If today we are tempted to gloat or despair, curse or mock, it would be far better for ourselves and our children to quietly pray or study, rake the leaves, play a game, or work in the garage: all the things that a self-reliant, free, and sober people do. https://t.co/rU45026KCi
Friends, in today’s Gospel (Matthew 5:20–26), Jesus commands us to be reconciled with one another. I want to say something about the role of forgiveness in repairing our broken relationships.
When you are at worship and realize that you need to forgive someone (or be forgiven by someone), go and do it. Go get reconciled, then come back. It’s like a rule of physics. There is something hidden in the deep mystery of God, and I can’t fully explicate it. Somehow, if there is a lack of forgiveness in you, it blocks the movement of God in you. Perhaps it’s simply because God is love, and so whatever is opposed to love in us blocks the flow of God’s power and God’s life.
One reason we do not forgive is that we feel that some injustice has been done to us, and we resent it. A good cure for this feeling is to kneel before the cross of Jesus. What do you see there? The innocent Son of God nailed to the cross—the ultimate injustice. What does he do? He forgives his persecutors. Meditate on that, and your sense of being treated unjustly will fade away.
This is Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa.
He is the Latin Catholic patriarch of Jerusalem.
This morning he offered to swap places with the children held hostage by Hamas:
“Am I ready for an exchange? Anything, if that can lead to freedom and bring those children home, no problem. There is an absolute availability on my part,” Cardinal Pizzaballa said.
We are called for Sainthood. Pray for Cardinal Pizzaballa and the innocent civilians terrorized by war in the Holy Land. 🙏