Oneness

One love, one blood

One life, you got to do what you should

One life, with each other

Sisters, brothers

One life but we're not the same

We get to carry each other, carry each other

One

One

U2 “One”

What do you want when someone “wrongs” you? Justice.

What is it that you want when you “wrong” someone else? Mercy.

My guess is that Christ was so emphatic, seventy times seven, because he knew what was the greatest threat to ourselves, our souls, our relationships and our unity with Him. It was division borne of an inability to forgive and to be merciful. Fr. Greg Boyle, S.J. speaks of radical kinship—not serving the other, but being one with the other. No forgiveness…No Oneness.

Rather than stand in harsh judgment, one may reasonably surmise that The Master must have known what it was like to experience hopelessness in his life; to fall and beg for mercy; to be just like the servant. In forgiveness, they were united. One in forgiveness and in mercy.

The moment of Oneness did not last very long in Matthew’s story. Forgiveness gave way to un-forgiveness and the servant was tortured, dis-united from his Master and his community, from God and from his true self. To withhold forgiveness is to chose to be tortured and alone.

Seventy-times-seven…Forgiveness…Mercy…Oneness.

Author: John Sabine, Advancement