IMITATING THE GENTLENESS AND FORGIVENESS OF JESUS - 11/07/22 (Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time)

Luke 17:3-4

“Be on your guard!  If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him.  And if he wrongs you seven times in one day and returns to you seven times saying, ‘I am sorry,’  you should forgive him.”  

For the full readings, click here: 

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/110722.cfm

Blessed Monday! Jesus is telling us to be on guard. Why is our Lord saying this to us? Its because He knows that our hearts may be filled with pride, anger and all other sins that make it difficult for us to follow and imitate Him. Not just that, but when we see how Jesus rebukes and forgives others, if we do not guard our hearts from temptations, we may think we are imitating Christ while not seeing that we are not doing these things with love. Let's consider first the importance of rebuking the sins of others. Since we are all imperfect, we can cause sins and sufferings to one another. If we are given the opportunity by God to correct some people, it should be done with love. Love is ordered towards truth. If we will rebuke or correct someone, it should be done with gentleness and with the desire to lead people to truth. Unfortunately, we may have the tendency to just point to people their mistakes and belittle them. What our Lord Jesus is constantly reminding us is to rebuke or correct other people in a way that He does, and that is with gentleness. When God speaks to our conscience, He doesn't cause despair, but it's always accompanied by hope. Our correction of other people should inspire hope from them, and from here, we can entrust these people to God on how they will accept the opportunity of repentance. 

We should also be on guard when we think of forgiveness. Our Savior says that we should forgive those who come to seek forgiveness. But, we should be reminded that Jesus is also telling us in other parts of the gospel to forgive people from our hearts. It's not right if we dwell on our anger with others and justify ourselves by thinking that we will only do good to them and forgive them if they first come to us and seek our forgiveness. That's not the path to humility. At the same time, we can only genuinely forgive others if we already forgive them in our hearts regardless of how the other people will act. This is what will give healing to our hearts. In fact, Jesus already forgave us of all of our sins on the cross. He also forgave those who crucified Him. It's through prayers and through the sacraments, like the Mass and the Confession, that we accept this gift of forgiveness. God loves us before we can even love Him. He already forgave us before we could even seek His forgiveness. It's difficult to follow Christ, but it's not impossible. By immersing ourselves in His love, especially as we reflect on God's Word daily, we can reflect the gentleness and forgiveness of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Amen +

Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, be with us always until the hour of our death. Amen. +

 

May the Lord + bless us, protect us from all evil and bring us to everlasting life. Amen. +  

Reflection by: Dominic

Summary and Defense of Catholic Teachings:

https://www.catholic.com/tract/pillar-of-fire-pillar-of-truth

Ultimate Catholic Parents Guide:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Ls6IcexZAls

Examination of Conscience and Guide to Sacrament of Confession:

https://mycatholic.life/catholic-prayers/examination-of-conscience/