We all have a river of Jordan (the river of unforgiveness) to cross in our life

May the Lord give you peace and health in the Holy Spirit.

It is 12th August 2021.

We reflect on Joshua 3:7-11, 13-17 and the Gospel of Matthew 18:21 – 19:1

The essence of our existence is to realize the presence of God in another person.

The people of Israel led by Joshua crossed the river of Jordan. Moving on to another chapter of salvation history. There is so much of parallelism between crossing the Red Sea under the leadership of Moses and the miraculous crossing of Jordan river as Joshua led the people into the Promise Land. We all have a river of Jordan (the river of unforgiveness) to cross in our life.

In the book, “Why Forgive?” Steven McDonald who wrote the forward in that book, was a police officer who was shot by a teenager in New York’s Central Park. He got paralyzed after the incident in 1986. He confessed: “I forgave [the shooter] because I believe the only thing worse than receiving a bullet in my spine would have been to nurture revenge in my heart,”

When we experience it, it helps us to move forward in dealing with the issues of forgiveness. We all know for sure that forgiveness is a beautiful thing in our lives. Deep down in our hearts, we all desire to forgive but we lack the courage to forgive. But without forgiveness, there is no peace at all. Do we care for forgiveness or are we scared of forgiving?

We all have something against someone at one point or the other. A space that needs God’s grace is our unforgiving attitudes. Forgiving is the personal and intimate act of liberation from unbearable hurt to integral healing. The question comes to all of us: How many times do we need to forgive the other? It is not just seven times but “seventy times seven (Mt. 18:22). It may look impossible but when we acknowledge it, we free ourselves.

The theme of forgiveness begins at the end of the discourse on church in dealing with the unrepentant person by excommunicating. The story of two servants pointing out to us and our brothers and sisters. The one who owes much in the story is all of us and the one who is owing less is our brothers and sister. Can we go on forgive someone who is relentlessly unrepentant?

Our forgiveness mostly depends on the person and situation. But Jesus proposes something to challenge our understanding of our forgives. Our forgiveness depends on the measures of forgiveness we have experienced and enjoyed from God. We all want God to forgive us umpteen times unconditionally. Forgiveness involves total reconciliation. Mere word or action for the sake of formality of forgiving does not bring peace deep down in our hearts.

Let us ask for the readiness to forgive without strings attached.