LEARNING TO FORGIVE! ~ CookingFood.Org

“GENEROUS LENT 2017”

Lenten Reflections

Tuesday, 7^thMarch 2017,

First Week of Lent

Is 55:10-11;

Ps 34: 4-7, 16-19;

Mt 6: 7-15

LEARNING TO FORGIVE!

Many a times, lent is for us an annual medical checkup, but in fact it is a time when we have to consider, if we have become more focused on ourselves than being focused on our loving God. Lent is a time to evaluate if God is one’s priority.

St Augustine says: The Lord’s Prayer is so perfect that it sums up in a few words everything that man needs to ask God for. The crux of the prayer is FORGIVENESS. Forgive and be forgiven. Both must be desired and sought after. Perhaps the greatest challenge to the act of forgiving another is the sense of “justice” that can appear to be lost when forgiveness is given. This is especially true when forgiveness is offered to someone who fails to ask forgiveness. On the contrary, when one does ask for forgiveness, and expresses true remorse, it is much easier to forgive. But when there is a lack of sorrow on the part of the offender, this leaves what can feel like a lack of justice if forgiveness is offered. This can be a difficult feeling to overcome by ourselves.

Forgiving another does not excuse their sin. Forgiveness does not mean that the sin did not happen or that it is OK that it happened. Rather, forgiving another does the opposite. Forgiving actually points to the sin, acknowledges it and makes it a central focus. This is important to understand. By identifying the sin that is to be forgiven, and then forgiving it, justice is done in a supernatural way. Justice is fulfilled by mercy. And the mercy offered has an even greater effect on the one offering mercy than the one it is offered to. By offering mercy for the sin of another, we become freed of the effects of their sin. Mercy is a way for God to remove this hurt from our lives and free us to encounter His mercy all the more by the forgiveness of our own sins for which we could never deserve on our own effort.

Reflect, today, upon the persons you most need to forgive. Who is it and what have they done that has offended you? Do not be afraid to offer the mercy of forgiveness and do not hesitate in doing so. The mercy you offer will bring forth the justice of God in a way that you could never accomplish by your own efforts. This act of forgiving also frees you from the burden of that sin, and enables God to forgive you of your sins.

Prayer: Lord, I am a sinner who is in need of Your mercy. As I seek Your mercy, help me to also forgive the sins that others have committed against me. Jesus, I trust in You. Amen.

Holy Habit for Lent: FORGIVENESS – Lord help me to learn the habit of FORGIVENESS, May I thus become a messenger of your mercy. Amen.