It is 17th August 2017. The readings are from Joshua 3:7-11, 13-17; and the Gospel from Matthew 18:21-19:1. We begin reading from the Book of Joshua where we reflect about the presence of God is among the people as they march towards the Promised Land. Some people take upon themselves leaderships for their agenda to be executed. Most of the times, God chooses, exalts and magnifies the leaders God prefers before God’s people. When God elects a leader, God does some amazing things and uncomprehendable ones by any human reason in front of the eyes of the people. Joshua was the one God chose to lead God’s people and God made the waters of Jordan to be still until people crossed the River Jordan reminding us people crossing the Red Sea. Our God goes to this much extent for a leader when the leader is chosen by God. God kept up God’s promises of love through the acts beyond comprehension. God parted the flooding river for the people to reach the promise land. Drying the land is a type of consecration God wanted God’s people to experience the blessings of God’s forgiveness in the Promise land. The Church as the instrument of God love and mercy needs to stand still in the flooding waters of the world, before God could perform the miracle of mercy for God’s people in a cruel and sinful society. Let not the Church waver and pulled by the currents of the flooding theories and doctrines of the most ultra-undauntedly sophisticated and modern world. God has chosen the Church to lead God’s people to the everlasting Happiness through its ever forgiving and merciful acts. The Church must shed its fake wings of glory, pompous, pride, and greed and embrace mercy, forgiveness and remembering the powerful interventions of God. The Church is the only passage through which God’s people are purified without being soaked by the floods of the sinful rivers in the world. The responsorial Psalm praises, “Alleluia.” The Gospel illustrates the power and the need of forgiveness in a person. There is no limit in its quantity while forgiving. The quality and the attitude of the person that matters for forgiving. Forgiveness is the ongoing process to feel the presence and creating a space for grace of God to flow into our lives. It happens when we have least expected. It is God’s moment of putting the pieces together in the life of a broken human lives. Forgiveness is the invisible healing moment of God as a gift for the one who does not withhold anything against the other countless times. Without forgiveness, the reconciliation cannot happen. We need one person to forgive while two to reconcile. Forgiveness is invisible and internal while the reconciliation is visible and interpersonal with its restitution. May God grant us the courage to forgive in order to enjoy the reconciliation. May you have a good day.