Sep 17 Sun
Having been forgiven a huge debt, the wicket servant did not forgive the little debt of a co-worker. Christ tells us that we must forgive those who sin against us. If we do not, then our heavenly Father will not forgive our sins, until we “pay back the whole debt” we owe him; a payback that, in the words of the parable, will be a tortured imprisonment.
When we sin against God or a fellow human being, God is not hurt, but that fellow human being is hurt (and perhaps many others), and we are damaged. God wants us to repair that hurt. God also wants us to become more like him: good and generous.
Here the amazing good news: “For this reason, at every time and in every place, God draws close to man. He calls man to seek him, to know him, to love him with all his strength. He calls together all men, scattered and divided by sin, into the unity of his family, the Church. To accomplish this, when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son as Redeemer and Savior. In his Son and through him, he invites men to become, in the Holy Spirit, his adopted children and thus heirs of his blessed life.” (CCC 1)
“The glory of God consists in the realization of this manifestation and communication of his goodness, for which the world was created” (CCC 294). Thus, God’s creatures, through their very being, glorify God.
And more, for God’s rational creatures, God created us “to be his sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace.”
So, “The ultimate purpose of creation is that God ‘who is the creator of all things may at last become ‘all in all,’ thus simultaneously assuring his own glory and our beatitude’” (CCC 294).
If God manifests his glory by sharing his goodness with all of creation, and with us, then we can greatly benefit from meditating on this truth. So, a first practical application is that we can take to our MENTAL PRAYER the truths drawn above from the Catechism.
A second application is to respond to God in wonder and THANKSGIVING for all he has given us.
A third application is to form a determination to cooperate with God’s plan for us.
Moreover, He wants us fully alive, in possession of eternal happiness. On our part, our baby steps to do this are found in our grace-inspired and grace-assisted efforts to put sin behind us and to begin to do only good. This is our CONVERSION or transformation in Christ.
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