Daily Meditation - Tuesday 12th. February 2008 - A TYPE OF MERCY THAT IS STUNNING

[BarbaraTherese]

DAILY MASS READINGS
usccb.org/nab/021208.shtml

Further Reflection

ocarm.org/lectio/annoA_eng/062eng.htm

Meditation
wau.org/meditations/meditations.asp?month=02&day=12&year=2008&x=9&y=5
A couple of things struck me reading this meditation. The meditation states that the woman who washes Jesus’s feet with her tears, drying them with her hair, could love much because she was forgiven much…and this is true I think. However, the actual words of Jesus are “Much is forgiven her, because she has loved much”.
The other thing and the meditation does point this out, although not in these words, is that very often forgiveness is a journey and it may take years even. We start out praying to be able to forgive while not at all feeling it and the journey unfolds from there to actual full forgiveness providing we continue to seek it.
The other point is that Jesus’ Mercy is not only all over the New Testament…God’s Mercy is all over the Old Testament too.

Finally, today I was pondering Blessed Elizabeth of The Trinity (it may be saint by now!) and how she lived to praise The Blessed Trinity, and I was thinking that this is a mystery to me…when it struck me that I can certainly praise unceasingly the Blessed Trinity for their Overwhelming Loving Mercy…and I can praise The Blessed Trinity for this because this Mercy has been showered abundantly and overwhelmingly on me. And I see with great clarity, though no vision, that God’s Mercy longingly and lovingly with great compassion and understanding of the whole gamut of human weaknesses reaches out forever to His creatures, His humanity. Rightly are we baptized into Christ for we are His humanity by virtue of creating us and we are His humanity by the virtue of His sharing it.

The world is filled with God’s glorious creations. We are awed by the majestic mountains, the wide oceans, and the bright and constant sun.

But far greater than all of these is God’s work of redemption—and this work starts with forgiveness. Forgiveness is God-made, not man-made. It is as beautiful as the most glorious scene from nature, because it comes from his compassionate

heart.

Jesus’ mercy is all over the Gospels!

• To show us how much we need his mercy, and how deeply he longs to give it to us, he told the story of the prodigal son. This son had squandered everything, but his father still embraced him (Luke 15:11-32).
• When a man who couldn’t walk was brought to him, the first thing Jesus did—even before healing him—was to forgive his sins (Matthew 9:2-6).
• When an adulterous woman washed Jesus’ feet with her tears, he forgave her because of her repentant spirit. Because she was forgiven much, she could love much (Luke 7:47-49).

Jesus also calls us to forgive one another with that same spirit. He went so far as to say that we can put no limits on forgiveness

: We should forgive a full “seventy-seven times” (Matthew 18:22).

We** might think this impossible**, but Jesus reminds us that if we have faith the size of a mustard seed, we can tell a mountain to move, and it will obey us (17:20). If he promised it, we can believe it.

Through the power of his Holy Spirit, we can uproot any anger and resentment from hearts. Nothing is impossible for him!

God doesn’t expect us to have perfect faith right away, however

. He knows that in some situations, forgiveness does seem impossible. So he asks us to trust him just a little bit. If we can trust him enough to say, “Lord, I want to try to forgive my brother or sister,” we’ve already started the process.

God is already working in us, and he may ask us to take a more difficult step down the road, such as writing a letter, or reaching out to the one we need to forgive.

With each step, though, we’ll find we have more of his mercy and love to give

—and that makes it both possible and worthwhile.

“Lord, thank you for your tremendous mercy.

Each day you hold me in your loving arms

and transform me with your grace.

You are worthy of all praise!”

 

[BarbaraTherese]

“Further Reflection” from OP
ocarm.org/lectio/annoA_eng/062eng.htm

There are two versions of the Our Father: Luke (Lk 11, 1-4) and Matthew (Mt 6, 7-13). In Luke the Our Father is shorter. Luke writes for the communities which came from Paganism. In Matthew the Our Father is found in the Discourse on the Mountain, in the part where Jesus orientates the disciples in the practice of the three works of piety: alms (Mt 6, 1-4), prayer (Mt 6, 5-15) and fasting (Mt6, 16-18).

The Our Father forms part of a catechesis for the converted Jews. They were accustomed to pray, but had some vices which Matthew tries to correct.
• Matthew 6, 7-8: *The faults to be corrected. *Jesus criticizes the persons for whom prayer was a repetition of magic formulae, of strong words, addressed

to God to oblige him to respond to our needs.

The acceptance of our prayer by God does not depend on the repetition of words, but on God’s goodness, on God who is Love and Mercy. He wants our good and knows our needs even before we pray to him.

• Matthew 6, 9a: *The first words: “*Our Father” Abba Father, is the name which Jesus uses to address himself to God. It reveals the new relationship with God which should characterize the life of the communities (Ga 4, 6; Rm 8, 15). We say “**Our **Father” and not “My Father”. The adjective “our” places the accent on the awareness or knowledge that we all belong to the great human family of all races and creeds. To pray to the Father is to enter in intimacy with him, it also means to be sensitive to the cry of all the brothers and sisters who cry for their daily bread. It means to seek in the first place the Kingdom of God.

The experience of God as **our **

Father is the foundation of universal fraternity.

• Matthew 6, 9b-10: Three requests for the cause of God: The Name, the Kingdom, the Will. In the first part we ask that our relationship with God may be re-established again. *To sanctify his Name: *The name JAHVE means *I am with you! *God knows. In this NAME of God he makes himself known (Ex 3, 11-15). The name of God is sanctified when it is used with faith and not with magic; when it is used according to its true objective, that is not for oppression but for the liberty or freedom of the people and for the construction of the Kingdom.

*The coming of the Kingdom: *The only Lord and King of life is God (Is 45, 21; 46, 9). The coming of the Kingdom is the fulfilment of all the hopes and promises. It is life in plenitude, the overcoming of frustration suffered with human kings and governments. This Kingdom will come when the Will of God will be fully accomplished. *To do his Will: *

The will of God is expressed in his Law

. His will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. In Heaven

the sun and the stars obey the laws of their orbit and create the order of the universe (Is 48, 12-13). The observance of the law of God will be a source of order and well-being for human life.

• Matthew 6, 11-13: Four petitions for the cause of the brothers: Bread, Pardon, Victory, Liberty. In the second part of the Our Father we ask that the relationship among persons may be restored. The four requests show how necessary it is to transform or change the structures of the community and of society in order that all the sons and daughters of God may have the same dignity.The daily bread. In Exodus the people received the manna in the desert every day (Ex 16, 35). Divine Providence passed through the fraternal organization, the sharing. Jesus invites us to live a new Exodus,

a **new **

fraternal way of living together which will guarantee the daily bread for all (Mt 6, 34-44; Jo 6, 48-51).

*Forgive us our debts: *Every 50 years, the Jubilee Year obliged people to forgive their debts. It was a new beginning (Lv 25, 8-55). Jesus announces a new Jubilee Year, “a year of grace from the Lord” (Lk 4, 19). The Gospel wants to begin everything anew! *Do not lead us into temptation, do not put us to the test: *In Exodus, people were tempted and fell (Dt 9, 6-12). The people complained and wanted to go back (Ex 16, 3; 17, 3). In the new Exodus, the temptation will be overcome by the force which people receive from God (I Co 10, 12-13). *Deliver us from evil: *The Evil One is Satan, who draws away from God and is a cause of scandal. He succeeds in entering in Peter (Mt 16, 23) and to tempt Jesus in the desert. Jesus overcomes him (Mt 4, 1-11). He tells us:

“Courage, I have conquered the world!” (Jn 16, 33).

•

Matthew 6, 14-15: *Anyone who does not forgive will not be forgiven. *In praying the Our Father, we pronounce the phrase which condemns us or absolves us. We say: “Forgive our trespasses as *we forgive those who trespass us” *(Mt 6, 12).

We offer God the measure of pardon that we want. If we forgive very much, He will forgive us very much. If we forgive little, he will forgive little. If we do not forgive, he will neither forgive us.

1. Personal questions

• Jesus prayer says *“forgive our debts”. *In some countries it is translated as “forgive our offenses”. What is easier to forgive, the offenses or to forgive the debts?
• Christian nations of the Northern Hemisphere (Europe and USA) pray everyday: “Forgive our debts as we forgive those who are in debt with us!” But they do not forgive the external debt of poor countries of the Third World. How can we explain this terrible contradiction, source of impoverishment of millions of persons?