Homily for 24th Week in Ordinary Time
How many times do I have to forgive my brother or sister? Seven times? No, Jesus answers, seventy times seven times. Now if you are counting on your fingers trying to figure out how many times you need to forgive someone - you’ve missed the whole point of the Gospel. Jesus is asking for universal forgiveness, a kind of universal spiritual healthcare. Jesus is calling forth in us an attitude of forgiveness in all times and places. I can hear the voices being raised: nice ideal, impossible, can’t be done, there are just too many jerks wandering around… the list goes on and on. We can only contain so much; anger, resentment, negativity,, ticked-off-ness before we reach a breaking point. Not only our spiritual wellbeing, but our physical and mental wellbeing are at stake here. Forgiveness takes many forms. The word, forgive, says it all; you give, before all else, expecting nothing in return. A forgiving word may, or may not, change another person but it will have already