IS 55:10-11; PS 34:4-5, 6-7, 16-17, 18-19; Gospel MT 6:7-15
Forgiveness can be a hard thing to do.
A number of years ago, for a long time, probably over a year, I just always felt angry. I would go the Sacrament of Reconciliation, talk about my anger, but never truly getting over it, so possibly never really being absolved from the sin.
And then one First Friday, which happened to be during Lent, while the Bishop was speaking at the luncheon after Mass, it hit me. I discovered the source of my anger. I went the confession later that day, and for the first time in well over a year, I felt the burden lifted off of me. I had not even tried to forgive someone for the harm they had committed.
Now, forgiving this person wasn’t easy, and it wasn’t automatic. It still took several more months before my “stoney heart” started to soften. But at least now I could start the process of forgiving this person. I started by praying for this person, which even that was nearly impossible to do. But as I continued to pray for them, things changed. I was eventually able to forgive them. While I never actually told this person these words “I forgive you”, because I probably will never see nor encounter this person ever again, I was able to forgive.
All these years of praying the “Our Father”, I don’t think I really understood the prayer, especially the part about trespasses:
forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us
If I wanted to be forgiven, I had to forgive.
While I still struggle at times to forgive people (trying to get better about those other drivers, for example), it is getting easier. The more readily I forgive, the better I feel. And the easier it becomes to forgive, again and again. God does this perfectly, and often. We need to strive to be like the Father, forgive over and over.
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