Luke 6:36-38, the
Gospel Reading at Mass on Monday of the Second Week of Lent
Jesus
said to his disciples:
“Be
merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
“Stop judging and you will not be judged.
Stop
condemning and you will not be condemned.
Forgive
and you will be forgiven.
Give
and gifts will be given to you;
a
good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing,
will
be poured into your lap.
For
the measure with which you measure
will
in return be measured out to you.”
When
people do wrong, we never know fully and unfailingly what went on in their
hearts, minds or lives before they did the wrong.
Only God
can fully, unfailingly and always read everything in the soul of every person.
Yet he is
merciful, and said in today’s Gospel: Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
From the
cross on which men had nailed him, Christ told his Father to forgive them for
they knew not what they were doing.
It is not
possible to forgive a wrong without having judged it to be a wrong.
What we
human persons are not able to judge— much less condemn— is the interior life of
others.
The only
all-knowing judge is God.
The utmost
GIVER of all forgiveness is God.
The utmost
GOAL of all forgiveness is God.
When
Christ said from his cross, Father, forgive
them for they know not what they do, Christ wanted them to be at
one with the Father.
The
deepest and highest goal of forgiveness is the sinner’s oneness with God.
The
sinner’s greatest welfare is oneness with God.
The path
of drawing nigh to God can be at times glad, but also at times a hard, sad way
of the cross.
Even so,
one way or another, at the end of all things being one with God will be the
fullness of everlasting joy.
Until
then, going to him opens us to some share in Christ’s way of the cross.
Being at
one with God is the best and greatest we can wish for anyone, friend or foe.
God the
forgiver chose to die so that sinners might rise to everlasting joy with him.
Here in
his Eucharist, God— against whom each of us has sinned— offers us untold
oneness with him at the cost of his own Body and Blood.
On his
cross, his calling down forgiveness did not stop his suffering and death.
In the
Body and Blood of Christ, God is— in the words of today’s Gospel— the good measure of forgiveness, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing.
Turn. Love. Repeat.
