24th Sunday Ordinary Time cycle A. Ngay 10-11Sep 2005

Các Trưởng và Thiếu Nhi Thân mến,

Doris Donnelly has written a beautiful book called Putting forgiveness into practice. It contains this moving story. One day a seven-year-old boy was riding in the back seat of the family car. He was sitting between his two brothers. Their mother was driving. On this day, their mother was feeling especially distraught over having been recently abandoned by their father.
Suddenly, in a fit of anger, she spun around and struck the seven year old a blow across the face. Then she yelled at him: ‘and you! I never wanted you. The only reason I had you was to keep your father. But then he left anyway. I hate you.’
That scene branded itself on the boy’s memory. Over the years, his mother reinforced her feelings toward him by constantly finding fault with him. Years later that son told Doris Donnelly: I can’t tell you how many times in the last twenty-three years, I relived that experience. Probably thousands.’ then he added: ‘but recently I put myself in my mother’s shoes. Here she was, a high school graduate, with no money, no job, and a family to support. I realized how lonely and depressed she must have felt. ‘I thought of the anger and the pain that must have been there. And I thought of how much I reminded her of the failure of her young hopes. ‘ And so one day, I decided to visit her and talk to her. I told her that I understood her feelings and that I loved her just the same.’ ‘She broke down and we wept in each other’s arms for what seemed to be hours. It was the beginning of a new life for me, for her, for us….
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the story is a beautiful illustration of the healing power of forgiveness. To use the words of Shakespeare, Forgiveness is ‘Twice Blest.’ It blesses the one who forgives and the one who is forgiven.
Let’s reflect on how it does this. First, forgiveness blesses the one who forgives. Take the young man in the story. He says that when he forgave his mother, it was the beginning of a new life for him. Time after time, we hear other people say the same thing after they have forgiven someone. For example, a young woman who forgave her father, after they had not spoken for seven years, said of the experience: it was like being released from prison. I was free and happy for the first time in seven years.’ So the first point about forgiveness is that it blesses the one who forgives.
This brings us to the second point. Forgiveness also blesses the One who is forgiven. Again, take the young man in the story. His forgiveness of his mother blessed her in an amazing way: it literally healed her. She was transformed from someone who was so bitter that she told her son, ‘I hate you and never wanted you’ to someone who told him, ‘I love you and want you with all my heart.’ Again, time after time, we hear of people who have been transformed when someone has forgiven them. So the second point about forgiveness is that it also blesses the one who is forgiven.
My dear brothers and sisters, this raises a practical question. What do we do when we find that we can’t forgive someone? What do we do to get rid of the emotional block that often keeps us from forgiving another? Again, the answer lies in the story of the young man. The things that made the difference between his ability to forgive his mother and his inability to do so, was his changed perception of her. He no longer saw her as a terrible person who said a terrible thing to a little boy. Rather, he saw her as a high school graduate who had no money, no job, and a family of four to support. And once he saw her in this new light, he saw how lonely and depressed she was. He says: ‘I thought of the anger and the pain that must have been there. And I thought of how much I reminded her of the failure of her young hopes.’ and so the key to the young man’s ability to forgive his mother lay in the fact. That he suddenly saw her in a new light. And that new perception led to his change of attitude toward her. The point is clear: If we are to forgive our enemies, we must make the effort to see them as Jesus sees them: not as terrible people, but as frightened, hurt children of his Father who have lost their way. So, today’s readings invite us to ask ourselves about our relationships with others. If they aren’t what they should be, then today’s readings invite us to take the initiative to change them - just as the young man in the story did. And if we open our heart and do this, it will lead to a whole new life for us – and for the one we forgive. May the Blessing of the Lord be upon us and make us instruments of God’s healing love and peace. Amen.