20180306 CONTRITION IS THE HEART OF FORGIVENESS
06 MARCH, 2018, Tuesday, 3rd Week of Lent
Readings
at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: Violet.
|
First reading
|
|
Daniel 3:25,34-43 ©
|
|
Let our sacrifice to you today be a contrite soul and humbled
spirit
|
Azariah stood in the heart of the fire, and he began to pray:
Oh! Do not abandon us for ever,
for the sake of your name;
do not repudiate your covenant,
do not withdraw your favour from us,
for the sake of Abraham, your friend,
of Isaac your servant,
and of Israel your holy one,
to whom you promised descendants as countless as the stars of
heaven
and as the grains of sand on the seashore.
Lord, now we are the least of all the nations,
now we are despised throughout the world, today, because of our
sins.
We have at this time no leader, no prophet, no prince,
no holocaust, no sacrifice, no oblation, no incense,
no place where we can offer you the first-fruits
and win your favour.
But may the contrite soul, the humbled spirit be as acceptable to
you
as holocausts of rams and bullocks,
as thousands of fattened lambs:
such let our sacrifice be to you today,
and may it be your will that we follow you wholeheartedly,
since those who put their trust in you will not be disappointed.
And now we put our whole heart into following you,
into fearing you and seeking your face once more.
Do not disappoint us;
treat us gently, as you yourself are gentle
and very merciful.
Grant us deliverance worthy of your wonderful deeds,
let your name win glory, Lord.
|
Responsorial Psalm
|
|
Psalm 24(25):4-6,7a-9 ©
|
Remember your mercy, Lord.
Lord, make me know your ways.
Lord, teach me your paths.
Make me walk in your truth, and teach me:
for you are God my saviour.
Remember your mercy, Lord.
In you I hope all day long
because of your goodness, O Lord.
Remember your mercy, Lord,
and the love you have shown from of old.
Do not remember the sins of my youth.
In your love remember me.
Remember your mercy, Lord.
The Lord is good and upright.
He shows the path to those who stray,
He guides the humble in the right path,
He teaches his way to the poor.
Remember your mercy, Lord.
|
Gospel Acclamation
|
cf.Lk8:15
|
Glory and praise to you, O Christ!
Blessed are those who,
with a noble and generous heart,
take the word of God to themselves
and yield a harvest through their perseverance.
Glory and praise to you, O Christ!
|
Or
|
Joel2:12-13
|
Glory and praise to you, O Christ!
Now, now – it is the Lord who speaks –
come back to me with all your heart,
for I am all tenderness and compassion.
Glory and praise to you, O Christ!
|
Gospel
|
|
Matthew 18:21-35 ©
|
|
To be forgiven, you must forgive
|
Peter went up to Jesus and said, ‘Lord, how often must I forgive
my brother if he wrongs me? As often as seven times?’ Jesus answered, ‘Not
seven, I tell you, but seventy-seven times.
‘And so the
kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who decided to settle his accounts
with his servants. When the reckoning began, they brought him a man who owed
ten thousand talents; but he had no means of paying, so his master gave orders
that he should be sold, together with his wife and children and all his possessions,
to meet the debt. At this, the servant threw himself down at his master’s feet.
“Give me time” he said “and I will pay the whole sum.” And the servant’s master
felt so sorry for him that he let him go and cancelled the debt. Now as this
servant went out, he happened to meet a fellow servant who owed him one hundred
denarii; and he seized him by the throat and began to throttle him. “Pay what
you owe me” he said. His fellow servant fell at his feet and implored him,
saying, “Give me time and I will pay you.” But the other would not agree; on
the contrary, he had him thrown into prison till he should pay the debt. His
fellow servants were deeply distressed when they saw what had happened, and
they went to their master and reported the whole affair to him. Then the master
sent for him. “You wicked servant,” he said “I cancelled all that debt of yours
when you appealed to me. Were you not bound, then, to have pity on your fellow
servant just as I had pity on you?” And in his anger the master handed him over
to the torturers till he should pay all his debt. And that is how my heavenly
Father will deal with you unless you each forgive your brother from your
heart.’
CONTRITION IS THE HEART OF FORGIVENESS
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [Daniel 3:25-43; Ps 25:4-9; Matthew 18:21-35 ]
Many of us
frequent the Sacrament of Reconciliation but we find ourselves not improving in
our spiritual life and Christian conduct. Almost right after the
Sacrament of Reconciliation, we would commit the same sins that we have just confessed.
It is indeed very frustrating that the more we want to give up sin, the more
the Devil works to tempt us into sin. What the letter of Hebrews tells us
is true, “In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point
of shedding your blood.” (Heb 12:4)
So some of us give up going for confession because we feel that it does not
work. We might as well continue sinning.
Such kind of
thinking is dangerous. We are walking on a slippery road to perdition. Sin
never comes singly. Sin always have offsprings. One sin will lead
to another sin. When we do not confess our sins, our sensitivity to
sin will be numbed by a dull conscience. And because we are numbed to
sin, we grow in sinfulness in depth day by day till what is a neglect of the
soul becomes an indifference. Very soon it will lead to hostility
because, absorbed by our sins, we will not be willing to live under reprimand
from others. So those who sin will have to justify that what they are
doing is not wrong. This explains why the Church, which is the teacher of
truth, faces much opposition from the world, especially in the area of
sexuality, because this is where the entertainment world makes its money
from. By speaking against promiscuity, we hurt their pockets.
So what is
the cause of the apparent ineffectiveness of the Sacrament of
Reconciliation? It is the lack of contrition of heart. Contrition is the most
important dimension of an efficacious confession. Without contrition of
heart, we will naturally sin again because we are not convicted that what we
did is wrong, is hurting ourselves and hurting others. Indeed, isn’t this
is the reason why many people sin because they think it is a small thing? They
think that having pre-marital sex is harmless because it is by mutual
consent. They think that having a fling is merely engaging in
pleasure. They justify masturbation as a release of one’s excess energy
and healing for their frustrations. Even stealing is now termed as
lifting something that is not yours. Truly, so long as we can justify and
rationalize our sins, there is no reason for us to give it up. That is
why the Lord asks for a contrite heart. “But may the contrite soul, the humbled
spirit be as acceptable to you as holocausts of rams and bullocks, as thousands
of fattened lambs: such let our sacrifice be to you today, and may it be your
will that we follow you wholeheartedly, since those who put their trust in you
will not be disappointed.”
But why is it
that the contrition of heart is lacking? Firstly, many of us who frequent
the Sacrament of Reconciliation hardly prepare ourselves. We rush into
confession because the queue is shorter. We do not take time to go
through our past and the sins we commit. We do not ask and inquire into
whether what we have done is harmful to peace and love, and what motivates us
to do what we did. Unless we spend time examining our conscience and
understanding what drove us to sin, we cannot properly confess our sins and be
conscious that our sins are hurting our cherished dream, which is love.
This is particularly true of penitential services. Due to time
constraints, the Penitential service is kept short. There is hardly any
time for serious reflection on our past. This is why those who come for
Penitential service should already be thinking about their sins long before
their confession. They should spend a few days asking the Lord to reveal
the sins that they had committed and forgotten.
The second
reason why we lack contrition of heart is because we do not acknowledge our
sins as they are. We do not accept the judgment of God on what is right or
wrong, as the psalmist says, “Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and
done what is evil in your sight, so that you are justified in your sentence and
blameless when you pass judgment.” (Ps 51:4)
We disagree with the teachings of Sacred Scripture and the magisterium on what
is right or wrong. Instead of sincerely searching for the truth by
reading and seeking to understand the Church’s teachings on moral issues, we
side with the world and embrace their opinions. If we want to feel
sorry for our sins, we need to confess and admit them as they are. This
was what Azariah did. “Lord, now we are the least of all the nations, now
we are despised throughout the world, today, because of our sins. We have at
this time no leader, no prophet, no prince, no holocaust, no sacrifice, no
oblation, no incense, no place where we can offer you the first-fruits and win
your favour.”
Thirdly, if
we lack contrition, it is because we do not place ourselves in the shoes of
those whom we hurt. We often apply double standards in life. We know what
it is to suffer, especially injustices done to us. We cannot forgive
people who cheat us and slander us. We want justice, but only to be
rendered to us, not to others. With others, it is ok for us to do to them
what we find objectionable when done to us. That is why Confucius gave us
the golden rule of life, “Do not do unto others what you would not like them to
do unto you.” If we observe this universal principle of humanity, we will
live lives that are more peaceful and there will be greater harmony. This
was the case of the unforgiving servant. He was forgiven by the master
but upon release, he immediately pounded on his fellow servant who owed him an
insignificant amount compared to what he himself had cheated the master
of. That is why the master said to him, upon receiving
reports on what he did, “You wicked servant, I cancelled all that debt of yours
when you appealed to me. Were you not bound, then, to have pity on your fellow
servant just as I had pity on you?”
However, more
often than not, it is because we cannot forgive ourselves. If we lack mercy for
ourselves, then we cannot have the same mercy for others. By not
forgiving ourselves and by being hard on ourselves, we are naturally hard on
others. Often, it is the sin of pride that prevents us from letting go of
our pain. At times, it is neurotic guilt which leads one into
self-pity. Unless we learn to forgive ourselves, recognizing that we are
also sinners and always in need of forgiveness, we cannot do the same for
others. This is the message of our Lord when He told Peter that we do not
only forgive “seven, I tell you, but seventy-seven times.” So long
as the person asks for forgiveness, we must be ever ready to forgive.
Otherwise we make ourselves the prisoner of our enemies.
“And in his anger the master handed him over to the torturers till he should
pay all his debt. And that is how my heavenly Father will deal with you unless
you each forgive your brother from your heart.”
But why is it
that we cannot forgive ourselves and others? It is simply because we have
failed to realize the unconditional love and mercy of God. In the scriptures, we
read that God is always faithful to us. He is faithful to His
covenant. This is how Azariah prayed, “Oh! Do not abandon us forever, for
the sake of your name; do not repudiate your covenant, do not withdraw your
favour from us, for the sake of Abraham, your friend, of Isaac your servant,
and of Israel your holy one, to whom you promised descendants as countless as
the stars of heaven and as the grains of sand on the seashore.” We must
appeal to God’s fidelity to us. He wants us to be saved rather than be
destroyed. He knows that we are sinners and always in need of
forgiveness. This was also how the psalmist also prayed, “Remember your
mercy, Lord, and the love you have shown from of old. Do not remember the
sins of my youth because of your goodness, O Lord. The Lord is good and
upright. He shows the path to those who stray. He guides the humble
in the right path; he teaches his way to the poor.” So we need to
cling to God’s mercy. The depth of God’s mercy is brought out in
the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant when the master forgave his servant
10,000 talents, which of course is an exaggerated amount as it would be the
salary of an ordinary worker for 150,000 years!
The question
is, did not the servant experience his unfathomable mercy and love for
him? No, he did not because he did not even reflect on his own sins. He was just afraid to
be punished. Once the punishment was lifted, he went about looking for “a
fellow servant who owed him one hundred denarii; and he seized him by the
throat and began to throttle him.” For a day’s wage which was owed
to him, he could not forgive him! He had no real contrition of heart.
He did not go through his many sins and therefore cannot sympathize with fellow
sinners.
So, the
sacrament of reconciliation is only effective provided we cooperate with the
grace of God.
We must pray from our heart, “may it be your will that we follow you
wholeheartedly, since those who put their trust in you will not be
disappointed. And now we put our whole heart into following you, into
fearing you and seeking your face once more. Do not disappoint us; treat us
gently, as you yourself are gentle and very merciful. Grant us deliverance
worthy of your wonderful deeds, let your name win glory, Lord.” If we are
sincere and truly repentant of our sins, we can be sure that receiving His
forgiveness for our grevious sins against Him, our Lord and God, we will learn
to forgive ourselves and forgive others. In this way, the cycle of
forgiveness is complete.
Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of
Singapore © All Rights Reserved
No comments:
Post a Comment