Are We Willing To Forgive Our Family Members?
(Fr. Dexter Brereton)
Do we show mercy and forgive family members?
As we reach the final stages of this extraordinary Year of Mercy, the Sunday readings present us with these exquisite parables of mercy. First we have the parable of the lost sheep and the parable of the lost coin. This is followed by one of Luke’s literary masterpieces, the parable of the ‘prodigal’ son. The parable of the lost sheep reminds me that God never deletes us from his ‘contact list.’
Some time ago, one of my cousins gave away one of her most precious pieces of furniture to Arthur her ‘no-good’, lazy son who was a drain on the family. One of
her enraged daughters wondered aloud why she did not simply cut off her brother. In a time when people can be consumed with justice, here was a mother with different concerns. She later explained that in spite of all that he had done, she had to maintain some kind of relationship with her son. Here then was the
shepherd ‘taking the lost sheep on his (her) shoulders’ and going home with him.
When we have our family quarrels, are we prone to “cut people off?” “How many people have we deleted from our ‘contact list’ over the past year?
