Forgiveness is ultimately for our own benefits - psychologically and soteriologically. But, we must live for Christ, not for ourselves.
No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as it is from our standpoint. Therefore we must be saved by the final form of love which is forgiveness.
Reinhold
Niebuhr, "The Irony of American History", University of Chicago Press (1952/2008) p. 63
*****
As the Gospel reading for the 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A, Matthew 18:21-35, is the immediate sequence to the Gospel reading for the 23rd Sunday, Matthew 18:15-20, it is important to refresh what we read and learned on the Sunday before.
In the Gospel reading for the 23rd Sunday
in Ordinary Time, Cycle A, Matthew 18:15-20, Jesus was teaching how they are to
respond to a faith community member who has sinned against them. To this, Jesus
presented three-step process to confront and correct the matter resulting from
offenses: private conversation, conversation with a few, and public
confrontation in the assembly (Matthew 18:15-17a). These three steps are for
fraternal correction to prevent the Church from being fissured by the consequences
of unattended offenses.
For the sake of preserving the harmonious unity of
the Church, Jesus also taught that if a sinning member fails to repent and to
reconcile after all these three steps, then, this member deserves to be
expelled (Matthew 18:17b), echoing his teaching in Matthew 18:6-9. The spirit
of this teaching is later applied to the nascent church in Corinth by Paul (1
Corinthians 1-13).
In fact, the purpose for Jesus to tell his disciples
how they can facilitate repentance and reconciliation through fraternal
correction with care is to maintain the harmonious unity of his Church. Though
the Church was not yet born, Jesus had already given his disciples a blue print
of how the Church should be. And Jesus told that he is present in our koinoinia as we gather in his name. It
also means that he is certainly present in our ekklesia, namely the Church. And, as Paul describes in 1
Corinthians 12:12-27, the Church is, indeed, one body of Christ, born of One
Spirit, the Holy Spirit, with many parts, which are us. Jesus came to us as the
Logos-Theos, incarnated in the human flesh, to dwell among us, so that he is
with us in our gathering of at least a few in his name. But, for him to be with
us, we should – our assembly – his Church – should be in harmonious unity. For
this, Jesus wants all of us constituting the Church to watch each other with
care to make sure offenses among us, sins among us, are not unattended but are
fully addressed for repentance and reconciliation. This fraternal correction practice to keep the
harmonious unity of the Church, one body of Christ, in which we are its parts,
is like our body’s immune system or self-correcting function during sleep. But,
if pathology is beyond these function and threatens to affect the rest of the
body, then, the problematic part of the body is surgically removed or amputated
– to preserve the health of the body. That is why Jesus also gave a harsh
teaching to remove such a member who stubbornly refuse to repent and be
corrected to reconcile. Such a person’s
uncorrected sinfulness can bring negative effects to the rest of the community.
Now we know what to do if a fellow brother or sister
in our faith community sins against us. We practice fraternal correction. We do not ignore.
Neither do we accuse nor judge him or her. Not to mention, we do not respond
him or her with retaliation.
The Gospel reading for the 24th Sunday,
Matthew 18:21-35, takes off from Jesus’ teaching of fraternal correction for
the sake of preserving the harmonious unity of his Ekklesia, which assembles koinoinias
of his name, in which he is present. And it seems that Peter understood the necessity
of forgiveness in practicing fraternal correction. So, Peter wanted to know more
about forgiveness in practicing fraternal correction and asked Jesus how often
we need to forgive, thinking as many times as seven times (Matthew 18:21). But,
to his surprise, Jesus told Peter, “seventy seven times”(Matthew 18:22). Of course, these numbers are not to be taken
literally. By saying “seventy seven times”, Jesus was teaching that we should
not put a limit as to how often or how many times we are to forgive those who
offend us.
When Peter asked Jesus, if he would need to forgive
as often as “seven times”(Matthew 18:21), he could have been thinking seven as
the number of completeness, as it is so in the Old Testament thinking. It is
because God’s Sabbath day is the seventh day (Genesis 2:2). And, when Jesus
answered with the specific number of “seventy seven”, it is believed that Jesus
was also reversing sinful Lamech’s boasting of his vengeance in Genesis
4:23-24.
Then, Jesus spoke a parable about a servant, who
refused to forgive his fellow servant for owing him, even though his debt to his
master was forgiven by the master (Matthew 18:23-35) to teach the importance of
forgiveness.
This parable on forgiveness humbly reminds us that
we have been in immeasurable debt of gratitude to God, because God has forgiven
and redeemed us (Colossians 1:13-14; cf. Acts 26:18). It is because God the Father is so merciful to
us, as reflected in the Responsorial Psalm (Psalm 103:1-2, 3-4, 9-10, 11-12), because
God the Son, Jesus, has offered himself as the ultimate Korban Pesakh (Passover Sacrifice), letting his blood save us from
the wrath of God the Father (Exodus 12:1-13, 21-28; 1 Corinthians 5:7; John 1:29)
and as Korban Chattat (Sin Offering
)(Leviticus 16:6, 15-16) for atonement (kippur)(Galatians
3:13). There is no way that we can pay back what we owe God. But, God has
forgiven our debt through the Son, Jesus Christ. Therefore, we are like the
servant, whom his master forgave his entire debt in the parable.
The question we must ask ourselves as often as “seventy
seven times” – ask ourselves always is:
Are we also forgiving our fellow brothers and sisters, who sin against
us or who offend us, as God has forgiven us? Or, are we refusing to forgive our
fellow brothers and sisters, like the servant who treated his fellow servant mercilessly
for not being able to pay what as owed to him?
The parable also reminds us that the servant, who
refused to forgive his fellow servant’s debt but treated him harshly, was
severely punished by his master, who forgave him when he owed him (Matthew
18:31-35). And, in concluding the parable, Jesus is challenging us:
Should
you not have had pity (mercy) on your fellow brothers and sisters, as I had
pity (mercy) on you? (v.33)
In other words, Jesus, our master, the Lord, is
prompting us to ask ourselves, “Shouldn’t we be merciful and therefore forgive
those who owe us and those who offend us, as God the Father has forgiven us
through God the Son’s sacrifice and his blood?
Jesus further reminds us that if we do not forgive,
then, we may face the kind of fate that the unforgiving servant had – punitive
judgement. And, this is also reflected in the First Reading ( Ben Sirach 27:30—28:7),
which rebukes the inability to forgive and holding grudge.
After all, forgiveness is ultimately for our own
benefit and wellbeing. And this teaching from the Gospel Reading and the First
Reading is also consistent with psychological research study by Ashley Ermer
and Christine Proulx, “Unforgiveness,
depression, and health in later life: the protective factor of forgivingness”
in Aging & Mental Health, Vol. 20 (10), 2016, pp.1021-1034. Not to mention,
our inability to forgive may cost our eligibility to enter the Kingdom at eschaton.
Finally, the Second Reading (Romans 14:7-9) gives a
psychological insight as to what helps us to forgive and what can contribute to
difficulty in forgiving. In this, Paul reminds us that our existence is not for
ourselves but for the Lord. In other words, Paul gives psychological and
existential insights that our life is not for ourselves but for the Lord. It
means that we were born and given life to live on earth to serve Christ.
Remember, the two main conditions that Jesus has taught for the discipleship?
These are: self-denial and carrying our cross (Mathew 16:24), as reminded on 23rd
Sunday. In fact, self-denial and carrying our cross are closely related,
because unless we deny ourselves, we would not be able to carry our cross.
The principle of self-denial is an indispensable
psychological factor for us to forgive. But, if we are clinging to our ego, as
we live for ourselves, then it is very difficult to forgive but we are more
likely to hold grudge. As Paul has said in Romans 14:7-9, we are not living to
cling to our ego but are living for Christ by overcoming ego (by denying
ourselves) to the extent of giving up our own lives (carrying our cross). And
as we live for Christ, then, we are more able to be like Christ. Therefore, as
he has forgiven those who tortured him and put to death through his Father’s
mercy (Luke 23:24), we are also able to forgive those who sinned against us and
offended us – as we deny ourselves and live for Christ. This psychological
insight is also empirically verified by Julie Exline’s study, “Forgiveness and the Ego: Why Hypo-egoic
States Foster Forgiveness and Prosocial Responses” in “The Oxford Handbook
of Hypo-egoic Phenomena”(2016), edited by Kirk Warren Brown and Mark R. Leary.
So, are you free from ego’s holding forces as you
try to forgive your fellow brother or sister, who has offended you? Are you
living for Christ, who has forgiven, as having denied yourself and thus living
in the hypo-egoic state so that there is no obstacle in forgiving? Or, are you
still living for yourself as having difficulty with self-denial, thus, also
having hard time to forgive but tending to hold grudge?
Remember, we practice fraternal correction for each
other with love and forgive one another from our hearts as these are our ways
to love one another as the Lord has loved us. This way, the harmonious unity of
Jesus’ Church, the health of one body of Christ, is sustained.
Pater Noster, Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie, et dimitte nobis debita nostra sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris.
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