“Choosing God’s unconditional mercy over grudging unhealed memory!”

(Based on Deut 34:1-12 and Mt 18:15-20 – Wednesday of the 19th Week in Ordinary Time, Year 1)

In 1994, Rwanda bled.

Hatred tore neighbors apart, and in the space of 100 days, over 800,000 lives were lost.

Among them were the parents, two brothers, and a sister of a 14-year-old boy named Marcel Uwineza.

Years passed.

That boy became a Jesuit priest.

One day, before leaving Rwanda for studies abroad…
… he returned to the village where his family lay buried.

And there – standing before him – was the man who had murdered his beloved ones.

The man fell to his knees and said:
“Marcel… do you have space in your heart to forgive me?”

Father Marcel later said, “I was invaded by something greater than myself…
… because on our own, we can’t forgive.”

He helped the man to his feet and embraced him.

At that moment, he recalls, “It was as if the chains were breaking away from my legs…
… I, too, had been in prison.

Now I was set free.”

Forgiveness doesn’t erase the past…
… it redeems it.

It doesn’t change what happened…
… it changes what happens next!

What happened with Fr Marcel Uwineza SJ…
… is what Jesus calls us to in today’s Gospel: not to “unfriend” or cut off, but to seek out
… confront with love, and restore.

Perfection in relationships isn’t measured by how few faults we find…
… but by how much of God’s Mercy we give!

The Gospel of the Day invites us to reflect in depth on this wordly trend to “easily unfriend” people from our lives…
… without even giving them further chances or opportunities to remedy themselves.

Jesus says, “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone” (Mt 18: 15)

Jesus was a person who had an important principle in all His teachings: the need to strive towards perfection.

In Mt 5: 48, Jesus says, “Be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect”

It’s this pursuit of perfection in human relationships that makes Jesus to invite us in being careful and cautious…
… with respect to severing our relationships with one another.

“Friendship”, it is said, “is delicate as a glass – once broken it can be fixed but there will always be cracks”

Jesus, therefore warns us on the need to “handle with care” our relationships.

The “pursuit towards perfection” makes it inevitable for a Christian – a follower of Christ, to go beyond one’s own limitations and situations in maintaining relationships…
… by preserving and perfecting the fine ones
… by mending and restoring the broken ones.

It is easy to say “I don’t like you any more” because of some bad experience
… but it takes Christian Gentleness to respect and accept a person, despite his/her faults or failures

It is easy to show a person the exit-door in our relationship due to some misunderstanding or ego-clash
… but it takes Christian Humility to let go of one’s “proud and adamant mentality” and lower oneself to try to understand better the person in fault and his/her situation and background

It is easy to harbour grudge and to nurture ill-feelings and to spread the contagion of malicious talks regarding a person whom we don’t like
… but it takes Christian Charity to allow the honey of Christ’s love to permeate our hearts and to be able to find goodness even in the midst of a slush of ‘apparent dirt’ in the person

Our lives, families, communities and societies are being plagued by a number of cancers with respect to relationships:

Backbiting and spreading false rumours about people and situations
Cooking up bogus stories and building up on some true incidents to fashion an “interesting and spicy” report regarding particular persons
Actively engaging in forming groups and cliques against someone in order to satiate one’s own pleasures and get through one’s personal agenda for life

Are we ready to be bold to let go of all such tendencies to which we can be prone…
… and instead engage ourselves in radical Christian charity and humility?

Let the ‘chains of guilt and hurt’ drop…
… choose God’s unconditional mercy over grudging unhealed memory!”

God Bless! Live Jesus!

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📖 Discovering the beauty of the Catholic Church through the Catechism
MAN’S VOCATION LIFE IN THE SPIRIT – GOD’S SALVATION: LAW AND GRACE – The Fifth Commandment – Respect for human life

Those whose lives are diminished or weakened deserve special respect.

Sick or handicapped persons should be helped to lead lives as normal as possible. (CCC # 2276)