St Francis Solanus Parish recently issued the following announcement.

Ever wonder why Peter asked Jesus how many times he had to forgive his brother and then asked if seven times was enough. One might get the feeling that maybe Peter was getting a little weary and annoyed of forgiving those who kept doing the same selfish thing over and over again. Underneath Peter’s question is the assumption that surely there must be a limit to forgiveness. Of course, Peter gets it wrong and is once again seeing things as a human being but not as God sees things.

I wonder what the tone of Jesus’ voice was when He corrects Peter and says “I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times.” I ‘d like to think that Jesus might be smiling and encouraging as he tells Peter to forgive again and again and again (77 times). It is not easy thing to do! Still, un-forgiveness can lead to ongoing states of resentment and anger. Chronic anger and forgiveness is not good for our spiritual heart or for our physical heart.

One large, older study published in Circulation in 2000 found that among 12,986 middle-aged black and white men and women, those who rated high in traits such as anger -- but had normal blood pressure -- were more prone to coronary artery disease (CAD) or heart attack. In fact, the angriest people faced roughly twice the risk of CAD and almost three times the risk of heart attack compared to subjects with the lowest levels of anger.

We are to forgive seventy-seven times. Here is one way we can do this. Suppose somebody did us a great injustice in the past and every time we meet that person or think of that person we have feelings of revenge or resentment or anger. Forgiving seventy-seven times is thinking thoughts of forgiveness every time we meet that person or think of that person. Forgiving seventy-seven times is breaking the cycle of thinking revengefully and instead thinking forgivingly.

Original source can be found here.