Forgiveness and shame

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today bring us to meditate on forgiveness. The Jewish people are in exile in Babylon. Azariah prays with a humble and contrite spirit about the situation in which they find themselves with no prince, no prophet and no leader. The culture which holds them exile has begun to demand their loyalty by signs of the acceptance of their lifestyle and worship of the cultural norms. The prayer of Azariah is to not be put to shame. This is not shame in the eyes of their oppressors, but shame in the eyes of God to whom they profess their decision to follow unreservedly. We know that the path to holiness passes by many distractions, temptations and invitations to deviate toward the desires of our addictions. The society in which we live attempts to hold us in exile from the Presence of God.  Our change of direction as we listen more to our ego brings us in touch with the shame felt by Adam in Genesis. The attitude of Azariah, which is praised by the psalmist, is humility. This position leaves us open to hear the truth and learn the Way.  In the passage from the Gospel of Matthew, Peter discusses the forgiveness which the followers of Jesus should have towards humanity. He proposes, according to Friar Jude Winkler, the "perfect number" of 7. This is understood as the sign of the whole complete universe or what we might call "infinity". Jesus response is to exaggerate the infinite number of Peter to make the point of forgiveness which has no possible limit. Our forgiveness of others is not based on our sense of the "justice" of the situation. Friar Jude points out that we have no idea of how God has gifted others with His grace. Our motive for forgiveness is that our brothers and sisters need it! The shame which we cast at the unforgiving servant in the parable told by Jesus in the Gospel today is the assessment of our behaviour in which we share in the prayer of Azariah to avoid.