive one
another. This is true if you are the Pope, or
the Bishop, or the Priest, or the mother or father, the uncle or
the aunt, or the brother or the sister. We, as
Church, hurt one another, and need to seek forgiveness.
Sometimes we need to ask for forgiveness.
Close your eyes and listen again to these words
of our Blessed Lord Jesus:
“Love your enemies, do good to those who hate
you; bless those who curse you and pray for those who mistreat
you... Be compassionate as your heavenly Father is compassionate.
Do not judge... Do not condemn. Pardon and you will be pardoned.
Give and it shall be given to you..”
This gospel without a doubt is the one of the most
difficult demands that Jesus makes on his disciples.
Perhaps our response might be “But,
Jesus, you don’t know what he did to me.” “You
don’t know what she said to me?” You know
something? Jesus DOES know all about it. Of
course he knows.
There is nothing easy about these commands of
Jesus. Our initial reaction is similar to that of the disciples
who has just listened to Jesus’ Bread of Life Discourse” in John’s
gospel where Jesus dared to say “I am the bread of life... My
flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my
flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in you.” What was
the reaction of many of Jesus’ disciples who were listening to
these provocative words ? They said “This
saying is hard. Who can accept it?” Some of
them, we are told, would no longer walk with Jesus.
Today’s gospel is indeed a hard saying. In fact,
it is perhaps the toughest, most challenging
aspect of Christian love. I’m told it is supposed to get easier as
we grow older. I’m not sure that’s true. It’s supposed to be
easier to forgive ourselves also. Our greatest comfort and help in
all this comes from Jesus himself who said from his place on the
cross “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.”
We can think of these words of Jesus when we find
it difficult to swallow this gospel. We can think of Jesus’ words
from the cross when we pray the words of the Our Father “Forgive
us our trespasses as we forgive them who trespass against us.”
It’s good to remember the footnote that Jesus adds: “If you
forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will
forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, neither will your
Father forgive your transgressions.”
Perhaps since I’ve been talking, you’ve thought
of a relationship that needs mending. Let me say this:
By virtue of the words of our Lord in this Gospel, and by
virtue of the love that Jesus is sharing with us in this Mass,
this evening, you and I can take that step, make that phone call,
write that email, make that visit, to put this gospel into effect.
Don’t leave here without that resolve to do something right
away – either to ask forgiveness or offer forgiveness.
And of course our Lord’s words are for every one of us here
today, younger, older, everyone.
Remember the wise old woman with her
bag of potatoes. We cannot be “couch potatoes” when it comes to
pardoning and forgiving - even our enemies. So
let’s start cutting up those potatoes thrown at us, planting them,
and waiting for the reward of being reconciled.
Jesus is speaking through me this morning.
May we all open our hearts and find that wonderful peace
that only our Lord can give us.
sdrose@bellsouth.net
2-27-2007
