A HEART TRANSFORMED BY GOD'S FORGIVENESS - 03/14/23 (Tuesday of the Third Week of Lent)

Matthew 18:21–22

Peter approached Jesus and asked him, “Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus answered, “I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times.” 

For the full readings, click here: 

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031423.cfm

Blessed Tuesday! When St. Peter asked our Lord as to how often he should forgive others, Jesus told him, "I say to you, not seven times but seventh-seven times." This doesn't mean as if we should not forgive someone if he or she committed sins against us for the 78th time. Rather, the words of Christ means that we should always forgive other people from our hearts. Still, we cannot deny the difficulty of this teaching about forgiveness. Why is it difficult? There are at least two reasons for this. The first reason is we may still be motivated to do actions because it's pleasing to us, not because these actions are pleasing to God. Even when it comes to other virtues, we should persevere in doing them, not because we just want them for ourselves, but because God wants us to possess such virtues. Everything we do is for the glory of God which will give us true happiness and authentic peace. Because it's the will of God that we reflect His merciful love for us by being merciful with other people, we should persevere in forgiving our neighbors out of love for Christ. 

The second reason is because our hearts are not yet fully transformed by God's merciful love. This is not due to His part, but it's on our part because of the difficulty of offering our whole hearts to Christ. Someone may wonder if it's ok to just focus on loving Jesus without the need of loving other people. However, to love Jesus means that we become united to Him. It means that we allow Him to transform our hearts into His Sacred Heart for us to be able to love as He loves. The more we see how much we are in need of God's mercy, the more that we will see the importance of showing mercy to our neighbors. Sometimes, we may think that we are already good and because of this, it's easy to be disappointed and be angry when we see the imperfections of other people. For us to be more forgiving, we should also persevere in reflecting on our sins and in seeing how loving God is to us. May we also reflect in our prayer as to the specific reasons and causes why we may be angry with other people. Let's also ask the Lord what He wants us to do with regards to this situation in such a way that we will remain peaceful. Even if there are still pains in our hearts, let's still choose to forgive other people from our hearts. This will help our hearts to be healed, and it's a sign of our love for our Merciful Savior because love is not based on our feelings but on our desire to do the will of God. 

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

Fasting and Abstinence during Lent:

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/resource/56337/fasting-and-abstinence-during-lent

Examination of Conscience and Guide to Sacrament of Confession:

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

Ultimate Catholic Parents Guide:

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

Summary and Defense of Catholic Teachings:

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