A Healing Homily

There are many of life’s distractions that try to pull us away from attending Mass. Not long ago, I was faced with that situation due to a heavy heart, weighed down by anger and resentment. All I wanted to do was pull the covers over my head and keep the world out. I begrudgingly crawled out of bed and got ready, not looking forward to hiding my misery behind a forced smile.

Granted, missing Mass is a mortal sin, but for me, missing THAT Mass would have also kept me in despair. Why? Because Father Fernando’s homily blessed me with a much-needed “AHA” moment.

Each and every one of us of has experienced pain and suffering through another's words or actions. This results in harboring a great deal of pain, anger and resentment, as well as a strong desire for retaliation. The only way to heal is through forgiveness and the only way to forgive is not by just saying, "I forgive", but including our offenders in prayer. We should first ask God to give us the love, compassion and humility to forgive, then ask that He be merciful to our offenders and bring light to their darkened hearts. The "AHA!" moment came as Father Fernando explained that we might not necessarily understand the reason our offenders choose to hurt us, but God does. He knows them as well as He knows us. Just as we should not waste our time plotting a way to get even, we should not waste our time trying to figure out the why's. All God wants us to do is follow His word, forgive, and let Him take care of the rest.

In other words, the motive for those causing us harm is none of our business, it's God's. Passing judgement on their actions is not our job, it's God's. Our business is to pray for that person, our job is to forgive and move on. God gave all of us a set amount of time on this earth and harboring pain, anger and resentment takes away precious moments that can be used for the good He created us to do.