By Ross Parrish, Mobile, Ala. - St. Ignatius
In Tuesday’s gospel (Mt 18:21-35) we once again see the recurring theme of our call to forgive others and as always we must respond in a forgiving manner in order to receive forgiveness ourselves. I always blindly accepted this until recently when I started asking “Why?”
So why is this necessary? Why must I forgive others in order to receive forgiveness myself? After struggling with the concept for a while, I remembered how loving of a God we have. He wishes to rain his mercy, love, and forgiveness on everyone. WE ARE THE ONES WHO WILL NOT ACCEPT OUR FORGIVENESS!!!! Am I honestly to believe that God, who is Love (1 Jn 4:8), is holding back his love from me out of spite? No, I am rejecting His love.
Love is not something we can pick and choose who to bestow it upon and when to distribute it? To use one of my favorite clichés, “Go big or go home”. Love is one of the few things in life you can’t attack half-way. That is why we wake up at the crack of dawn to come to these meetings. We either reject God’s love or accept it, there is no gray area. To reject one smidgen of the smallest portion of love is to reject God (Mt 25:40). And to reject God is to reject forgiveness. And to reject forgiveness is to reject salvation. So for our own sake, let us be sure to remember that He will forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.
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