The Holy Hanged Men
(Ecc.27:30-28.7; Rom.14:7-9; Mt.18:21-35)
In the 1800s, Turin was a tough and unforgiving place. As huge factories rose up during the industrial revolution, people came flooding in, looking for work. Most ended up in overcrowded slums, where food was short, crime and disease were rife, and children worked up to 14 hours a day.
A local priest, St John Bosco, famously responded by rescuing and educating abandoned children. He established the Salesian Order to help him, and by the time he died in 1888, 1400 Salesians were doing this work in Europe and South America.
The person who encouraged Don Bosco into this work was his seminary professor, St Joseph Cafasso. Few today have heard of him, but he prepared new priests for service among the poor.
Cafasso also did something else: he personally supported condemned men in Turin’s squalid prisons. He spent hours listening to their confessions, giving hope and dignity to miserable inmates before their execution. He stayed with them all night, accompanied them to the scaffold, and held a crucifix up high until their final breath. He called these executed men his ‘little saints.’
At the time, Jansenism was rife, with too many people thinking that God was severe and unforgiving. Cafasso, however, taught that God is a loving, compassionate father who never rejects anyone, even at the gallows. For no sinner is beyond God’s mercy.
Indeed, some of these prisoners died so reconciled to God that they came to be called his ‘holy hanged men.’
Today, we must ask ourselves: Do we really believe in God’s mercy? And do we accept that God’s grace can reach even the worst sinner?
Today’s readings assure us that God truly is merciful. But they also remind us to share that mercy with others.
In our first reading, the Jewish scholar Ben Sirach is blunt. Resentment and anger are foul things, he says, yet both can be found in the sinner. We like to think of ourselves as good people, but too often we remain resentful when others hurt us.
Let go, Sirach says. Forgive them, and when you pray your own sins will be forgiven. For how can you expect healing from God when you show no mercy towards others? So, remember the commandments, and be forgiving.
In Matthew’s Gospel, Peter asks Jesus how often we should forgive others. Seven times? Jesus replies, not seven, but seventy-seven times. In other words, always. We are obliged to forgive anyone who has offended us, and we must seek forgiveness from anyone we might have offended.
Why? Because God is love, and we too must be loving if we want his divine life working inside us. We must let go of the past and learn to live in peace.
Jesus then shares his parable of a servant who owes his king an enormous sum. He begs for patience, but the king does something even better: he forgives the entire debt. However, that servant then goes chasing someone else who owes him a smaller amount, and demands repayment.
He has received mercy, but does not pass it on. That is a tragedy.
St John Cafasso spent his life with men who had committed terrible crimes. He understood the need for justice, but he also believed that even in the darkest places repentance can happen, Christ can enter and mercy can flow.
If such mercy can reach condemned men at the gallows, how then can I not forgive others in my own life?
Most of us have suffered family wounds, broken friendships, harsh words, tensions and betrayals that still fester inside us. We tend to hold on to them.
Yet the psalmist tells us, ‘Merciful and gracious is the Lord, slow to anger and abounding in kindness.’ This is the mercy by which we should live. We all stand before God as debtors who have been shown the deepest compassion.
As St Paul says in our second reading, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. This is why St John Cafasso’s ministry was so powerful. He stood by the gallows declaring that even the condemned belong to God. Even at the last moment it’s not too late to seek the loving grace of Jesus Christ.
This should give us all hope, because no-one is beyond repentance. No-one is beyond God’s grace.
But then we must share that mercy with others. We must forgive those who hurt us.
This does not mean pretending that evil did not happen. But it does mean refusing to let hatred rule our heart, and opening our hearts to God’s peace.
So, let’s pray this little prayer: Lord, do not let your mercy stop with me. Teach me to love and forgive, just as you do.