Recidivists

Monday, April 19, 2021

Recidivists

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives to all simply and without reproach, and it will be given to him. James 1.5

This young Mosellan will not have benefited for long from the points of his driving license, recovered at the end of an internship. On his way home the same day as the internship, he was pulled over on the motorway while traveling at 200 km per hour. Similar to the case of a 12-year-old firecracker thrower who returned to SOS Mains for treatment on his left hand, three days after being treated there for the same reason, but for the other hand.

I do not know if the young man learned from his attitude or if he was content to rail against the gendarmes who were there, according to him, at the wrong time. And I hope the boy didn't just rail at the too short wick, but burrow into himself.

One can be surprised at as much perseverance as unconsciousness. Except that you and I are probably not always free from such inconsistencies. We quickly think we are wiser than we really are. One of the lessons that I take away from the text proposed for your reading below : if Jesus invites his disciple to forgive so many times, it is because on the one hand he himself is ready to forgive us our falls and that besides, they do not surprise him. Which doesn't mean he approves of them. Because he is also ready to grant us the wisdom that we lack.

Claude Siefert

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Proposed reading : Gospel according to Matthew, chapter 18, verses 21 and 22.

18.21 Then Peter came near to Jesus, and said unto him : Lord, how often shall I forgive my brother, when he sins against me ? Will it be up to 7 times ?

18.22 Jesus said to her : I do not say to you up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven times.

Source (Live Today)