Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year A
For today’s Gospel reading click the link below:
Mass Readings
(Ecclesiasticus 27:30 – 28:7, Rom 14:7-9, Matt 18:21-35)
Homily Reflection by Fr. JJ Fenelon
How many times have we heard this Gospel passage?
How many times have we been preached to about forgiveness?
We know all about forgiveness and how important it is to forgive others.
But is it any easier today than it was yesterday to be able to forgive and forgive repeatedly? On a scale of one to ten where are we in attaining this most difficult of Christian virtues?
All of us know that saying ‘I forgive you’ is one thing but deep down in our hearts it’s quite another. It’s not easy to forget the wrong or harm someone has done to us. Our faculty of memory ensures that and the incident only ceases in our memory at the time of death or when we suffer from dementia. How often have we heard this phrase, “I can never forget what you did to me and I will never forgive you.”? Angers grow deep and are cruel. And once they start they just go on and on. This leads us to seek revenge rather than offer forgiveness.
In today’s Gospel Peter asks how many times to forgive? Is seven times enough? Jesus says “not seven but seventy-seven times.” What does that mean? It means forever, never ending! It does not mean to condone wrong doing forever but fraternal correction can only take place with the spirit of forgiveness. If not, fraternal correction will be done out of spite and hatred because of our pride and ego. So is it possible to attain this divine request of Jesus? Is Jesus being realistic?
The word talents in the Gospel does not mean as we understand it today. A talent in those days was the largest unit of money known in Israel. Ten thousand talents was the largest number equivalent to our millions of dollars. It would be impossible for any servant to have such a debt and even more impossible to ever pay it back. Jesus presents us with an exaggerated situation to highlight God’s mercy and forgiveness.
The unforgiving debtor was forgiven so much and yet goes in the opposite direction and manhandles his fellow servant for a trivial debt. He does not return his Master’s compassion for him to his fellow servant. On hearing this story of the merciless servant we would approve and say: “It served him right, he got what he richly deserved.” Perhaps we should stop and think for a moment today and reflect, “What if we ourselves may be that merciless servant described in the parable.
We claim to follow and imitate Christ and are absolutely dependent on his mercy and forgiveness every time we offend Him. Shouldn’t we do the same to others who offend us? But we don’t forgive because we have been hurt or harmed by those concerned and therefore think we are justified to avenge those who are in the wrong.
When Jesus was on the cross, his disciples all ran away. They denied him and said they didn’t even know him. Everybody began to jeer at him, called him a failure (“He saved others but cannot save Himself” – Mt.27:42), even called him a fool, called him a waste of time. They did everything that they could to humiliate him and to turn all the people against him. And these were the good people of Israel, the chosen people of God.
And it seemed as if no one was there. Even his Father seemed to have deserted him at this terrible time. (“My God, My God why have you forsaken me?” – Mt.27:46)
And what did he do? He opened his arms on the cross and did the only thing possible. He looked up to his Father in heaven and said, “Father, you have to forgive them, for they know not what they do” – Lk.23:34. On the cross he forgave his persecutors and those who killed him. He lived what he preached.
Today’s First Reading underlines the futility of vengeance and the importance of ongoing forgiveness. “He who exacts vengeance will experience the vengeance of the Lord, who keeps strict account of sin.”
Forgetfulness of our own sins leads us to a lack of compassion. Remembering how our sins which have gone unpunished by God should lead us to forgive others. That is why at the beginning of each Eucharist the penitential rite invites us to be mindful of our own sins before we can celebrate the sacred mysteries of God’s love. Only when we do that can we pray the Our Father: “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us”.
In the Second Reading, St Paul reminds us: “The life and death of each of us has its influence on others”. When we die to resentment and vengeance and rise to live in forgiveness we live for the Lord. In the Eucharist we get the spiritual nourishment and strength to achieve this.
When we rely on ourselves and our strength we will find it difficult to forgive because we are governed by pride which leads to anger and resentment.
When we rely on God in the Eucharist we are governed by humility, which reminds us of our own sinfulness before God and helps us to remember the countless times we have experienced God’s love in the forgiveness of our sins.
Our forgiveness of others is not based on whether we feel disappointed or hurt but, to remember that Christ first and foremost, through his suffering and death offered salvation through forgiveness, for all the injustices done to humanity and most of all to himself. When we are filled with anger and hatred and tempted to take revenge, to right the wrongs, we need to join Jesus in his most painful moments on the Cross. Only then can we echo the words that he himself had said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
One person we can turn to as a role model is Mary our Mother. She is not divine but fully human. She was able to forgive all the disciples who deserted her son at his hour of need (praying with them in the Upper room waiting for the Holy Spirit – Acts.1:13-16) and those who killed her son. How was this possible?
Both Jesus and Mary placed God above everything else in their lives. (“Father, take this cup of suffering away but let your will, not mine, be done”- Lk.22:42;
“Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord, let it be done according to your Word” – Lk.1:38.)
God was their only motivation. They allowed themselves to be fully enveloped in God’s love and so were able to offer forgiveness in the face of adversity.
God is at work in the act of forgiveness, not us. We are the channels of God’s mercy and forgiveness to those who hurt us. If we don’t forgive we are denying someone else God’s forgiving love and in the process hurting ourselves even further. But if we forgive, then we are helping the person to experience God’s forgiving love and we become free of anger and hatred. Let us take the response to the Responsorial Psalm as our guide: “The Lord is compassion and love, slow to anger and rich in mercy.” Amen!