A Hug Can Replace Violence...

I found this reflection in The Little Black Book most enlightening. I wonder how you are touched by it.

Peters approached Jesus and asked him,
"Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must
is forgive him, as may as seven times?"
Jesus answered, "I say to you, not seven times
but seventy-seven times."
(Matthew 18: 21-35)

In Scripture, we can track one indication of the gradual movement of the human race (by God's grace) toward the Reign of God. It has to do with the reduction of vengeance.

~~~Genesis (which reaches back to pre-history) tells of Lamech, a son of Cain, who boasted: "I have killed a man for wounding me, a boy for bruising me. If Cain is avenged sevenfold, then Lamech seventy-sevenfold." (Genesis 4:23-24)

~~~Exodus (which treats events that took place in about 1,200 B.C.) tempers this approach: "If injury ensues, you shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot..." (Exodus 21:23-24)

~~~Jesus, in his Sermon on the Mount, takes the human race to a new level: "You have heard that it is said, 'An eye for and eye and a tooth for a tooth.' But I say to you...when someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other to him as well." (Matthew 5:38-39)

~~~Now, 13 chapters later in that same Gospel, Peter asks how many times one has to do this. Jesus says that, to bring about the Reign of God, mercy must be measureless.

Vengeance prevents us from moving forward, for it simply adds evil to evil. Jesus calls us to break the vicious circle of evil for evil, and respond to evil with goodness, this bringing creation closer to its destiny.

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This reading of yesterday really caused me to think about my anger toward those who may have injured me, whether real or imagined. Then the Spirit, as he always does, clarified. You see hate breeds vengeance. Forgiveness breeds love. As Christians we are called to love by LOVE. So if I am truly Christian then I have NO choice! I MUST forgive. Oh my!! What a daunting task this is! God bless you all this day with love! A hug is also GOOD!

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Thanks be to God!

Short and Sweet

Keller Garden, 2008

Then Peter came and said to him, "Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As may as seven times?" Jesus said to him, "Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times."

~Matthew 18: 21-22~

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I've been hurt, and I've been wronged. Is refusing to forgive really going to help?
What have I got to lose?
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Jesus, you forgave. Live in me so that I might forgive as well.

A Catholic Woman's Book of Days by Amy Welbor

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~~~^j^~~~

So I asked myself the same question. The answer for me is this. I have nothing to lose (hell), and everything to gain (Heaven). Pretty simple, huh?

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Thanks be to God!