Thursday, 11th Week of Ordinary Time

June 19 , 2003

Can you believe that the year is half over? Next week we celebrate the birthday of St. John the Baptist - six months before Christ - six months before Christmas. On Sunday we celebrate the summer solstice, the first or is it the last day of summer?

The longest day. It's all down hill from, here. The days start getting shorter and darker and the horrible white stuff that it seems we got rid of only yesterday will be back. (I remember the drifts from the last time I was here.)

Such are the cycles of life of which Paul continues in his letter today: Put up with my folly. Could I have done wrong in preaching the gospel to you? I gave to you in your need and asked of you from your surplus to be generous with others.

Paul found the Corinthians to be a very earthy people, very difficult to reach emotionally. He loved them, but he did not like them, and vice versa. His forthrightness stiffened their necks. In his first letter he had written the warning: "Whoever eats and drinks the Body and Blood of the Lord without discernment eats and drinks their own condemnation." It was a custom in Corinth, which Paul opposed vigorously, of celebrating the Eucharist by dividing the congregation by their needs, by their generosity, or by their sins. All of this was in violation of the unity of which Jesus taught.

In the gospel today, Jesus continues teaching on our relationship to the Father, commenting on one phrase only: "forgive us the wrong we have done as we forgive, for if you forgive the faults of others, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father in heaven forgive you."

When we decide to hold another person in our heart and not hold power of judgment over them, we make a choice to desire peace and serenity. But there is no serenity if we harbor subtle grudges. If we ruin their reputation, even if what we say is true, by seeking to manipulate others as enemies against them, or it may be just the opposite: by withholding needed information, remaining silent or by being withdrawn, refusing to communicate with or about another person, with those who have a right and obligation to know the truth. It is very hard to keep someone in our heart when we have been wounded, but that is the mystery of God's grace.