Hostility, unforgiveness, bitterness, and resentment have ravenous appetites. They demand to be nourished constantly with bitter and unkind thoughts. Still that's not enough. Those thoughts must spill out into words. We speak out of the abundance of our hearts (Lk 6:45). Like a devouring lion (1 Pt 5:8), the jaws of unforgiveness chew on gossip and slander born of resentment. Yet unforgiveness still must eat more. It relentlessly devours people, marriages, families, and friendships. It eventually may commit suicide by consuming the very person it feeds upon.
Unforgiveness gnaws on our physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health. It eats us alive. Like cancer, unforgiveness and bitterness take over our body until we are dead. Like poison, hostility and resentment destroy indiscriminately, ruining both the object of the hate and the one expelling the venom.
Brothers and sisters, forgive or be handed over to the torturers to die a miserable death even into eternal damnation (Mt 18:34-35). The one who refuses to forgive is always among the casualties. Decide to forgive. Jesus will give you the grace, for He "has achieved reconciliation for you in His mortal body by dying, so as to present you to God holy, free of reproach and blame" (Col 1:22).
| PRAYER: | Jesus, as You hung on the cross, You forgave me (Lk 23:34). Give me the grace to be willing to forgive. |
| PROMISE: | "The Son of Man is Lord even of the sabbath." –Lk 6:5 |
| PRAISE: | St. Peter Claver was led by the Spirit to leave his homeland to minister to the poor, "a slave to the slaves." He baptized several hundred thousand slaves in his years of ministry to them. |
Reprinted with permission from Presentation Ministries, a lay association of the Catholic Church that focuses on evangelization and discipleship through Bible teaching, daily Mass, the charisms of the Holy Spirit, and Small Christian Community. Their ministries include:
· One Bread, One Body
· Daily Bread Radio Program
· Annual Bible Institute
· Discipleship Retreats
· Guadalupe Bible College