Weekly messages from our Pastor

We owe a great deal to St. Peter, especially for his tongue! Think about it? Again and again Peter did what we commonly call today, ‘put his foot in his mouth.’ He rushed into saying things in such a way that drew words from Jesus like “get behind me Satan” or “you will deny me three times”. And in today’s gospel when Peter asks Jesus about forgiveness Jesus responds, “I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times.

Peter thought he was being generous when he suggested forgiveness be extended seven times to someone. Peter recommended this amount for a reason, it was Rabbinical teaching that a man forgive his brother three times.

A certain Rabbi Jose ben Hanina said, “He who begs forgiveness from his neighbor must not do so more than three times.” Rabbi ben Jehuda said, “If a man commits an offense they forgive him; if he commits a second time, the forgive him; if he commits an offense a third time, they forgive him; the fourth time they do not forgive.”

This rabbinical teaching was based on Scripture. From the Book of Amos we read;

Thus says the LORD:

For three crimes of Edom, and now four—

I will not take it back—

The Jewish people believed it was proper to forgive up to three times. As we see in Amos, God will forgive the same offense three times, but no more. The Jews thought, if God will not forgive a fourth time, how can we be more merciful than God?

The Good News we hear today is that Jesus came into the world to show us his Father’s love, an unconditional love. The message we hear is also about forgiveness, a message delivered by God’s son who would die on the cross for the sins of all humanity.

Jesus corrects Peter once again, as if to say, “No Peter, it’s not good enough to forgive just seven times, or even seventy times, but seventy times seven times, in other words Peter, to be my disciple you must learn to always forgive!”

Peter was a lot like us, impulsive, and maybe even a little hot headed at times. But one thing for sure, he loved Our Lord more than anything. Thanks to Peter’s humanity, we know so much more about God’s infinite love and forgiveness!

God bless you,

Fr. John Murray, C.Ss.R.