22 October, Antonio, Cardinal Bacci: Meditations For Each Day

“Forgive Us Our Debts”

1. When we have asked God for nourishment for soul and body, we go on to implore forgiveness for our debts, whether they have been contracted in the course of nature, or of grace, or of sin. We owe everything to God. There was a time when we did not exist, and in His divine omnipotence He created us from nothing. Our bodily powers and spiritual faculties are His gifts to us. If we enjoy health, it is He Who has given it to us. If we have any ability, it comes from Him. Anything which we have been able to achieve as the result of mental or manual labour has been made possible by His help.

Who is it but God Who rescues us from the many perils which surround us? Who but He enables us to overcome so many difficulties? How many times we should have died if He had not sustained us!

Let us think back over our past lives. How much reason we have to be grateful to God, Who has watched over us continually like a loving Father. The conservation of life is a continuous act of creation. When we recite the Pater Noster, therefore, we should express our filial gratitude to God and ask for His continued protection. Every moment of life is a new gift of God and an act of His infinite love in our regard. Let us be grateful and love Him generously in return.

2. Over and above these natural debts, we are also indebted to God for His grace. Not only has God created us, but He has also raised us to the supernatural order. By His grace He has made us His friends and His adopted children. As a result of original sin we lost this supernatural life and were unable to regain it by our own efforts.

God was moved with compassion for us, however, and sent His own divine Son to sacrifice Himself for love of us in order to redeem us and to restore to us the supernatural life of the soul. We are greatly indebted in the supernatural order, therefore, to our Creator and our Redeemer. The only way in which we can adequately satisfy our obligation is by offering up the infinite merits of Jesus Christ.

We have been born, moreover, in the Catholic Church and have received a Christian education. God has always been close to us with His Sacraments. By means of Baptism He caused us to be born again to a life of grace. Whenever we fell, He raised us up again through the Sacrament of Penance, and when we were weak and faltering He nourished us with His Eucharistic food. Let us adore Him and acknowledge that we can never thank Him enough for all that He has done for us. That is why we need to repeat time and time again: Forgive us our debts.

3. Finally, we owe God a great deal on account of our sins. Unfortunately, our only return for God’s continual favours has been negligence, ingratitude, and sin. How many failings we have been guilty of throughout our lives. Since it is an offence against God, Who is infinitely good and amiable, even venial sin cannot properly be atoned for by the merits of all the Angels and of all the Saints of Heaven. Therefore it was necessary for the Son of God made man to offer Himself as a victim of expiation on our behalf.

Remembering His infinite merits, we should humbly ask God: Forgive us our debts, that is, our many sins and failings and whatever punishment is owing to us, for every sin demands some expiation either in this life or in the next. Meanwhile, we should accept with resignation all the sufferings which God sends us in reparation for our sins, and we should promise never to offend Him any more.