A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew
Jesus said to his disciples: “Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, and there recall that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift there at the altar, go first and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift.”
In today’s Gospel according to Matthew, Jesus tells his disciples about the necessity of righteousness and reconciliation. What good is a gift or sacrifice of any kind if behind it lies resentment and division. First, Jesus says, reconcile with your brother and only then offer your gift. Jesus tells his disciples to forgive others not to suggest the foundation of a new social order but to offer us life itself, everlasting life. As the Lord says in the first reading from Ezekiel: “If the wicked man turns away from all the sins he committed, if he keeps all my statutes and does what is right and just, he shall surely live, he shall not die.”
God, help me understand that what your Son tells me in today’s Gospel, I hear whenever I pray the Our Father: forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Out of your mercy and through the Sacrament of Reconciliation, you forgive me my sins. How can I be merciful to others unless I recognize the depth of your mercy? “If you, O LORD, mark iniquities, LORD, who can stand? But with you is forgiveness, that you may be revered.” Through reconciliation with my brother and with you, I am able to come to you in the Eucharist with the gift of self, freed from sin and division.
Lord, let me remember today to trust in your mercy: to ask for it, to be merciful, and to completely trust in it.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.