Imagine the tangible power of forgiveness? Have you ever experienced it? In the fallen and broken world we live in, forgiveness is what can make us whole again, it is what can fill in the cracks of our fallen humanity with the divine love of God.

I can remember a specific confession of mine as a kid where I literally thought the priest was going to punch me through the confessional screen after finding out what I had done. Instead, he calmly said to me, “Son, I am a Monsignor in my parish. I have been around a lot longer than you have and I have been sinning longer than you have and at times I can be good at it. You have to give yourself a break. We all fall short, and Jesus brings us home.”

This really struck me. No matter what we do, God still loves us and desperately wants to forgive us. We only need to ask. Now I think we all know this in our minds, but take a second and ask yourself if you’ve let it penetrate your heart. That no matter how shamefully we fall, we can have hope in the mercy of God and what he did for us on the cross.

Now let’s flip it around and receive our lesson for the day from the Gospel. As much as we need forgiveness from God, we also need to give forgiveness to others. The Gospel reading can seem harsh, but it’s true. If we are constantly asking for mercy and not giving any in return than we are no better than the Pharisees.

So the question for you and me today is this, who do you need to forgive? We all have someone who has hurt us in one way or another. God has already forgiven them, have we? This can be a tall order, depending on what they have done to hurt us, but this is where we ask for the grace of God to come into our hearts and allow us to forgive with divine forgiveness. The same forgiveness he has open to us every single day. From all of us here at Rodzinka Ministry, God Bless!

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