Rev. James A. Wallace, C.Ss.R.

Jan 15 2025

Forever Forgiving?

Erich Segal died at the beginning of 2010. I remember reading his best seller Love Story and being moved by its then famous line “Love means never having to say you’re sorry.” Over the years I have really come to disagree with this. I believe love means having to say you’re sorry and asking for forgiveness many times in life.

Today’s Gospel reminds us that love also means being willing to forgive many times in a life. We fail each other. We sin against each other. Sometimes we do this deliberately, sometimes thoughtlessly, but nonetheless it is painful for the one sinned against.

Is forgiveness ever easy—especially with a repeat offender? “Seven times?” Peter asks. “Seventy-seven times,” Jesus replies. Today’s readings give us the major reason to forgive others: God has forgiven us. There’s more. Not to forgive is to let anger and wrath poison our hearts. Being unforgiving can imprison a person, resulting in bitterness, revenge, and a slow death of the spirit. Not to forgive can be more costly for the one offended.

Paul tells us we belong to the Lord, are called to serve him, to do his will, which is the will of the Father. And God’s will is that we forgive one another. When the risen Lord first appeared to the disciples in the upper room, he wished them peace, and then gave them the power of the Spirit to forgive. This work is not limited to our going to the sacrament of reconciliation.

Consider/Discuss

Have you known the grace of being forgiven?
Have you known the freedom of forgiving another person?

Responding to the Word

We pray that we might have the gift of forgiveness, both of receiving and giving it to others in turn. We ask the Holy Spirit to empower us to be able to forgive what the world judges to be “unforgiveable.” While for us it can seem impossible, with God all things are possible.

Jan 15 2025

A Job Nobody Wants

We can respond in different ways when someone wrongs us: we can ignore the offense, cut off the offender, announce our anger or hurt, or be equally offensive. Perhaps you have tried each of these. Jesus sets out another way for his disciples. First, go to the person and point out the failure; if that doesn’t work, take another with you; if that doesn’t work, “refer it to the church.” And if that doesn’t work, “treat the person as you would a Gentile or a tax collector.”

This last remark could sound like even Jesus put limits on what you had to do to bring a person around, especially since tax collectors were generally held in contempt and Gentiles kept at a distance. But this wasn’t so for Jesus; these were the very ones he reached out to. So, his last remark indicates that you never stop trying to win over another.

These words are part of Jesus’ fourth speech in Matthew’s Gospel, focused on life within the community of his followers. They are to be a community of reconciliation. This call to engage in fraternal correction has got to be one of the more difficult aspects of living out the way of Jesus, by loving others enough to tell them when they are committing a wrong. It’s frequently much easier to let it slide or move away from the person altogether.

Paul’s exhortation to “owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another” finds fulfillment in this difficult area of fraternal correction. Such love fulfills the law.

Consider/Discuss

How do you react when someone wrongs you?
Do you see any value in the process Jesus sets out here?
Do you accept that being a church community means correcting those who do wrong?

Responding to the Word

We may need to ask God for the courage to face those who have wronged us and tell them of their failure. We pray to the Spirit whose work is to bring about unity, strengthening the bonds of love between all disciples so that this love may extend to all creation.

Jan 15 2025

The Cost of Closeness

The prophets often spoke bluntly, whether addressing the people or even God. Take Jeremiah today. He accuses God of seducing and overpowering him, making him speak a word that has led to his ridicule and persecution. He was even thrown down a cistern and left to die because of his preaching! Jeremiah confesses he has no choice in the matter. When he refuses to speak God’s word, he experiences a fire burning in his heart, consuming his very bones.

The cost of drawing near to the living God can take us down a path we would rather not go. Peter saw this coming when Jesus began to speak of the suffering that lay ahead, instead of being the powerful Messiah people had been waiting for, who would cast down their enemies and restore Israel to the glory days of King David. Instead, Jesus spoke about taking up the cross, losing one’s life, or, in Paul’s words to the Romans, becoming “a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.”

God’s plan for us is the transformation and renewal of our minds according to the pattern of God’s Son Jesus. This transformation comes about when we “offer [our] bodies as a living sacrifice,” seeking to discern and do God’s will as Jesus did. Such self-offering may lead to our following Jesus on the way: finding life by losing it for the sake of others, and coming to know the living God as purifying fire, life-giving water, and nourishing food for our spirit.

Consider/Discuss

Would your reaction to Jesus’ speaking of having to go to Jerusalem be like Peter’s? Why or why not?
Can you apply Paul’s words to your life: “Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God”?

Responding to the Word

We can pray that we have the strength to respond courageously to Jesus’ call to be willing to lose our life for his sake. We ask to be able to discern in our daily lives the way we can “offer [our] bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, your spiritual worship.”

Jan 15 2025

A Life-changing Question

Certain questions change lives, depending on our answer: “Do you take this person to be your husband/wife?” “Do you want this job?” “Can you forgive me?” The question Jesus asks today is one that certainly changes lives. Our response is not simply an academic exercise, a matter of knowing the right answer we learned from a book. Our answer must lead to a commitment that is to be lived out each day of our lives.

Peter’s answer certainly changed the course of his life. Jesus recognized that it was not Peter’s innate knowledge, or that of any other person, that had given Peter his response: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” It was the Father. And so Jesus declares that Peter will be the one to lead the other disciples and all who would come after. Simon, son of John, fisherman, husband, brother—and one who would deny he ever knew Christ!—he was to be the rock on which Jesus would build the church. His response was life-changing.

Peter’s answer was not a perfect one, as we shall see next week. Even so, Jesus accepts it as an indication that his Father is at work in those called to be with him who would continue his work. The Father chose to work in fallible human beings. We may not think of ourselves as rocks, but the future of the church depends on how well each one of us lives out the answer to this question, “Who do you say that I am?”

Consider/Discuss

Who do you say Jesus is?
Do you recognize Jesus as one who embodies the wisdom and knowledge of God?
How does your answer to Jesus’ question show up in the way you live?

Responding to the Word

We pray that our loving Father will bring us to a deeper knowledge and under standing of his Son Jesus. We ask that this understanding will lead to a deeper commitment on our part to the work of Jesus to bring about in our own day the reign of God in our world.

Jan 15 2025

God’s Ever-Expanding Table

A woman has a daughter tormented by a demon. She hears about Jesus, seeks him out, and pleads with him to pity her child. Who could turn away? Yet Jesus dismisses her, saying dogs do not get the children’s food. Is Jesus really comparing her to a dog begging at table? Is he turning away because his mission to the house of Israel limits who benefits from his healing power? What was Jesus thinking?

Three things can be said here.

First of all, it is probable he was not literally calling her a dog any more than we are when we say about someone, “Every dog has its day.” Second, it is possible that at this time Jesus understood his mission as taking care of his own people first. We are told he grew in wisdom. Would this not include a growth in fully understanding his Father’s will and how far it went? Third, is it not even possible that this was a moment of growth, that the woman’s faith pushed him further along in widening his mission, and in recognizing that everyone was welcome at the table of the kingdom, and that his work was to respond wherever he found faith?

Isaiah reminds his Jewish listeners that God will bring the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord to his holy mountain, where they will worship. Paul reminds his Gentile listeners that God’s gifts and call to the Jews are irreversible. In a word, everyone has a place at the table.

Consider/Discuss

Do I believe that Jesus grew in wisdom and strength and favor?
Are there any groups that I tend to see as not belonging at the table of the Lord?
Do I take seriously the power of faith, my faith?

Responding to the Word

We pray to look beyond categories of nationality, ethnicity, class, gender, or any other arbitrary dividing line we put up to exclude others from the mercy of God and from being treated with justice, compassion, and forgiveness. We ask for the grace to respond to others as we would have God respond to us.