Survival to the Weakest

Luke 17:1-6

Jesus gives continuous pieces of advice in Luke Chapter 17, but they are not found in order. There are three different pericopes, just collected and placed here; Invitation not to be a scandal to the little ones, forgiveness to the neighbor and to have faith like that of a mustard seed. The central theme will be that of love of neighbor. 

I recently watched a video of Dalai Lama, in which he says, "Forgiveness does not mean to forget/tolerate/to be indifferent" We should keep a good memory of that negative thing. But because of that we develop anger and hatred, this we need to work out, control or channelize. 

Forgiveness is a process, not an event or it happens in a flash one day. You need to develop your heart. Why God said very often in the scripture, "harden not our hearts"? God speaks to us through the desires of our hearts which is also part of the Ignatian spirituality. So, we need to become more and more aware in a sense, that what God wants and what we really, most deeply desire are the same. We pray to God so that he may make our hearts know him or his will easier for us. Sometimes, we will be very convinced of a thing, which is not true. This is because of ignorance. Psalm 119 says, "Your word is a lamp for my feet, and light on my path". 

The survival of the fittest is Darwinian evolutionist theory which is also the natural instinct of every human being. At the age of 13, I always wanted to be the best.”,  the best basketball player, the best student, the best classmate. Most of the time, it did not work well. We are born with the survival of the fittest mentality. Survival of the fittest is the thinking that only the best are truly valuable in this life.  This thinking is a lie. Jesus said, The last will be first, and the first will be last.  (Matthew 20:16)

God’s answer to the survival of the fittest is the survival of the weakest. Thus, Forgiveness is not a sign of weakness, but a sign of strength. We have no strength at all to fill our need to feel valuable.  That is why the apostles are asking to increase their faith, when Jesus asked them to forgive many times. Only Jesus was able to do this for us.  In His weakness, dying on the cross, He succeeded in making us what we have always wanted to be – important regardless of our performance.