"As We Forgive" | 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Fr. Mike's Homily) #sundayhomily

so I'm not sure how many of you um know what happened in 1994 in the country of Rwanda it's kind of it was devastating um you might know that from Rwanda was divided into two tribes Maine tribes the hutus and the two Seas which was even a product of colonialism it's just this whole the whole thing's all broken it's all messy um and so there was the the hutus were in charge and at one point in April 1994 the news came out that the Hutu president had died in a plane crash um 10 minutes later apparently just chaos and cross the entire country um there's one young college student her name was Immaculate Immaculate is her name she was home for Easter break because her dad wanted her to be with the family over that time and so she was there with she has a mom and dad and she had three brothers one brother was out of the country studying and she came back for a break her brother woke her up and told her the news and her dad immediately sprang into action and got her to a place of safety it was uh down the street there was a Protestant Pastor who was Hutu and he told her to go to his house and just beg him to take her in he took her in and he brought her to this bathroom the bathroom was three foot by five but three foot by four foot feet and she said she got in there and he hit her there he said stay right here be quiet and she said how could I possibly hide in this bathroom it's so small it's only three foot by four foot and little did you know that a few moments later he brought in another five women and then by the end of the day another two women so eight women were hiding in this three foot by five foot bathroom and and and only the the pastor only he and his family knew that they were there his rest of the rest of his family didn't know and no one knew because he wanted to keep it secret even from them because it was a matter of keeping them safe his family safe and so after this some people came and they had seen Immaculate and some other women go into the house and so they assumed that this pastor was was hiding them he said no they they left but they searched everywhere she thinks they searched the ceiling they searched the attic they automatically describes they even searched the suitcases in case he was hiding babies in the suitcase later on she heard on the radio with some of the things that they were saying like um she said that tootsies they said the Tutsis are our snakes and the child of a snake is still a snake it's a child of a cockroach it's still a cockroach so so kill the children besides these people are are surrounding this house in in searching the house she said she could hear the voice of one of her neighbors who was Hutu one of her friends who had been over to her house and he was calling out her name and he was saying Immaculate I've killed 399 of you cockroaches you're gonna be number 400. and in this fear and this three foot by four foot bathroom Immaculate prayed she wanted she said she wanted to open the door and just give up but she also prayed to God and she just said God I just I know people are dying and I know that I'm going to die but just to prove to me that you exist and to prove to me that you're real to prove to me that you love me just I know I'm gonna die eventually and I'm not I'm no better than everyone else right outside this this house who's dying but just let me live today if you let me live today I I will know that you exist I know that you're real and I know that you love me and so she said as one of these men was going to the bathroom to to check out the bathroom after they searched the ceiling the attic everything he got to the bathroom door and he stopped and he said to the pastor he said well you know what we trust you you're fine and he left and it was that that moment that Immaculate knew she's like okay in that moment I know God you're real God I know you exist and God I I know that you love me and so she asked the pastor at one point again in secret because his family didn't even know she was there she asked him for a Bible and so she started reading your Bible she said every time she opened the Bible it was one of these things for days for the next number of days it was almost every time she opened it up there was something like you forgive your enemies pray for those who persecute you love those who hate you in fact she even read today's Gospel which is how often do you forgive the one who sinned against you you know seven times Seventy Times at one point Immaculate had a dream and in Her Dream she saw Jesus on the cross it was dark all around it was just this for my image of him being so sad and she heard Jesus tell her my child when you come out when you come out of the bathroom when you come out of this house you will find out that everyone in your family have been killed and what 90 91 days later when she did come out that's exactly what she found out she found out her mom and dad have been killed her two brothers have been killed her grandmother and grandfather her neighbors every one of her schoolmates they'd all been killed and hadn't hadn't just been killed like long-range missiles or uh guns they were killed by machetes and by shovels like neighbors would just go to their neighbors homes with a hoe or a rake and hack their neighbors to death in three months they had killed over 1 million people so here's what I'm accurately she's praying in this three foot by four foot bathroom with seven other women she said she prayed that the rosary constantly but when she got to the Our Father every time she got to that line forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us she said she's like I can't say it and I know if I say it God is going to know I'm going to lie God if I say it God will know I'm lying because he knows my heart and so she said when she got to that point in the uh in our father she just skipped that line I can't forgive so I can't forgive them you know there's there's a book called Mere Christianity by C.S Lewis and he has a chapter on forgiveness and in in the chapter he says in a previous talk he said I said the Chastity was the least or the most unpopular of the Christian virtues but I'm not sure I was right he said I believe there is one even more unpopular and that that Christian virtue of the teaching the command that Jesus has given us to forgive one's enemies he goes on to say he says everyone says forgiveness is a lovely idea until they have something to forgive then they hate it they say it's not because it's too Noble or too high of an ideal that forgiveness is so great it's because when you have something to forgive forgiveness the idea of forgiveness becomes hateful it becomes detestable becomes impossible and people even ask the question Lewis wrote this he said people even ask him I wonder how you would feel if about forgiving the Gestapo if you were a pole or a Jew and since Lewis says so do I I wonder very much or if you were immaculate coming face to face with her neighbors who had killed her brothers and her mom and her dad because that love that kind of love is difficult that kind of love is Heart That Kind of Love is tough that is tough love um we started this series last weekend called tough love and one of the things we we highlighted is the fact that sometimes tough love is saying the hard thing saying the thing that needs to be said we said that tough love is sometimes giving someone the thing they need rather than the Lesser thing that they're willing to settle for or that they they think they they have to settle on we also said that tough love sometimes is allowing someone to experience the consequences of their choice sometimes tough love is forgiveness we realize that that this kind of love is not easy it's kind of love is not for the faint of heart because we know this love is tough it we know this love always costs something because the definition of love right love is willing the good of the other choosing the good of the other and if that's what love is that means that love always involves a sacrifice from the very beginning until the very end and we have to learn this that we have to learn every one of us has to learn that love always involves a sacrifice from the very beginning to the very end I mean even go back to the beginning of the Bible here's God who makes Adam and Eve right he puts him in the garden and he makes them for love if you're made in God's image and you are that means you're made for love you're made from love you're made in order to love your maid your destiny is love yet yet here's Adam and Eve and what happens the first chance they had to really prove their love they didn't the first chance they had to fight for each other and to offer something for each other they didn't and so when God finds them it sounds like when he looks at Eve and looks at Adam he he's giving them curses he's not giving them curses he's giving them the consequences he's allowing them to experience the consequences of their choices and so again I don't think these are these are curses these are consequences I don't think these are just consequences these are remedies in fact what happens they failed to love therefore they have to learn to love so God says to the woman he says I'm going to increase your pain and childbirth what is that point is that just that sounds just like a penalty it sounds just like a punishment but it's not it's a remedy why because God is teaching her by saying okay you are going you're going to give birth to a child and you're going to love this being more than you've loved anything else in your life and yet in loving this child it is going to cost you something not just the momentary pain of childbirth but it costs you everything that's how you're going to learn how to love you're going to learn that love involves sacrifice for the guy what he said he says uh you'll earn your living by this one of your brow you're going to work amid thorns and thistles and what's he saying he's saying okay here's what's gonna happen like someday you're going to get in your stupid job on your on your way to your stupid commute to your your stupid office and sit in your stupid cubicle and in that you're going to learn that love costs something you're going to learn that love always involves sacrifice you're going to learn how to love now I remember talking about this into a group of students and at one point one young woman was like no no that's that's she said um it shouldn't be a sacrifice because I should be happy to do it like I don't I don't think loving always costs something I don't think loving always involves a sacrifice because I I should I should happily give up that thing and I like that's great I'm I'm glad if you're happy about this but here's the reality love still costs something it costs if you're gonna spend time with one person you can't spend time alone or with someone else if you're gonna be attentive to the person you love you're gonna your attention is not gonna be on anything else if you're gonna do this one thing for the person you love you can't do anything else if you're gonna spend your life with this one person that means you're not going to spend your life with others it always costs something it always involves sacrificing you might be happy to pay that price but we must not pretend that there isn't a price to pay Earls will be taken by surprise when we didn't expect it especially when love gets tough and especially When Love demands that we forgive in the gospel today there's a story it's all about forgiveness obviously so you have the story right you have the king and this and this a servant who owes him a huge amount and so he but he begs him I release me I I promise I'll pay you back and the King just says I release you from you that I forgive you from your debt Goes On You Know The Story Goes On Jesus tells the story the fellow servant comes to him it was a much smaller amount and he doesn't forgive him and the whole point of the parable the whole point of the story that Jesus is trying to communicate to his disciples and to us is he says thus will my heavenly father do to you unless each of you forgives your brother from your heart so we have to forgive this is the reason why Immaculate skipped over that part of the Our Father forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us what we're begging the father to do every time we pray that our father is Father do not forget do not forgive me unless I forgive the people around me only forgive me to the degree that I am willing to forgive the people who have hurt me forgive me the way I forgive those who sin against me so that is a hard hard task that is tough love so we have to ask the question what is forgiveness because it is forgiveness just uh rolling over his forgiveness just taking it on the chin is forgiveness just being a doormat just like you know whatever anyone wants to do to you just take it that's what forgiveness is no here's the thing in order to understand what forgiveness is we have to understand what forgiveness is not forgiveness is is not pretending forgiveness is not forgetting forgiveness is not excusing forgiveness is not trusting forgiveness is not a feeling let's go back over these forgiveness is not pretending forgiveness is not pretending that it's no big deal and forgiveness it's not pretending that you're not hurt it's not it's not like almost better right now so therefore I can forgive you it's not that forgiveness it's not pretending for also forgiveness is not forgetting it's not it's not walking through life as if you've never been hurt forgiveness is also not excusing it's not saying oh no no don't worry about it there's nothing to forgive that is not forgiveness and forgiveness is not trusting again I mean that's foolish someone hurt you forgiveness is not just saying oh I automatically trust them again that's not wise it's not reconciliation either just to forget just because you've forgiven someone doesn't mean you have the depth of relationship with them again and lastly forgiveness is not a Feeling remember love is not is a feeling but love is More Than A Feeling love is a decision and forgiveness is a decision because we realize this forgiveness is not you're not a doormat you're not meant to be treated as a doormat forgiveness is rooted in Justice and this is so important for us what is justice justice is giving someone else what they're owed forgiveness is or Justice is giving someone their due Justice is giving someone what they deserve and so therefore um if you've hurt me then Injustice you owe me something this is just this is just this is good again Justice is good if you hurt me then Justice says you owe me something or not let's say like this if I borrow your car and I do some damage to it and it comes comes out that it's I've done 900 worth of damage to your car then Justice says I owe you nine hundred dollars that's that's not a punishment that's just that's simply Justice to give you what I owe you because that's what I cost you I just cost you 900 therefore I owe you 900 no he's crazy because I've been saying that tough love is is might be allowing someone to experience the consequences of their choices I don't know if that's tough love I think that might just be Justice I think allowing someone to experience the consequences of their choices is simply just it could be possible that tough love or forgiveness is voluntarily choosing to bear the consequences of someone else's choices it could be that forgiveness tough love is voluntarily choosing to accept the consequences of someone else's decisions I think tough love I think forgiveness is saying okay Injustice you owe me this and the forgiveness is saying I am not going to make you pay me back that you do you yes you cost me this this thing you cost me this whatever whatever this is in someone's life you cost me my innocence you cost me about this this these years of my life you cost me this trouble that I have to go through right now that's what you cost me that is what you owe me and then forgiveness is voluntarily saying I'm not going to make you pay me back forgiveness is saying exactly what the king says in the gospel today I release you from your debt so how do we do this if it's not pretending and it's not forgetting and it's not excusing and it's not a feeling how do we how do we do this I I think the first thing we do is we add up the debt and God again if we're if we're if we're going to understand what someone owes us then at some level we have to add up the debt that's what happens in the gospel in the parable you know in our New American Bible the translation it says that the king brings this man before him who owes him a huge amount it's just this general term huge amount but the actual Greek the original writing it actually gives the huge amount it's ten thousand talents that's how much the person is owes him and so for us when if we're going to actually be people who forgive we have to add it up I invite you to go to a chapel in front of our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament in the shadow of the crucifix and what I'm saying is a place where you're safe A place where the holy spirit is powerful a whole place where you know that God is present here and then add it up what has this person cost you again as I said it cost me my innocence they cost me this time in my life they cost me all these things to add it up and then simply make the decision okay I release you from your debt to Simply make the decision I'm not going to make you pay me back and what you'll find is that that's not emotional what you'll find is that it's not even a feeling what you might find is you don't actually feel any better after this but you've made the decision to will the good of the other this is tough love and it costs something and also you're going to find out that it's not an event just doing this one time and saying I release you from your debt doesn't mean it's all fine what you're going to do is what's going to happen is you'll see them again or hear about them again and like oh that person I know and we realize that forgiveness is not an event forgiveness is a process but it's a process that always costs something it's a process that always involves sacrifice but it's a process that you can do because this is how you have been loved it's a process you can do because this is how you've been loved from the very beginning to the very end in the very beginning here's Genesis 3. and here's the cost Here's the the reality that love involves sacrifice Adam Eve but also to realize the loving love even costs God something the the story goes on in Genesis chapter three and it says that as Adam and Eve leave the Garden of Eden he said then the Lord God clothed them with leather garments it's just this kind of throwaway line that you might just even miss but the Lord God made leather garments and he clothed this man and this woman with those garments but it should make a stop and ask the question okay wait where do you get leather garments you get leather garments when something has been killed when something has been sacrificed when it costs something so even from the very beginning it even costs God something to care for us it costs God something to love us because love always involves sacrifice This Is How Deeply God loves us like How Deeply here's go back to the parable How Deeply does God love us well ten thousand talents we we hear that name that that number maybe you know a huge amount even 10 000 talents you're like what is it what does it even matter I don't know what a talent is a talent one Talent is equal to 6 000 days wages so here's a guy who owes his King six thousand ten thousand talents one Talent is worth six thousand days wages which means that this man coming for the king he owes him 60 million days wages which is 160 000 years of work now he can he comes over the king says uh give me time I'll pay back what I owe no you will not you can there's no possible way 160 000 years of service you there's no way and actually the crazy thing is the it says the his fellow servant owed a much smaller amount that was 100 denarii which means 100 days wage I remember reading something commentary said you could carry 100 denarii in one pocket but if you had to carry ten thousand talents it would take 86 to 100 people carrying 60 pounds of talents if they were standing a yard apart it'd be it'd stretched five miles long the depth to which God has forgiven us 160 000 years of service he says I'll take it I'll pay that price I release you from your debt you don't have to try to pay me back this is how you and I have been loved this is how God loves us and it cost him this is the tough love of God the tough love of God is the fact that God so loved the world that he gave his only son so that you and I wouldn't perish but could have eternal life so that you and I could actually be with him you have been loved in this tough with this tough love that's this the last thing when Immaculate realized this everything changed right she skipped over the forgive us our trespasses but she realized at some point she said I can't pick and choose this prayer comes from Jesus Jesus Is God I have to I have to do what I can to pray every one of these words and something changed one day when she was reading in the gospels and she came upon Jesus's words from the cross or from the cross God himself pouring everything out prayed father forgive them for they know not what they do they don't know what they're doing forgive them and she realized so he says something broke in her heart and she knew that she could release them as well from their debts see she realized that she had been willing she had been she had been loved by a love that was willing to sacrifice everything for her and you've been loved by a love that is willing to sacrifice everything for you and it is a tough love and it is rooted in Justice that we owe a debt we owe a debt that we're not able to pay and so Jesus paid our debt that he didn't owe so we get to this place where we are called upon We've Been Loved with a tough love that gives us the ability to have tough love to be able to say I'm not going to make you pay me back and that costs something that love always involves a sacrifice but it's a love that we're called to to be able to say in Jesus name I release you from your debt thank you [Music]

Channel: Sundays with Ascension

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Id: 785iwbbZZXo

Length: 23min 12sec (1392 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 17 2023