From: Sirach 27:30 - 28:7
Forgiving others
28[1] He that takes vengeance will suffer vengeance from the Lord,
and he will firmly establish his sins.
[2] Forgive your neighbor the wrong he has done,
and then your sins will be pardoned when you pray.
[3] Does a man harbor anger against another,
and yet seek for healing from the Lord?
[4] Does he have no mercy toward a man like himself,
and yet pray for his own sins?
[5] If he himself, being flesh, maintains wrath,
who will make expiation for his sins?
[6] Remember the end of your life, and cease from enmity,
remember destruction and death, and be true to the commandments.
[7] Remember the commandments, and do not be angry with your neighbor;
remember the covenant of the Most High, and overlook ignorance.
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Commentary:
28:1-11. This passage contains three groups of sayings on one theme: seek
peace and reconciliation, not discord. The first group (vv. 1-5) has to do with for-
giveness: one needs to forgive others in order to be forgiven oneself. The second
group (vv. 6-7) gives the various reasons for not bearing grudges against one’s
neighbour: we should “remember” who we are and how good God has been to us.
The third (vv. 8-11) wants against getting into arguments because they only make
matters worse.
Our Lord may well have had these or similar sayings in mind when he taught in
the Our Father, “Forgive us our debts as we also forgive our debtors” (Mt 6:12;
cf. also Mt 6:14). “Christian prayer extends to the ‘forgiveness of enemies’ (cf. Mt
5:43-44), transfiguring the disciple by configuring him to his Master. Forgiveness
is a high-point of Christian prayer; only hearts attuned to God’s compassion can
receive the gift of prayer. Forgiveness also bears witness that, in our world, love
is stronger than sin. The martyrs of yesterday and today bear this witness to Je-
sus. Forgiveness is the fundamental condition of the reconciliation of the children
of God with their Father and of men with one another” (”Catechism of the Catho-
lic Church”, 2844). And St John Chrysostom, quoting 28:2-4, writes: “Although
you may not deliberately do harm to your enemies, if you fail to show goodwill to
them and leave the wound open on their souls, you are disobeying the command-
ment laid down by Christ. How can you ask God to treat you with good grace, if
you yourself do not show mercy to those who have sinned against you?” (:De
compunctione:, 1, 5).
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.
From: Romans 14:7-12
Seeing Things from the Other Person’s Point of View (Continuation)
[10] Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise
your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God; [11] for it is
written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue
shall give praise to God.” [12] So each of us shall give account of himself to God.
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Commentary:
4-12. These ideas and counsels addressed to the faithful at Rome provide the ba-
sis of the motto traditional in the Church, “Unity in essentials, freedom in doubtful
matters, and in all things clarity” (cf. John XXIII, “Ad Petri Cathedram”; Vatican II,
“Unitatis Redintegratio”, 4). They mark the limits within which Christians should
exercise their freedom—at one extreme, what is laid down by lawful authority; at
the other, the need to practice charity towards all. The freedom of the “strong”
ends where the demands of charity begin: therefore, they should not scandalize
the weak; and the mistake the weak make is to regard as obligatory something
which is not, something a person can do or not as he pleases.
Love for freedom, properly understood, is never a danger to the faith: “The only
freedom that can assail the faith is a misinterpreted freedom, an aimless free-
dom, one without objective principles, one that is lawless and irresponsible. In a
word, license [...]. This is why it is inaccurate to speak of ‘freedom of conscience’,
thereby implying that it may be morally right for someone to reject God [...]. I de-
fend with all my strength ‘freedom of consciences’ (Leo XIII, Enc. “Libertas Praes-
tantissimum”), which means that no one can licitly prevent a man from worship-
ping God” (St. J. Escriva, “Friends of God”, 32).
Freedom is “an exceptional sign of the image of God in man. For God willed that
man should ‘be left in the hand of his own counsel’ (Sir 15:14) so that he might of
his own accord seek his Creator and freely attain his full and blessed perfection
by cleaving to him. Man’s dignity therefore requires him to act out of conscious
and free choice, as moved and drawn in a personal way from within, and not by
blind impulses in himself or by mere external constraint” (Vatican II, “Gaudium
Et Spes”, 17). Therefore, the exercise of freedom consists in obeying a well
formed conscience and thereby, with the help of grace, attaining one’s last end
and the means necessary thereto. In fact, man will be judged on his obedience
or disobedience to the law written on his heart. “Conscience is man’s most se-
cret core, and his sanctuary. There he is alone with God” (”ibid.”, 16f). Its dic-
tates must always be obeyed, even if they be mistaken, and others should
always respect a person’s conscience, for only God can read and judge the hu-
man heart, and he forbids us to judge the inner blameworthiness of others (cf.
“ibid.”, 28).
“The just man, when he finds no way to excuse the action or the intention of
someone whom he otherwise knows to be honest, not only does not judge him
but rejects the very idea of doing so and leaves judgment to God. Our Lord on
the Cross, not being able fully to excuse the sin of his crucifiers, at least les-
sened their malice saying that they did not know what they were doing. When
we cannot excuse someone of sin, let us have pity on him, and try to find
grounds for excusing him, such as ignorance or weakness” (St Francis de
Sales, “Introduction to the Devout Life”, III, chap. 28).
7-9. We do not own ourselves, we are not our own masters. God, One and Three,
has created us, and Jesus Christ has freed us from sin by redeeming us with his
Blood. Therefore, he is our lord, and we his servants, committed to him body and
soul. Just as the slave is not his own master, but he himself and all he does re-
dounds to the benefit of his master, everything we are and everything we have are
geared, in the last analysis, not to our own use and benefit: we have to live and
die for the glory of God. He is lord of our life and of our death. Commenting on
these words St Gregory the Great says: “The saints, therefore, do not live and
do not die for themselves. They do not live for themselves, because in all that
they do they strive for spiritual gain: by praying, preaching and persevering in
good works, they seek the increase of the citizens of the heavenly fatherland.
Nor do they die for themselves because men see them glorifying God by their
death, hastening to reach him through death” (”In Ezechielem Homiliae”, II, 10).
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.