Seven Times

Peter approached Jesus and asked him,
“Lord, if my brother sins against me,
how often must I forgive?
As many as seven times?”
Jesus answered, “I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times.
Matthew 18:21-35

How often, Lord, should we forgive?
Is seven times enough?
As often as we are forgiv'n 
by your unfailing love,
as often as you send our crimes
as far as east from west?
Yes, seven times and seven times
and seven times again.

For when you came to seek and save,
you fell beneath our doom,
but you bring life out from the grave
and mercy from the tomb.
Yet shall you look upon out crimes
and still forgive us then?
Yes, seven times and seven times
and seven times again.

And all that bears us down to death
from Eden to the tomb
shall fall and sink down farther yet
while we rise up with you.
Our hearts, unbound from all their crimes,
lift up a great amen!
Yes, seven times and seven times
and seven times again.

This depiction by Jan van Hemessen (c. 1556) shows the moment when the king scolds the servant. By Jan Sanders van Hemessen – http://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/musart/x-1959-sl-1.108/1959_1.108.JPG?from=index;lasttype=boolean;lastview=thumbnail;resnum=1;sel9=ic_exact;size=20;sort=relevance;start=1;subview=detail;view=entry;rgn1=ic_all;q1=hemessen, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=54308916

Set Loose

“Amen, I say to you,
whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven,
and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Again, amen, I say to you,
if two of you agree on earth
about anything for which they are to pray,
it shall be granted to them by my heavenly Father.
For where two or three are gathered together in my name,
there am I in the midst of them.”
Matthew 18:15-20

What we set loose on earth is loosed in heaven,
and what we bind is bound with heaven's chains.
What we forgive indeed has been forgiven,
and what we punish perishes in flames.

Where two or three are gathered, you are present,
as real as once in Bethlehem new-born.
We bathe your feet with tears in our forgiveness,
or crown you with our own resentment's thorns.

O Christ, you came to loose the floods of mercy,
to bind the tempter far from those he'd harm.
Give us to drink that flood, for we are thirsty,
and gether us in heaven's open arms.

Set free all those you call sisters and brothers,
and bind the sins that we so often choose.
Let it be mercy we set loose for others,
and let us bind ourselves ever to you.

Brooklyn Museum – Two or Three Gathered in my Name (Deux ou trois personnes assemblées en mon nom) – James Tissot – Online Collection of Brooklyn Museum; Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 2007, 00.159.43_PS2.jpg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10957342

O Father of Us All

“See that you do not despise one of these little ones,
for I say to you that their angels in heaven
always look upon the face of my heavenly Father.
What is your opinion?
If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray,
will he not leave the ninety-nine in the hills
and go in search of the stray?
And if he finds it, amen, I say to you, he rejoices more over it
than over the ninety-nine that did not stray.
In just the same way, it is not the will of your heavenly Father
that one of these little ones be lost.”
Who are the greatest in your sight,
O Father of us all?
The ones replete with wealth and might,
or powerless and small?
The ones invested with command,
whose every word is law?
Are they the treasures in your hand,
or only so much straw?

Look down, O Father, on the ones
who from the soil thrust up,
who, like your own Incarnate Son,
walk only in the dust,
whose lives are hours of light and rain,
touched by the fleeting bow.
You treasure every joy and pain
of those who live down low.

Then let not one of them be lost,
O Father of the least,
but seek them out at any cost
and bring them to your feast.
They bear your image and your name,
the holiest holy things;
then seek them out, wheree'er they've strayed,
and bring them home again.
Matthew 18:10-14