THE WORD IN LENT: Tuesday, 3rd week in Lent
March 9, 2021: Daniel 3:
25, 34-43; Matthew 18: 21-35
The Word today invites us to understand the figure of the Lord as forgiving. That is the source of true Christian hope! The Lord gives and forgives; if not, we would die and perish. When the Lord offered us the greatest of all gifts, God's own image and likeness, God gave us this very nature that God beholds. We were made like God, little less than the angels. God forgives and so we are called to forgive.
Yes, if we
consider ourselves truly God's children, it is our nature to forgive too. When
we do not forgive, we are negating our very nature; we become alien to
ourselves, we turn not only ungodly but even inhuman! Because real
human call is to reflect the image of God in us.
Let us
realise the image we bear and live up to that image! Let us forgive, not
just a few times or just when it is convenient but all the time and amidst all
tribulations. Seems a needed message for the present times!
We see
numerous persons and groups of persons plotting and scheming things against the
innocent, the God fearing and good willed. What would our response be? Teaching
them a lesson? Planning an action tit for tat? Praying for their destruction
and wishing their downfall? A true child of God will forgive them and pray for
them, however bad the situation created may be! That is what we are
taught.
In the parable narrated today, the man ends up in the dungeon because he lost his identity as "the favoured one" in the eyes of his master. Let us never lose that identity. Let us keep our desire to remain God's favoured ones, always alive!