Tuesday, March 22 : Saint John Cassian

“Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us!” O the unspeakable mercy of God! It has not only given us a form of prayer and taught us how to act in a manner acceptable to him, uprooting both anger and sadness through the requirements of the formula that he gave, by which he ordered that we should always pray it. It has also conferred on those who pray an opportunity by disclosing to them the way that may bring upon themselves the merciful and kind judgment of God, and it has conferred a certain power by which we can moderate the sentence of our Judge, persuading him to pardon our sins by the example of our own forgiveness when we tell him: “Forgive us as we forgive.” And so, securely confident in this prayer, a person who has been forgiving to his own debtors asks pardon for his offenses. (…) Therefore, if we wish to be judged mercifully, we must ourselves be merciful to those who have offended us. For we shall be forgiven to the degree that we have forgiven those who have injured us by any wrongdoing whatsoever. Some peoples fear this, and when this prayer is recited together in church by the whole congregation they pass over this line in silence lest by their own words they obligate rather than excuse themselves. They do not understand that it is in vain that they contrive to quibble in this way with the Judge of all, who wished to show beforehand how he would judge his suppliants. For since he does not wish to be harsh and inexorable towards them, he indicated the form that his judgment would take. Thus, just as we want to be judged by him, so also we should judge our brothers if they have offended us in anything.
Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team