26 March 2019 - family sharing plan

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Should you not have had pity on your fellow servant,
as I had pity on you?

This is about forgiveness but not only forgiveness. It is about loving as we have first been loved. Jesus paid a debt that we could not pay. He purchased us at a price (see First Corinthians 6:20). We in turn must not merely forego exercising our rights of justice on those who owe us. We must actively love as Jesus loved. We must delight to set people free just as the forgiveness of Jesus sets us free. Even people that haven't wronged us specifically are still entitled to receive spiritual mercy from us.

So will my heavenly Father do to you,
unless each of you forgives your brother from your heart.

God gives us mercy so that it can overflow from us to others. He is not happy to see us set free only to use our freedom to build our own little kingdoms. He sets us free so that we can all rejoice together in his kingdom. And yet we have so many in spiritual poverty on our doorstep. How many of them must we evangelize? Seven? Seven times seven? No! We must never grow tired of mercy.

But with contrite heart and humble spirit
let us be received;
As though it were burnt offerings of rams and bullocks,
or thousands of fat lambs,
So let our sacrifice be in your presence today
as we follow you unreservedly;
for those who trust in you cannot be put to shame.

The way to ensure we don't start isolating ourselves into our own kingdoms and demanding from others that, at the least, they don't bother us, is humility. Humility undercuts the subconscious ideas of deserving that keep us trying to structure lives apart from God and his Kingdom, that keep us hoarding graces for ourselves that are meant to be shared.

And now we follow you with our whole heart,
we fear you and we pray to you.
Do not let us be put to shame,
but deal with us in your kindness and great mercy.
Deliver us by your wonders,
and bring glory to your name, O Lord.

Our hearts need to be changed. We don't care as much as we should. It is no use feeling bad and beating ourselves up about it. We confess that we have been selfish. Let us resolve to make the words of Paul our own:

We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God (see Second Corinthians 5:20).