Jesus acknowledges that relationships may sometimes be strained or even broken. He encourages us to seek reconciliation when this happens. Fr Richard reflects on today’s readings from Mass.
Readings for Wednesday of week 19 of ordinary time can be found here.
The 18th century English poet Alexander Pope famously declared: “To err is human, to forgive, divine”. Surely we have all experienced the first part of Pope’s statement. We can all think of occasions where we have erred, sinned, done the wrong thing. And the times when others have done wrong to us. Our readings today try and take us beyond wrongdoing to the second part of Pope’s saying – forgiveness and restoration.
The readings have something striking in common. In each, the issue of sin is confronted head-on. In the first reading God deals brutally with those who have abandoned him, while sparing the righteous. In the Gospel, Jesus says that we should not ignore wrongdoing within the church. But neither should we condemn the sinner outright. Instead we should make every effort to bring about reconciliation.
People outside the Christian faith often get the wrong idea about forgiveness. They think it means sweeping things under the carpet, saying whatever has been done wrong doesn’t really matter. Jesus’ words today show us that couldn’t be further from the truth. For sin to be forgiven, it needs to be named. The sinner needs to realise what they’ve done is wrong. This takes courage on both sides! But the effort is worth it if we can indeed repair what has been broken and model that divine quality of forgiveness spoken about by Pope.
Mass today is in St Paul’s at 10am and St Mary’s at 11am.
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