Today’s readings: Ecclesiasticus 27,33 - 28,9; Romans 14,7-9; Matthew 18, 21-35

The social and political unrest raging around the world, plus the tensions on a more personal level that make relationships not that easy, make sensible talk about forgiveness necessary, even though challenging. To be honest, there are crimes, abuses, corrupt networks in business and politics, drug pushing and other malpractices that are unforgivable. Yet forgiveness is a basic virtue of community life and the foundation of true social cohesion.

Forgiveness is the recipe for reconciliation in society and for the healing of the world. Our history books are peppered with painful pages of colonisation, slavery, injustice, suffering, inequalities and atrocities. Even the Church institution itself often succumbed to these mechanisms throughout its history, subjecting itself to the lures of power and worldly futilities.

Challenging as it can be, we have to be articulate about forgiveness. What today’s Scriptures highlight is the impact this virtue can still have on our personal health and life, and eventually on our social networks at large. There can be no community, and civilisation would be at risk if we do not face the challenge of forgiveness as the capacity to reach out to the other in spite of differences – ideological, political and cultural.

Research into the origins and causes of diseases is today a most vital tool for the scientific and medical world to safeguard a better future for humanity. Of pivotal importance, alongside this scientific research, is the search inside us humans of the origins and causes of the different malaises that distort our nature and impact heavily on our capacity to relate.

We are whole people – body, mind and soul – and whatever affects the body affects the mind and the soul, and vice versa. There are hidden truths in our patterns of behaviour that govern our entire being, who we are and what we do. Exclusive care of the body is just as dangerous as exclusive care of the soul because whatever we go through impacts us psychosomatically, in our psyche and in our body.

Anxiety and worry, like an infection or injury, cause pain in the mind and in the body. If the body is ill, the soul suffers; if the soul is ill, the body suffers. The reading from Ecclesiasticus today shows how resentment and anger, when not duly processed, lead to ill-being physically, spiritually and relationally. We need management skills even in the way we manage our daily lives and our emotions, which when uncontrolled give vent to dangerous behaviour.

The slogan ‘lest we forget’ is so often implored, and rightly so. Yet there are things in life we need to remember and yet we forget them; and things we need to forget but which we continue to refresh in our memory. We need the wisdom to see the difference here and to realise the futility of harbouring thoughts and emotions that are simply torturing and making us more resentful.

Where the life of the spirit is concerned, there are thoughts and emotions that permanently disable our connection with God and with others. Believing in God’s love does not cancel our human feelings and it does not guarantee that things will change abruptly. God’s love is healing, and it enables us to be patient and give time, to let go and not to give in to instant reactions.

Forgiveness is not measured by how often one forgives but by the intensity of forgiving. St Peter’s question in the gospel sounds silly, and the “77 times” of Jesus implies an infinity of patience. The less intense forgiveness is, the more fragile it is and the less patient it will be. To love is to forgive, and to forgive is the deepest form of love. Forgiveness never rights a wrong, but it always brings solace to the wronged.