Forgiving readily

Twenty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

One interesting part of traveling to different areas of the country is hearing the variety of speeds assemblies pray the Lord’s Prayer. (Only a liturgist would notice this!) One thing is the same almost everywhere: We say it too fast without realizing the gravity of what we ask for. Do we really want God to “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us”? If that’s true, we better start forgiving others a lot more often and more readily, otherwise we may end up like the unforgiving servant in today’s Gospel, tortured until we can pay off our well-earned debts.

Yet this is what we ask for. Forgive us as quickly as we forgive the driver chatting on a cell phone who cut us off on the road. Forgive us as eagerly as I forgive the family member whose political views I simply cannot bear. Forgive me as fully as I forgive the one who owes me an apology and is unwilling or unable to give me what they owe. Perhaps we race through that prayer because we understand what we are asking for.

Next time we call upon the Father, may our prayer be that we forgive as God has forgiven us, quickly, graciously, over and over again.

This post was first published in “GIA Quarterly: A Liturgical Music Journal.”

Image credit: Photo by markzfilter on pixabay.