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Click here for information on the Knights of Columbus Charity Golf Tournament held on Saturday, June 15, 2024.
To pick the theme in today’s readings seems easy: be persistent in prayer. Ask God over and over, never give up and He will answer you. Our Responsorial Psalm said, “Lord, on the day I called for help, you answered me.” But there is another even more important message: our God is a God of mercy and forgiveness and we are called to be like Him.
In the first reading from Genesis we hear of Sodom, a sinful city that does not even have ten good people living in it. But for God it is a city in need of mercy and forgiveness. That is why He agrees with Abraham every time. Pope Francis said the name of God is mercy. That is what He is and He doesn’t have to be talked into being merciful; that is all He knows. Inside of God there is no stinginess, no sparing of mercy. Spare the whole city for only 10 good people? OK. God, it seems, never worries about someone undeserving receiving mercy. But sometimes we do. Like Abraham, we want to be the ones to decide when God should dispense mercy. During the Napoleonic Wars there was a young French soldier who in his first battle panicked and ran away. He was captured soon after the battle and quickly sentenced to death for deserting in the face of the enemy. He was an only child and his mother was devastated. She hated for him to be forced to join the army and now this. She went to Napoleon and got down on her knees and pleaded for him to spare the young boy’s life. Napoleon looked at her and asked, “What makes you think he deserves mercy?” The mother looked up at him and replied, “If he deserved it, it wouldn’t be mercy.” If we are stingy with mercy, maybe it is because mercy implies forgiveness.
That leads us to the Gospel, Luke’s version of the Our Father. At the very heart of the Our Father is a plead, a petition to be given the grace to forgive. Forgiveness flows naturally from mercy and it is at the very core of everything Jesus taught and lived. And at the very core of the conflicts in the world is the inability to forgive. Think about that: at the very core of the conflicts in the world is the inability to forgive. It does not matter if we talk about bombings in the Middle East, the killing of police officers, or family feuds or neighborhood squabbles. All conflicts, big or small, have at their core the lack of forgiveness.
Because forgiveness is not easy. Forgiveness, true forgiveness, is not just a spoken word. Rather, it is a concrete act of repairing broken relationships. Relationships within a family, between people, between nations, between ethnic groups. Forgiveness is a conscious action of repairing relationships. That’s why it is hard. But we are called to be as generous in forgiving others as God has been in forgiving us. What broken relationships in our life need to be repaired? Forgiveness is more than a thought or word; it takes a visit, a phone call, an email, a handshake. It is a conscious, concrete action. But how do we forgive others when our own heart is buried in self-pity? How did Jesus do it? How did he forgive in the face of hatred, misunderstanding, jealousy, and death threats?
He did it by recognizing that forgiveness was the most important challenge of His life and by asking for the help of the Father who can do in us what we can’t do for ourselves. And He urges us to do the same. “How much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?” We have only to ask for the grace to forgive. “Forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us.” In a few minutes we will pray for the grace to forgive and then we are invited to turn to one another to share Christ’s peace. Make that gesture an act of forgiveness. Asking, seeking, knocking opens us up to receive what God is waiting to give us - a share in His very life. A life of mercy and forgiveness.
In the first reading from Genesis we hear of Sodom, a sinful city that does not even have ten good people living in it. But for God it is a city in need of mercy and forgiveness. That is why He agrees with Abraham every time. Pope Francis said the name of God is mercy. That is what He is and He doesn’t have to be talked into being merciful; that is all He knows. Inside of God there is no stinginess, no sparing of mercy. Spare the whole city for only 10 good people? OK. God, it seems, never worries about someone undeserving receiving mercy. But sometimes we do. Like Abraham, we want to be the ones to decide when God should dispense mercy. During the Napoleonic Wars there was a young French soldier who in his first battle panicked and ran away. He was captured soon after the battle and quickly sentenced to death for deserting in the face of the enemy. He was an only child and his mother was devastated. She hated for him to be forced to join the army and now this. She went to Napoleon and got down on her knees and pleaded for him to spare the young boy’s life. Napoleon looked at her and asked, “What makes you think he deserves mercy?” The mother looked up at him and replied, “If he deserved it, it wouldn’t be mercy.” If we are stingy with mercy, maybe it is because mercy implies forgiveness.
That leads us to the Gospel, Luke’s version of the Our Father. At the very heart of the Our Father is a plead, a petition to be given the grace to forgive. Forgiveness flows naturally from mercy and it is at the very core of everything Jesus taught and lived. And at the very core of the conflicts in the world is the inability to forgive. Think about that: at the very core of the conflicts in the world is the inability to forgive. It does not matter if we talk about bombings in the Middle East, the killing of police officers, or family feuds or neighborhood squabbles. All conflicts, big or small, have at their core the lack of forgiveness.
Because forgiveness is not easy. Forgiveness, true forgiveness, is not just a spoken word. Rather, it is a concrete act of repairing broken relationships. Relationships within a family, between people, between nations, between ethnic groups. Forgiveness is a conscious action of repairing relationships. That’s why it is hard. But we are called to be as generous in forgiving others as God has been in forgiving us. What broken relationships in our life need to be repaired? Forgiveness is more than a thought or word; it takes a visit, a phone call, an email, a handshake. It is a conscious, concrete action. But how do we forgive others when our own heart is buried in self-pity? How did Jesus do it? How did he forgive in the face of hatred, misunderstanding, jealousy, and death threats?
He did it by recognizing that forgiveness was the most important challenge of His life and by asking for the help of the Father who can do in us what we can’t do for ourselves. And He urges us to do the same. “How much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?” We have only to ask for the grace to forgive. “Forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us.” In a few minutes we will pray for the grace to forgive and then we are invited to turn to one another to share Christ’s peace. Make that gesture an act of forgiveness. Asking, seeking, knocking opens us up to receive what God is waiting to give us - a share in His very life. A life of mercy and forgiveness.