We have recorded by Saint Bonaventure, that just a few years before his death, Saint Francis needed a special surgery to improve his vision, which back then involved red hot irons being applied to his eyes. This he prayed, “My brother fire, the Most High hath created thee beyond all other creatures mighty in thine enviable glory, fair, and useful. Be thou clement unto me in this hour, and courteous. I beseech the great Lord, Who created thee, that He temper thy heat unto me, so that I may be able to bear thy gentle burning.” His prayer ended, he made the sign of the Cross over the iron instrument, that was glowing at white heat from the fire, and then waited fearlessly.” Something that has always struck me, has been the courage of these men of faith to look terror in the eye and be willing to endure all things for love of God, and how they were filled at such moments with a divine peace.
In today’s first reading from the Book of the Prophet Daniel, we see an incredible display of faith which can strengthen our own resolve to remain loyal and faithful to God. Azariah (called Abednego in Babylonian), in the midst of the flames into which him and his two companions were cast, makes a beautiful penitential prayer, confessing the greatness of God’s love for his people.
We can imagine that if Saint Francis was horrified by a red hot rod approaching his eyes, how much more ought these three young men to have been traumatized by a furnace that was blazing several times hotter than usual? Nevertheless, both Francis and these young men are given this supernatural courage and peace.
The young Azariah concludes his prayer in this way:
“Do not disappoint us;
treat us gently, as you yourself are gentle
and very merciful.
Grant us deliverance worthy of your wonderful deeds,
let your name win glory, Lord.”
“You are gentle and very merciful.” The appeal that St Francis made to “brother fire” to be gentle and merciful, is the same appeal Azariah makes to God, and both received mercy.
In today’s gospel, Jesus takes up this same theme, and speaks to us about how God is gentle and merciful, but he adds to this that therefore we too ought to be like him.
He gives us a parable of “a king who decided to settle his accounts with his servants.” The King applies his justice to those who owed whatever it is they had accumulated in debt. Yet, when they pleaded, they were granted mercy. The king was magnanimous. And so too it is, we will be in situations where a weaker person presents themselves before our mercy. How will we deal with that person who owes us something, who owes us an apology, who owes us the payment of their shame especially after we ourselves were forgiven debts by God?
Hence it is incumbent upon us to forgive always, and not just a set amount of times. Saint Peter thought he was being generous by setting the limit to seven acts of forgiveness but as we have all experienced, holding on to a grudge we may have with someone, to a past wound which we will not allow to be healed, will only serve to continue intensifying the bitterness and hatred and the darkness which envelopes our hearts when confronting that person. Jesus is about healing us to set us free. He protected those three young men in the furnace by setting them free from its destructive power. So too when we forgive, we escape the grip of a paralyzing lust for revenge.
If we find ourselves in such a situation, where we feel we cannot bring ourselves to forgive someone who has hurt us, let us meditate on the passion of Jesus, and the horrific suffering he endured so that we could be set free, and let us then have the courage to apply that same redemptive mercy to our brothers and sisters who have hurt us and are suffering the consequences of their actions. The Lord reminds us that to those who have forgiven much, much will be forgiven and Saint John reiterates this when he describes how charity covers a multitude of sins.
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