The price of a slave

The dominant news in past few years and rightly so is the heinous crime of rape in India. But I was surprised to listen to this statement from the movie The General’s daughter “there is something more difficult than rape”. The crux of the movie is this where the General’s daughter who is a Captain in the army is murdered in an unusual fashion. But it turns out to be more than just that. 

The investigator uncovers that the Captain had been brutally gang raped by fellow trainees while a cadet. Luckily, another trainee group rescued her. But she never knew who that was. When the news reached her father, instead of helping the daughter identify them he decided to cover it up since it would cause a scandal and destroy the Academy, not to mention his own ambitions to become Vice President of the United States. This denial of justice by her own father severely traumatized her.  This betrayal of the father was more painful to daughter than all the pain that she had experienced earlier!

This was an eye-opener for me, helped me to understand the depth of pain that Jesus went through to allow to be betrayed by his friend and loved one Judas Iscariot that to with a kiss. Judas who was one of the chosen twelve who had been taught by Jesus and journeyed with Him for 3 full years betrayed him for a meager 30 pieces of silver which was the price of a slave (exodus 21:32)! He places little value on Jesus as he had been doing consistently by stealing from the money bag (John 12:6) and prefers  personal gain. 

This is in stark contrast with the lavish gesture of the woman Mt 26:6-13 who pours ointment worth 300 denarii equal to a year’s wages. How much of value do we place on Christ and his words. Do we take care to meditate on them and obey all of them? Or do we have selective amnesia? Choosing to meditate only on the words that please us and give emotional satisfaction? Have we forgiven those who have hurt us and pray for them or are we carrying these hurts in hearts waiting to see their downfall? Agreed it isn’t easy! Next to loving our enemies, the most difficult thing is to forgive them. Yet, God asks us to do both. He is so particular about the latter, in fact, that he says he will withhold his own forgiveness for our sins if we do not forgive others for their sins. It is a fact that some of us overlook, believing that we will have absolution simply by repenting, even though a common prayer that we say makes it very clear that God’s forgiveness is determinant on our own forgiveness of others. “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us “ (Matthew 6:12). It is, therefore, essential that we forgive others, just as God has forgiven us. And if we say that we forgive someone and we choose to keep ourselves away from that person then essentially we are asking God to forgive us and keep away from us! We need to take care on how we forgive those who hurt us. Let’s remember that we have been forgiven more than we can ever forgive others. If we still find it difficult to forgive when we bring the person or incident to our mind that hurt us then I would like to share this word of God “For the love of God is this, that we obey his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome” 1John5:3 It is based on the depth of love that we have God will we find it easy to do what he wants us to do.

Most often forgiveness does us more good than we envision as it brings an inner healing that we are in dire need off. Forgiveness is the key God gives each one of us to heal us from the inner wounds of the past or present to give us a blessed future. This is something I say out of a deep personal experience. Psychology says, men tend to forget but not forgive. Women tend to forgive but never forget. During the inner healing session in a retreat, Holy Spirit brought to my mind the incidents that lead to wounds in my heart and the unforgiveness that I had against my father. It was with great struggle, lot of tears and with the help of the Spirit was I able to forgive with these words… I forgive Lord I forgive help my unforgiveness. Letting the hurt, anger and unforgiveness go was not an easy task. At the end of the retreat I received a chit with these words “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” Matthew 3:17 I was elated to know that I had pleased God. It was worth the effort. Our God is eager to help us as we struggle to forgive and bless us as we become victorious in our struggles. If we still find it difficult to forgive when we bring the person or incident to our mind that hurt us then I would like to share this word of God “For the love of God is this, that we obey his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome” 1 John 5:3 It is based on the depth of love that we have God will we find it easy to do what he wants us to do. 

Prayer

Father God, I thank you for having forgiven me my sins; sins that I repeat time and time again. I take the decision now to forgive all those who have sinned against me. I ask you for your grace to be able to forgive those who have done so, regardless of whether the hurt they have caused me is grievous or minor. It would help me to remember that I, myself, hurt others constantly by my own words and actions.

Holy Spirit, please reveal to me those whom I need to forgive, even if they are people from way back in the past, whose names or faces I might no longer remember. In a desire to forget the pain they have caused me, I might have buried the incidents deep in my subconscious. I ask that you uncover them, not to bring back the pain, but to heal the wounds that have been caused; wounds that might be infecting my body and my soul.

Jesus, even as I forgive these people, I ask you to forgive them too. Grant them your mercy and draw them to you in salvation. I also ask you for your grace to instantly forgive those who hurt me in the future, even those who hurt me regularly. Help me to understand what you did as you were dying on the cross, that people don’t realize that they jeopardize their salvation when they hurt us, and that I should, therefore, be sympathetic rather than upset.