TWENTY-FOURTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
17 SEPTEMBER 2017
Last
Sunday, Jesus taught how to respond when someone in our community sins against
us. Instead of putting the offense on
Facebook for everyone to see, he tells us to confront the person. Once we move past our emotions of anger, a
loving confrontation with that person might resolve the issue. If that doesn’t work, we should gather two
others to attempt a negotiation. We do
this when someone we love is in denial about a destructive behavior, and we
hope that the person will respond to treatment.
If that does not work, Jesus says that we should go to the Church – talk
to the pastor or call the Bishop. If
that does not work, we need to treat the person as a Gentile or tax collector
–someone outside our community of faith.
Even this most drastic step is intended to bring reconciliation, because
Jesus welcomed Gentiles and tax collectors into his company. As difficult as these steps may be, Jesus
tells us to take them, because we trust that the risen Christ is in our midst,
wherever two or three are gathered.
Peter had
been with Jesus long enough to know his teachings on mercy and forgiveness. Now, he asks how many times he needs to
forgive. Peter thinks he is being
generous when he suggests seven times: a Biblical number implying a large
number. But Jesus doubles down and
insists that we need to forgive seventy times seven: a limitless number of
times. And to help Peter understand, he
tells the parable of the king who forgives the debt of his servant who owes him
a huge amount – 100,000 talents. A
talent was the weight that a soldier could carry on his back – 100 pounds. It would take an army of 100,000 soldiers to
pay off this guy’s debt! The servant
could never have paid him back. But having
been forgiven of a debt he could never have paid back, this same servant confronts
a fellow servant who owes him 100 denarii.
Instead of forgiving that debt, he throws him into prison. Because of his lack of mercy, the king
responds by handing him over to be tortured.
His lack of mercy becomes his undoing.
The point
of the parable is clear. As Saint Paul
tells us, Jesus Christ gave us his entire life and died on a cross to forgive
our debts, to reconcile us with the Father.
We could never pay off the debt of our sins. He forgave those who murdered him with his
last breath and extends that mercy to us.
Saint Paul encourages us to live and die for the Lord. If we have the courage to forgive another
person, then we experience with the Lord a taste of his death, letting go of
resentment and anger. But in dying to
our resentment and anger, we also experience a taste of his resurrection,
rising to move on without being hindered by bitterness, hatred, and anger.
We often
misunderstand what Jesus means by forgiveness.
In forgiving someone who has hurt us badly, we are not nullifying the
damage done. Nor are we required to be
best buddies and continue to allow that person to harm us. Maybe forgiving that person might mean
avoiding any contact. The act of
forgiving moves us past the anger and resentment resulting from the harm done
to us. It may take a very long time, but
we know we have forgiven when we can move forward without harboring those
angry, hurtful feelings that make us bitter people with chips on our shoulders.
As a
confessor, I have learned a lot about mercy and forgiveness. If you were ever concerned that the priest
may judge the sin of a penitent, there is no need to worry. We’ve heard just about everything. In addition, we priests are also sinners in
need of God’s mercy. As a confessor, I
think of the mercy that the Lord has given to me in so many times and
ways. And that is the grace of a truly
good Confession. We cannot make the
mistake of the servant whose debt was forgiven.
Knowing the mercy we have received, we must move forward and extend that
mercy to those who have harmed us, trusting in the Lord’s dying and rising.
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