By Pravin S, CSC –
Readings: Wis 1: 1-7; Lk 17: 1-6
Miracles do happen when we have trust and faith in God. The Founder of our Holy Cross Congregation Bl. Basil Moreau used to say, “trust in divine providence.” When we have strong faith in God anything is possible on earth. Our compassionate God grants everything we ask for, particularly the grace of forgiveness.
Today the first reading invites us to seek God through our wisdom to understand his love, forgiveness, care and justice which will lead us to have a strong faith in God. When we have strong faith in God, we are led by God through guidance of Holy Spirit helping us live a peaceful and prosperous life. God is author of our life; he has different purposes in creating us and he leads us into righteousness.
The gospel reading invites us to forgive others and have strong hope in God. We do many things without hesitation because we have hope that we can do it better than before. Normally it is not easy to forgive those who offended us even though they repent for their actions and seek forgiveness from us. We should keep in our mind that Jesus forgave the sins of many those who repented; and while hanging on the cross he forgave the sins of the thief who repented for his sins. He reminds us that we can condemn the sinful actions but not the person who committed sin against us.
We are called to forgive others as Jesus did. God tell us that he is with us always, but we sometime fail to feel his presence in and around us because of our sins and unfaithfulness. So it is an invitation for all of us to have a strong faith in God, to trust him constantly and practice forgiveness and mercy in our life.