10-22-2023, 06:08 AM
Taken from Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdgalen's Divine Intimacy: Meditations on the Interior Life for Everyday of the Year
PRESENCE OF GOD - O Lord, as You are so generous in forgiving me, teach me to forgive others generously.
MEDITATION
1. “The kingdom of heaven is likened to a king who would take an account of his servants.” Today’s Gospel (Mt 18,23-35) refers to the account which all men will one day be called upon to give. It is a serious thought, which makes us reflect, as we did last Sunday, on the state of our conscience. Yet, as we continue the reading of this parable, our hearts are comforted. God, represented by the king, manifests such kindness, mercy, and compassion to the poor servant who cannot pay his debt; He forgives him everything and sets him free.
The debt of that servant was not a trifling one: ten thousand talents; our debts to God are much greater and cannot be computed in talents, nor in silver and gold; they must be reckoned according to the price of our redemption, the most precious Blood of Jesus. Our debts are our sins which needed to be washed away in the Blood of a divine Victim. In spite of our good will, we increase these debts each day, to a greater or lesser extent, if only by faults of frailty and weakness. Is there one who can say at the day’s end that he has not contracted new debts with God? If, at the end of life, God should place before us an exact account of our deficit, we should find ourselves in a much more embarrassing position than that of the servant in the parable. But God, being infinite goodness, knows and has pity on our misery; each time we place ourselves before Him and humbly acknowledge our faults with sincere repentance, He immediately pardons us and cancels all our debts. God is magnificent when He pardons: He does not reproach us for the faults over which we have already wept, nor does He keep any account of them; His pardon is so generous, so great and complete, that it not only annuls our debts, but destroys even the memory of them, as if they had never existed. It is enough for Him to see us repentant; then every wound, even the most grievous and repugnant, is completely healed by the precious Blood of Jesus. Christ’s Blood is like an immense sea which has the power to cleanse and destroy the sins of all mankind, provided they are sincerely repented of. Every minute of every day we can take the burden, heavy or light as it may be, of our sins and infidelities and make it disappear in this ocean of grace
and love, certain that not one trace of it will remain.
2. The second part of the parable speaks of our forgiveness of others. Returning home, the fortunate servant whose debts had all been cancelled, met one of his fellow servants, who owed him a hundred pence, a very small sum compared with the ten thousand talents which had been cancelled for him. Yet he who had been treated with so much mercy, showed none to his fellow servant; he would neither listen to his pleadings, nor heed his tears, but “went and cast him into prison, till he paid the debt.”
A few moments ago we were moved by the master’s kindness; now the servant’s cruelty makes us indignant. Yet, even though we blush, we ought to recognize that, just as the kindheartedness of the master is the image of the mercy of God, ever ready to pardon, so the cruelty of the servant is the figure of our own hardheartedness and miserliness in forgiving our neighbor. Unfortunately, it is all too true: we who need God’s forgiveness even more than we need our daily bread, are so hard, so demanding toward our fellow men; we find it difficult to be indulgent and forgiving. Yet what are the debts that our neighbor may owe us compared with what we owe to God? Certainly, infinitely less than a few pence compared with ten thousand talents, since it is a matter of an offense committed against a mere creature compared with one committed against the infinite majesty of God. But what a contrast! God pardons, forgets, and entirely cancels all our heavy debts; He does not cease to love us and bestow favors upon us in spite of our continual want of fidelity. We, on the contrary, find it very difficult to forgive some little slight; even if we do forgive, we cannot entirely forget it, and we are ready to reproach the other person at the first opportunity. How would we act if our neighbor committed against us each day the numerous infidelities and faults that we commit against God? Oh! how miserable and constrained is our way of pardoning others!
The parable describes the punishment inflicted on the cruel servant by his master: “And his lord being angry, delivered him to the torturers until he paid all the debt”; and the conclusion follows: “So also shall My heavenly Father do to you, if you forgive not your brothers from your hearts.” If we wish God to be generous in pardoning us, we must be generous in forgiving others; we shall be forgiven according to the measure in which we forgive, which means that we ourselves give to God the exact measure of the mercy He is to show to us.
COLLOQUY
“Is there anyone, O Lord, who is not in debt to You? Is there anyone who has not someone in debt to him? In Your justice You have determined that Your rule of conduct toward me, Your debtor, should be that followed by me in regard to my debtors. Therefore, because I also have sinned—and how often!—I must be indulgent with him who seeks my pardon. In fact, when the time of prayer comes, I should be able to say to You, ‘Forgive me, O Lord, my trespasses,' and how? The condition is laid down by me, I myself fix the law: ‘Forgive me my trespasses as I forgive those who trespass against me.’
“O Lord, You have set down in the Gospel two short sentences: ‘Forgive and it shall be forgiven you; give and it shall be given to you.’ This is my prayer: I ask pardon of You for my sins, and You will that I should pardon others.
“Just as the poor beg from me, so I, Your poor little beggar, stand at the door of my Father’s house; rather, I prostrate myself there, begging and groaning, longing to receive something, and this something is You. The beggar asks me for bread, and what do I ask of You, if not Yourself, for You have said, ‘I am the living bread that came down from heaven?'
“In order to obtain forgiveness, I shall forgive; I shall pardon others, and I shall be pardoned. Because I wish to receive, I shall give, and it shall be given to me.
“If it is hard for me to forgive someone who has offended me, I shall have recourse to prayer. Instead of repaying insults with more insults, I shall pray for the guilty one. When I feel like giving him a harsh answer, I shall speak to You, O Lord, in his favor. Then I shall remember that You promise eternal life, but You command us to forgive others. It is as if You said to me, ‘You who are a man, forgive other men, so that I, who am God can come to you °”? (St. Augustine).
336. FORGIVENESS
TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
PRESENCE OF GOD - O Lord, as You are so generous in forgiving me, teach me to forgive others generously.
MEDITATION
1. “The kingdom of heaven is likened to a king who would take an account of his servants.” Today’s Gospel (Mt 18,23-35) refers to the account which all men will one day be called upon to give. It is a serious thought, which makes us reflect, as we did last Sunday, on the state of our conscience. Yet, as we continue the reading of this parable, our hearts are comforted. God, represented by the king, manifests such kindness, mercy, and compassion to the poor servant who cannot pay his debt; He forgives him everything and sets him free.
The debt of that servant was not a trifling one: ten thousand talents; our debts to God are much greater and cannot be computed in talents, nor in silver and gold; they must be reckoned according to the price of our redemption, the most precious Blood of Jesus. Our debts are our sins which needed to be washed away in the Blood of a divine Victim. In spite of our good will, we increase these debts each day, to a greater or lesser extent, if only by faults of frailty and weakness. Is there one who can say at the day’s end that he has not contracted new debts with God? If, at the end of life, God should place before us an exact account of our deficit, we should find ourselves in a much more embarrassing position than that of the servant in the parable. But God, being infinite goodness, knows and has pity on our misery; each time we place ourselves before Him and humbly acknowledge our faults with sincere repentance, He immediately pardons us and cancels all our debts. God is magnificent when He pardons: He does not reproach us for the faults over which we have already wept, nor does He keep any account of them; His pardon is so generous, so great and complete, that it not only annuls our debts, but destroys even the memory of them, as if they had never existed. It is enough for Him to see us repentant; then every wound, even the most grievous and repugnant, is completely healed by the precious Blood of Jesus. Christ’s Blood is like an immense sea which has the power to cleanse and destroy the sins of all mankind, provided they are sincerely repented of. Every minute of every day we can take the burden, heavy or light as it may be, of our sins and infidelities and make it disappear in this ocean of grace
and love, certain that not one trace of it will remain.
2. The second part of the parable speaks of our forgiveness of others. Returning home, the fortunate servant whose debts had all been cancelled, met one of his fellow servants, who owed him a hundred pence, a very small sum compared with the ten thousand talents which had been cancelled for him. Yet he who had been treated with so much mercy, showed none to his fellow servant; he would neither listen to his pleadings, nor heed his tears, but “went and cast him into prison, till he paid the debt.”
A few moments ago we were moved by the master’s kindness; now the servant’s cruelty makes us indignant. Yet, even though we blush, we ought to recognize that, just as the kindheartedness of the master is the image of the mercy of God, ever ready to pardon, so the cruelty of the servant is the figure of our own hardheartedness and miserliness in forgiving our neighbor. Unfortunately, it is all too true: we who need God’s forgiveness even more than we need our daily bread, are so hard, so demanding toward our fellow men; we find it difficult to be indulgent and forgiving. Yet what are the debts that our neighbor may owe us compared with what we owe to God? Certainly, infinitely less than a few pence compared with ten thousand talents, since it is a matter of an offense committed against a mere creature compared with one committed against the infinite majesty of God. But what a contrast! God pardons, forgets, and entirely cancels all our heavy debts; He does not cease to love us and bestow favors upon us in spite of our continual want of fidelity. We, on the contrary, find it very difficult to forgive some little slight; even if we do forgive, we cannot entirely forget it, and we are ready to reproach the other person at the first opportunity. How would we act if our neighbor committed against us each day the numerous infidelities and faults that we commit against God? Oh! how miserable and constrained is our way of pardoning others!
The parable describes the punishment inflicted on the cruel servant by his master: “And his lord being angry, delivered him to the torturers until he paid all the debt”; and the conclusion follows: “So also shall My heavenly Father do to you, if you forgive not your brothers from your hearts.” If we wish God to be generous in pardoning us, we must be generous in forgiving others; we shall be forgiven according to the measure in which we forgive, which means that we ourselves give to God the exact measure of the mercy He is to show to us.
COLLOQUY
“Is there anyone, O Lord, who is not in debt to You? Is there anyone who has not someone in debt to him? In Your justice You have determined that Your rule of conduct toward me, Your debtor, should be that followed by me in regard to my debtors. Therefore, because I also have sinned—and how often!—I must be indulgent with him who seeks my pardon. In fact, when the time of prayer comes, I should be able to say to You, ‘Forgive me, O Lord, my trespasses,' and how? The condition is laid down by me, I myself fix the law: ‘Forgive me my trespasses as I forgive those who trespass against me.’
“O Lord, You have set down in the Gospel two short sentences: ‘Forgive and it shall be forgiven you; give and it shall be given to you.’ This is my prayer: I ask pardon of You for my sins, and You will that I should pardon others.
“Just as the poor beg from me, so I, Your poor little beggar, stand at the door of my Father’s house; rather, I prostrate myself there, begging and groaning, longing to receive something, and this something is You. The beggar asks me for bread, and what do I ask of You, if not Yourself, for You have said, ‘I am the living bread that came down from heaven?'
“In order to obtain forgiveness, I shall forgive; I shall pardon others, and I shall be pardoned. Because I wish to receive, I shall give, and it shall be given to me.
“If it is hard for me to forgive someone who has offended me, I shall have recourse to prayer. Instead of repaying insults with more insults, I shall pray for the guilty one. When I feel like giving him a harsh answer, I shall speak to You, O Lord, in his favor. Then I shall remember that You promise eternal life, but You command us to forgive others. It is as if You said to me, ‘You who are a man, forgive other men, so that I, who am God can come to you °”? (St. Augustine).
"So let us be confident, let us not be unprepared, let us not be outflanked, let us be wise, vigilant, fighting against those who are trying to tear the faith out of our souls and morality out of our hearts, so that we may remain Catholics, remain united to the Blessed Virgin Mary, remain united to the Roman Catholic Church, remain faithful children of the Church."- Abp. Lefebvre