Forgiveness

Last night, Leron and I had the opportunity to attend a deanery mass presided over by His Excellency the Archbishop of Indianapolis, Joseph Tobin.  It was a beautiful mass with wonderful music and a homily I won't soon forget.

For anyone who follows the daily readings, last night's gospel was from Matthew and it was on how to pray. It detailed the words to the Our Father.  It also speaks to forgiveness.  More than just the words in the prayer, forgive us our trespasses, it explains that as you forgive others so you will be forgiven.

What a huge responsibility!  In order for me to be forgiven, I must forgive anyone and everyone of anything and everything.  That is a hard pill to swallow.  And speaking of pills, Tobin spoke of the anger and resentment that builds from a lack of forgiveness as a poison.  He explained that we often take this poison ourselves hoping it will kill the one who wronged us when in actuality it slowly kills us instead.

I really wish you could have been there because he did an infinitely better job than I could ever hope of addressing this topic with understanding and compassion fully aware of how as humans we like to hold onto resentment and have a hard time letting go.

In the end, he summed it up as this:

Be Holy, holiness is acting in the ways of The One who is eternally Holy

Forgive, forgive everyone of everything

Be Free

Today, I challenge you to forgive.  Forgive as much and as many as you can and when you hit a roadblock on an issue or a person, pray until it crumbles.

Be Holy, Forgive and Be Free... who could ask for more?

God Bless!
Hannah
The Farmer's Wife