Unforgiveness is trap says Fr Ebido - ITREALMS

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Wednesday, Fourth Week of Lent B (March 17, 2021) 

Your Daily Blessing: May the Lord deliver you from being a cross-less Christian. Amen.

Read Isaiah 49:8-15; John 5:17-30; pray psalm 145[144].

NARRATION: Francis (not his real name) was a depressed young man. He finds escape in alcohol and drugs. He hardly talks or confides in anyone. But he has a friend Mark, who said Francis has a bone to chew with his father. 

According to him, Francis has sworn never to forgive his Dad for what he did to him by abandoning him and his mother when he was little. Mark reminded him that his anger is eating him up and he is wasting away. He should let go of his anger and regain his mental freedom.

We have many people like Francis who are caught in the trap of unforgiveness. They will “never forget” the wrong that was done to them. But when we ‘force’ the mind to always remember something painful, it could go into overdrive and destroy us. 

The people of Israel have accused God of abandonment: ‘Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me, my Lord has forgotten me.” They remember abandonment but forgot their constant disobedience and intransigence! In Isaiah 49, the Lord confirms he will “comfort his people and show mercy to his afflicted.” He says, a mother cannot forget the child in her womb, and even if she does, God will never forget his people.

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In other words, he does not ‘remember’ like humans do, who easily forget the good done to us but perpetually remember the evil. He “casts our sins [and wicked deeds] behind his back” and shows us his love and mercy because that is his nature. We gives life to all who come to him (Gospel).

 

PRAYER: Dear Lord, sometimes I feel abandoned by you especially at difficult moments of my life. Help me to see your love even in my pains and suffering. Convince me that my cross is one day my crown. Amen.

🙏🏽©️Fr Augustine Ebido, O.P.

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