Reading and meditation on the Word of God on Thursday of the 19th week in ordinary time, August 13, 2026

Delivered by Grace Larope from the Parish of Sacred Heart of Jesus Cathedral in the Archdiocese of Makassar, Indonesia. Ezekiel 12: 1-12; Rs psalm 78: 56-59.61-62; Matthew 18: 21 - 19: 1.A BIG HEART THAT FORGIVES Our meditation today has the theme: A Big Heart thatForgives. There was a boy, the fifth grade primary student, who told hisparents one morning that better he would stop going to school. He was sayingthis while weeping and terrified. After searching for the reason, they learnedthat this child was afraid of being teased, humiliated and bullied once againby his friends at school. He had tried to be patient with them, played withthem, even shared snacks with them, but he was still victimized by them. He justwanted to quit the school. The parents were sad of their son's situation andtried to solve the problem with the school. This boy's sad experience should not be considered asa human error or simply something by chance, but this proved that there was avery bad social pattern existed in that school that must be removed. Perhapsyou yourself have ever been the victim of such pattern of evil behavior in yourown context. In facing such difficulty, there are some people who can solvethem on their own, but others cannot, so they need help from others to overcomeit. On the how to solve this, it can be through reactive or repressive ways,which means to fight with violence, but it can also through persuasive orfriendly ways. One of the Christian teachings that is always close tothe hearts of followers of Christ when they experience such trouble, is to havea big heart, namely to be a forgiving person and always willing to forgive inwhatever situation. The prophet Ezekiel in the first reading describes an actof forgiveness, which is to reject violence by being passive or silent. Heteaches us an attitude of making ourselves the powerless victims in the face ofthose who are against us. This is to remind them that they also will have theirown time and experience of trouble which they deserve. This way of forgivenessis the same as to say this expression: "The Lord forgives them becausethey don't know what they are doing". The Lord Jesus teaches us on how a big heart forgives,that is, through explicit statements and actions that we can give. The evilones or our enemies need to see and experience how through our words andactions we really forgive them. Such forgiveness should not be measured up tothe number of time or in quantity, and also in quality such as beyond one'spatience, fatigue, boredom, and hurt. Jesus recognized this human tendency ofputting the limits, however, He teaches His disciples and all of us to do theotherwise. Therefore, He emphasized that a big great that forgives is the onethat does not take into account the limits of both the quantity and quality. Hesays this in His famous expression, that we should be able to forgive 70 times7 times. Let'spray. In the name of the Father ... O Lord, give us kind and big hearts so thatwe can forgive without limit. If we are not strong enough to forgive, give usYour Spirit and we will be strengthened. Glory to the Father and to the Son andto the Holy Spirit  ... In the name ofthe Father ...