24th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
September 11, 2022

The singing career of Grammy award winner Marvin Gaye ended in tragedy on April 1, 1983. He was shot to death by his own father. Marvin’s close friend wrote a biography about him a year later. It said he was a divided soul: part artist, part entertainer, part sinner, part saint, part macho man, part gentleman. Marvin’s childhood was tormented by cruelty inflicted on him by his father. Commenting on the effects this had on Marvin’s life, his biographer wrote: “he believed a lot in Jesus, but he could never apply the teachings of Jesus on forgiveness to his own father. In the end, it destroyed them both.”

That true story on an unforgiving father and son contrasts sharply with the story of the forgiving father and son which Jesus tells about in the Gospel. And the contract between the 2 stories spotlight a growing problem in modern society – the inability or unwillingness to forgive one another.

The AMA issued a recent report: “our feelings about ourselves and others and the quality of our relationships may have more to do with how often we get sick, than our genes, chemistry, diet, or even environment do. The point is that when we hold a grudge, refuse to forgive, or seek revenge we hurt ourselves as much as we hurt our enemy…you see how this effects our world. Jesus teaches of forgiveness is a message that our modern world needs to take to heart. It is a message each one of us needs to take to heart.