Fr. Michael Williams

St Matthew’s gospel portrays Jesus as the New Moses, the New Lawgiver.

And just as Moses received from God the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai, so Jesus delivers His Law in the Sermon on the Mount. But He adds a new twist to God’s law.

Jesus begins by saying, ‘Do not imagine I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets…I have come to complete them’. It is certain that Jesus upholds the Commandments that were given to Moses on Mount Sinai, but he develops them further. So for example, the Fifth Commandment states, ‘Thou shall not kill’, but Jesus says being angry with someone is an infringement of this law. Jesus is saying we must go much further, than simply not killing. Ties to this is the warning about the danger of lack of forgiveness as infringements of God’s law of love. God forgives, and He wants us to follow His example. In the section from the Sermon on the Mount in next Sunday’s gospel Jesus says, ‘You must therefore be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect’. One of God’s perfections is His ability to show mercy. It’s a perfection we are called to cultivate in our own lives.

And so in our relationship with God we are called to show that we are attentive to His ways. Our Lord reminds us that when we come to the Altar of the Lord we need to be reconciled with others, rather than harboring resentment and hatred. We need to show the qualities of God when we come to His Altar.

I’ve forgiven the referee who gave Wigan an offside goal! I’ve got an Evertonian friend, who still hasn’t forgiven Clive Thomas from 1977! If you’re over forty you’ll know what I’m talking about!

Of course, there are far more difficult things to forgive for many people, especially when they’ve been damaged by someone’s unjust and evil actions. Forgiveness is a process that can take time. But with God’s grace, available to us especially though the Sacraments, we can make progress. And we always need to remember that forgiveness is a divine action. As the poet Alexander Pope penned, ‘To err is human, to forgive is divine’.

Another poet, the psalmist in today’s psalm says, ‘They are happy who follow God’s Law’. An important element of that Law is forgiveness.

So, we pray for the grace to receive God’s forgiveness, especially in the sacrament of Confession. And we pray for the grace to forgive others, when we need to, and to be aware of this truth, whenever we come to the Altar of the Lord.