Readings:
Daniel 3:25, 34-43
Matthew 18:21–35
Reflection
The words of Jesus in today’s Gospel, like the words of Our Father, make it clear that final judgment is not so much based on the wrong things we do but on how forgiving we are. If God is so merciful that Christ would undergo the Passion for us, then how can we be any less forgiving to each other? What perhaps stops us from forgiving those who wrong us is that, in our brokenness, we like to feel superior to them. We like the power that comes with withholding forgiveness from the one who has wronged us. There is a legend that Leonardo Di Vinci, when he was in Milan painting ‘The Last Supper,’ went looking for a subject on which to base the face of Christ. He decided on a choir boy he saw in the Cathedral with grace and firmness of face and limb. At a later time in Rome, working on another painting, he was looking for a subject on which to base the face of Judas. So he went and scoured the underbelly of Rome and found a fellow with a vice-ridden face and asked him if he would pose for his painting. The fellow responded, “Certainly, but I have sat for you before.”
Fr. Ray Sanchez CP is the leader of the Oxley community and is responsible for Parish Missions and Retreats throughout Australia and NZ.