Lent 1, Friday – Ez 18:21-28; Ps 129:1-8; Matthew 5:20-26

If you are bringing your offering to the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar, go and be reconciled with your brother first.

It happens that we carry resentments, we get angry with someone, sometimes we don’t even remember why. We negatively focus on others and become blind. Stuck in clichés, we throw them into our own frames and don’t notice that the truth about them is different. We are unable to see the good in them. Prejudged, we treat them unfairly, we judge hastily. You can talk about a kind of “cherished” resentment, anger. In such situations, it is certain that our every gesture and word will hurt.

Lent prompts me to look at these relationships. First notice, name and acknowledge your fault to start fixing. Reconcile, apologise, and maybe forgive others for their hurts. For this you need to stand in the truth, and without God’s help it can be difficult, if not unbearable. Every day I can invite God to help me heal difficult relationships, look honestly at myself, at how I react to others, how I speak to them, what gestures I make towards them. All to finally stop wounding them.