‘Whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment, and whoever says to his brother ‘raqa’ will be answerable to the Sanhedrin.’ So says Jesus in the Gospel passage from today's Mass. For the record, ‘raqa’ is the equivalent of calling someone an imbecile.
As Christians, we are not to act out of anger. In fact, Jesus goes on record saying that reconciling with one another is more important than any other action we do, even worship itself. Lent is the perfect time for us to measure our own personal relationships against this principle.
Someone gave me an article by Cal Thomas, a Tribune Media Services writer. He had been invited to be part of a panel discussion about the Health Care Coverage proposed by our president. And, as part of that discussion, he spoke before thinking, saying of his opponent that she is “the best argument in favor of her parents using contraception”.
Realizing his mistake the next morning, he called to offer a sincere apology, along with a public apology in his column, which was graciously accepted. He said he realized that if he didn’t live the moral values he wrote about so often, he would be a hypocrite, and that what he said was contrary to his values.
In our day, abusive language is so common that many don’t even recognize it as abusive or hurtful. A wonderful Lenten practice would be to examine more carefully our use of words, and to give up any critical, demeaning, sarcastic, or abusive language, and to seek reconciliation with those with whom we are at odds.
Mr. Thomas asks in his article, why is it that we usually only watch programs that reinforce what we already believe? Where is the potential for growth in that?
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