129 Forgiveness: Good for Body, Mind and Soul

Welcome to the one hundred and twenty-ninth episode of By Your Life. I’m Lisa Huetteman and I know that you have a hundred different things you could be doing right now, so I thank you for choosing By Your Life.

My goal is to inspire, empower, support, challenge, and encourage you to connect Sunday, with Monday-Friday, in a secular business world. It’s my desire to help you live our Catholic faith in the marketplace. I hope to offer you practical ways to go forth and glorify the Lord by your life.

Holding onto Anger

In this edition, we’ll reflect on the readings for the Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time. Every Sunday, my husband, mother and I take lunch to my in-laws’ house and we spend a few hours with them talking and sharing a meal. This week, my father-in-law told a story about going to visit his mother. He hadn’t seen her in many months and had driven over 10 hours with two kids in the car and the first words out of her mouth when he walked in the door were, “Albert, can you go to the store and get me some bread?” You could hear the irritation in his voice as he described that event that happened over 50 years ago. I jokingly said to him, “Grandpa, do you think it is time you let that go?” He jokingly responded, “No, I want to hold onto it!”

All kidding aside, the first reading from the Book of Sirach and the Gospel should be a warning to all of us who hold onto resentments. Sirach said, “Wrath and anger are hateful things, yet the sinner hugs them tight.” (Sir 27:30) Then, in the Gospel, Jesus told the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant. If you are human, and you are reading this now, you must admit that there have been times you’ve held onto anger way too long, despite the negative effects it had on you. But, if we are honest, what should concern us even more is that wicked, unforgiving servant who Jesus describes in the parable is us, the ones who have been forgiven, yet refuse to forgive. Why do we do this? Why do we cling to hateful things, refuse to forgive others, and allow ourselves to be consumed by anger?