THURSDAY OF THE NINETEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME, AUGUST 12, 2021

MASS READINGS

A Gospel according to Mt 18:21–19:1

Peter approached Jesus and asked him, “Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus answered, “I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times. That is why the Kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who decided to settle accounts with his servants. When he began the accounting, a debtor was brought before him who owed him a huge amount. Since he had no way of paying it back, his master ordered him to be sold, along with his wife, his children, and all his property, in payment of the debt. At that, the servant fell down, did him homage, and said, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full.’ Moved with compassion the master of that servant let him go and forgave him the loan. When that servant had left, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a much smaller amount. He seized him and started to choke him, demanding, ‘Pay back what you owe.’ Falling to his knees, his fellow servant begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.’ But he refused. Instead, he had the fellow servant put in prison until he paid back the debt. Now when his fellow servants saw what had happened, they were deeply disturbed, and went to their master and reported the whole affair. His master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you your entire debt because you begged me to. Should you not have had pity on your fellow servant, as I had pity on you?’ Then in anger his master handed him over to the torturers until he should pay back the whole debt. So will my heavenly Father do to you, unless each of you forgives his brother from his heart.”

When Jesus finished these words, he left Galilee and went to the district of Judea across the Jordan.

REFLECTION:

"Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him?"

Ugh, if I had been Peter, I would have hoped that Our Lord would have said: "If someone does you wrong, of course you can "forgive them", and make sure to shun them because they are mean and should receive all the punishments they deserve in this and the next life"...

OK, huge hyperbole, but in all sincerity, when someone does me wrong, or does something I perceive as evil against me, one of my first reactions is to cry for justice. To wish things would be done "right". It doesn't even have to be a huge thing, like when somebody cuts me off in the freeway, my first reaction is to cuss (or say a curse word), the second is to flip the bad driver (more cursing), and third to wish the highway patrol upon them, or worst (even more cursing).

Even our society uses the Name of Jesus as a curse word. We use it when we stub our toe in the curb, when a bad driver cuts us in the freeway, or when our kids are driving us boogie and finally explode and scream His Sacred Name as a curse upon people.

Why don't we try something different today?

Let's use the Sacred Name of Jesus as a blessing.

Next time something bad happens to us, lets use the Breathing Jesus prayer by saying JEE - SUS, help me!

Let's turn our bad habit of cussing and cursing into a plea of help to Our Lord. And eventually He will help us turn these into blessings. After all, blessing is part of our PAPA philosophy: "No matter what happens, we choose to bless everything and everyone – whether they are good or ill. Bless them all." (PAPA Handbook, page 21).

God bless y'all!