Friday of the Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 471

So also David declares the blessedness of the person to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:
Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered.
Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord does not record.


When Saint Peter asked the Lord if he had to forgive as many as seven times Jesus reassured him, "No, not seven times..." 
Perhaps he paused for dramatic effect and Peter felt a momentary relief. Perhaps he thought, "Five times, maybe, but not seven. I can live with that." 
And then Jesus went on, "but seventy times seven times!" 
Parents and spouses know that even seventy times seven times is only the beginning. They know too, "...with God all things are possible." 
Grace makes up the difference. Grace finds willingness where none could be found. 
In today's first reading, Saint Paul invokes King David the Psalmist, the warrior king who took the young bride of another man for his mistress and then murdered her husband. David, the ancestor of Jesus, invented the art of repentance. 
Confronted by the Prophet Nathan, he realized the enormity of his sin and how he had egregiously violated the favor God had given him. Then he realized he must do something to atone for his sin: 

Because I kept silent, my bones wasted away;
I groaned all day long.
For day and night your hand was heavy upon me;
my strength withered as in dry summer heat.
Then I declared my sin to you;
my guilt I did not hide.
I said, “I confess my transgression to the LORD,”

Realizing how the Lord has forgiven us is the first step toward forgiving others. I think it happens in stages: 

1. We greet this other person -- a spouse, child or friend -- as The One who will make me happy. This One is the fulfillment of all my dreams and all my longings! 
2. Then we wonder, "Who are you and what have you done with my (spouse, child, friend?) 
3. Recovering from disappointment, we embrace this stranger as God's (challenging) gift.
4. Finally, we discover that, in many ways, this stranger is a better person than I am!  

Realizing that grace has made me capable of forgiving others, I believe that God has also forgiven me, 

and you took away the guilt of my sin.