God's Justice

In today Gospel, Matthew 18,  21-19:1,  Peter asks Jesus how many times does he need to forgive those who sin against him: "As many as seven times?"  Peter asks.  Jesus responds: "Not seven times but seventy-seven times," Peter. Jesus then goes on to describe the Kingdom of heaven in terms of a king settling accounts with those who owe him money.  The king has a debtor brought before him  who owes way more than he could ever pay off. The debtor's master, therefore, orders that this person's "wife, his children,  and all his property be sold as payment."  The poor man, totally distraught, begs his master to have pity on him. "Be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full." The master dissolves the debtor's entire loan. He owes nothing, nothing at all.

That is us, folks!  Because of our sins, we owe God a debt that, in no way, are we able to pay off. In his mercy, God resolves our debt entirely through the passion, death and resurrection of His only begotten Son, whom He sends into the world to reveal God's love for us! Jesus pays our debt! emus is our ransom!

Will we, by the way we live our lives in justice, love, mercy, and forgiveness accept God's pardon?  Or are we squandering God's gift of salvation by doing what the forgiven man did: treating others mercilessly?  "Should [we] not have...pity on [our] fellow servant[s], as [God] has pity on [us]?

God of Compassion and Full of Mercy

Today's readings, Daniel 9: 4b-10 and Luke 6: 36-38, both speak of God's mercy and compassion, reminding us that our God is a "great and awesome God, ...who keep[s His] covenant toward those who love...[Him] and observe...[His] commandments" (Daniel 9: 4b-10) .  We are also reminded by Daniel that "compassion and forgiveness" belong to our God.  In the responsorial psalm, Psalm 79, we ask God to dispatch his mercy and compassion quickly, "for we are brought very low" by our wickedness.  We live in a world wrought with such crimes as human trafficking, forced slave labor, drug trafficking and myriad other forms of corruption.  Every day, children, adolescents, young adults, male and female, are sold or seduced into the sex trade, into labor camps, into the use of illegal drugs.  Persons are kidnapped and/or outrightly sold and sacrificed for their organ parts.   Every day families flee from the violence of war and the ravages of poverty to protect themselves and their loved ones. Every day, somewhere, adults, in all walks of life,  sink further and further into patterns of corruption, worshipping the idols of materialism, consumerism, hedonism and the likes!

In the responsorial psalm of today's liturgy we pray: 

Help us, O God, our savior, because of the glory of your name.
Deliver us and pardon our sins
for your name's sake.
Let the prisoner's sighing come before you;
with your great power free those doomed to death--
the death of all those criminal acts named above.
Then we, your people and the sheep of your pasture,
will give thanks to you forever;
through all generations we will declare your praise.

At every Mass, Jesus comes down upon our altars as Savior and Lord, as the One who purifies us, strengthens us and claims us as His own. At every Eucharist, Jesus renews His covenant with us--yes, God empowers us every day to be "merciful, just as..[our] Father is merciful" (Luke 6: 36). Every day we are empowered to say "no" to Satan and the evil spirits that roam this earth for the destruction of souls. That is why millions also resist Satan's evil ways and follow Christ. 

What a "great and awesome God" walks beside us, dwells within us, beckoning us to resist evil and empowering us to do so!