St Jane Frances Chantal, Religious and Cofounder of a Religious Order.

"Peter approached Jesus and asked him, “Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus answered, “I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times." (Matthew 18: 21 - 22).

Thursday 12th August 2021, 19th Week in Ordinary Time is the feast of St Jane Frances Chantal (1572 - 1641). Religious. French.
At the age of 20, Jane married a noble man, Baron de Chantal. After her husband died, Jane settled her children and embraced the ideals of religious life: chastity and severe poverty. Jane cofounded the Order of the Visitation with St Francis de Sales (Bishop and Doctor of the Church).
Jane Frances left behind large quantities of letters between her and St Francis de Sales that offer great insight on spiritual direction.

The Gospel today deals with the sensitive topic of Forgiveness. I had written on this topic a couple of times and presumed that I am a forgiving person and understand a few things about Forgiveness. My attitude changed today when I looked closely at Peter's question. “Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? As many as seven times?”
I reflected thus: If someone offends me once on something serious, I am disposed by grace to forgive the person even immediately. If the same person repeats the same offense three or four times, that's a different ballgame. Then I realized that I had never understood Jesus teaching on Forgiveness.

When Jesus answered Peter, “I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times." Jesus is saying: You have to be perfect as My Father is perfect. His mercy has no limit. Let your own mercy be limitless. Think about this: Many of us who use the Sacrament of Reconciliation confess the same sins over and over again. For example:  "Forgive me Father for I have sinned....I lied 5 times in the past 4 weeks."  Many of us come back in the next 4 weeks and repeat: 
"Forgive me Father for I have sinned....I lied 7 times in the past 4 weeks."
The priest who is acting in persona Christi in the Sacrament of Confession gives us absolution in the name of Jesus.

If we do not make effort to forgive those who offend us without counting the number of times we are offended, we will hear from Jesus:

"You wicked servant! I forgave you your entire debt because you begged me to. Should you not have had pity on your fellow servant, as I had pity on you?"

"My Mother, on the other hand, raises souls when they fall; she instills in them a confidence in My loving mercy, a readiness to believe in My merciful love, a desire to come into My presence and to expose to Me, the divine physician, the wounds suffered in spiritual combat. My Mother is the Mother of Holy Hope. She is the Mother of Holy Confidence. One who entrusts himself to My Mother will never fall into the pit of despair. Even when sorely tempted, there will remain in that soul enough confidence to turn to Me, and to make an act of abandonment to My merciful love that will touch My Heart and release from it a torrent of forgiveness, healing, and mercy." (IN SINU JESU page 203).

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