07-11-24 Kasih Tanpa Batas: Kisah Pengampunan Tuhan di Tengah Penyesalan Terdalam

Thursday 31st week in ordinary time "Lk 15:1-10" The Pharisees and the Scribes murmured, saying, "This man receives sinners and eats with them." So he told them this parable: "What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost, until he finds it? ...I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents." The Pharisees were surprised that Jesus "received sinners and ate with them." And not just that: He loved them, He searched them out, He helped them to come back to God, He taught them how to love God... He even died for them. That's one of the things I love most about You, Lord: You never give up on anyone. Fr. O'Malley was asked to attend to a patient in hospital who was dying. He travelled for 30 miles through a severe storm, past flooded streets with trees and power lines falling all around him. The name of the patient was Tom; he was an alcoholic who had been in prison for many years and had no interest in confessing his sins to a priest. Fr O'Malley tried to convince him to go to Confession for a while until the man stopped him, "No priest can convince me. I have done something in my life that God wouldn't want to forgive." The priest insisted that God would love to forgive all sins committed by all sinners. But then Tom told his story: "Thirty-two years, two months and eleven days ago, I was working on the railway. That day the whole crew was drunk. Someone had to go out and push the switch for the train to go northbound. I was so drunk that I pushed the switch in the wrong direction. At 45 miles per hour the freight train slammed into a passenger car at the next crossing and killed a young man, his wife, and their two daughters. I have had to live with that all of my life," Tom explained. There was a moment of silence as Tom's confession of this tragedy hung in the air. After what seemed like an eternity, Fr. O'Malley gently put his hand on Tom's shoulder and said very quietly. "I know God can forgive you, son, because I can. In that car were my mother, my father and my two sisters." Mary, Mother of Mercy! How great is your Son's Love for sinners! How much He loves to forgive all men! Help me, Mother, to spend my life in thanksgiving.