Monday 14 March 2022: Daniel 9:4-10; Psalm 78(79):8-9,11,13; Luke 6:36-38
A deeply introspective mood fills our hearts as we read Daniel - todays extract being the early part of a long prayer marked with a consciousness of our sins and failings. The mood lifts as we read todays Psalm, "Do not treat us according to our sins, O Lord" and we pray that God will forgive us. Then Luke 6 reminds us that if we forgive others, we shall be fully forgiven by our Father; furthermore, if we give, we shall be given in return an overwhelming measure of gifts. Pressed down, overflowing, far more generous than we could give of ourselves.
A journey in one Liturgy of the Word that many travel in a lifetime. The promise of the heavenly banquet depends upon us forgiving each other when we are harmed by each other's sinfulness, and that ability to forgive depends upon our being able to see how we in our turn hurt others through our sinfulness.