Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors
19 JUNE (Mt 6,7-15)
The law of forgiveness that God has written for men deserves to be taken seriously by us. God knows no other law than this. Even man must know other law of forgiveness if not the one and only that the Lord has dictated him. This divine law establishes that the measure of God’s forgiveness is man. God forgives as much and how a man forgives his brothers, forgives his fellow men. Another truth demands that the pardon given to men must precede the one of the Lord. One forgives his brothers and he goes to the Lord for forgiveness.
If we are generous, compassionate, merciful, magnanimous, full of goodness and condescension, even the Lord will be full of all goodness and mercy with us. Everything is cancelled, even the most stubborn and strong sins. However, if we are neither compassionate nor merciful, the Lord will take this our measure and will measure with it our forgiveness, will bestow us his mercy, will attest us his piety. This law applies not only for forgiveness, but for mercy in general. The more we are merciful with our brothers and the more the Lord will be with us. The less we are compassionate and merciful and the less the Lord will be with us. We are the measure of God’s love toward us. It is right that we always do this measurement in our favour.
Unfortunately, today this law is lacking in the hearts. It is as if it had been forgotten. It is as if the mind had never known it, had never heard of it. We are all building a strange Christianity, without any rule of the Gospel. We are all turning into children of Lamech, the one who was the inventor of vengeance to the bitter end. In our civilization, not only revenge, but also the feud govern. One wants not only the destruction of the other, but also of those who are his familiar. There is not even consideration for young age. What matters is revenge . Everything else fades away. Everything disappears before our thirst for revenge and justice.
In praying, do not babble like the pagans, who think that they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them. Your Father knows what you need before you ask him. “This is how you are to pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven. Give us today our daily bread; and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors; and do not subject us to the final test, but deliver us from the evil one. If you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions.
Forgiveness is what attests to the truth of the Christian. A Christian that does not forgive reveals his infinite distance from Christ Jesus. He did not forgive the sin done onto others. He forgave the sin done on Him, who is the Son of God, the Only Son of the Father, the very Creator of the creature who crucified him. He did not pardon after the third day, when risen he appeared to his disciples. He forgave while he was hanging on the Cross, when his flesh was pierced and the strong pain penetrated his soul. We are not able to forgive even after years and years and we always keep any wrong suffered in our heart.
Forgiveness is necessary to be able to access to prayer. Who is the enemy of men is also God’s enemy, because he is the enemy of Jesus Christ. Who considers a man his enemy, he necessarily considers Jesus the Lord his enemy. If one is an enemy of Christ, he is the enemy of all of Heaven. As an enemy of Heaven one cannot present himself at the throne of God to be fulfilled. One pleads to a friend, not to an enemy. One becomes first Christ’s friend, by making himself friend of his brothers. Become friends of Christ, we become friends even of the Father, we can approach his throne to ask him for every grace, every blessing, every good gift necessary for our life and the lives of our brothers. Forgiveness is the first liturgical rule to be observed. Instead we have written volumes of liturgical rules, but no one observes this one and only rule that makes our prayer real.
Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels and Saints make us always full of forgiveness.