TWENTY-FOURTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
13 SEPTEMBER 2020
Peter’s
question indicates that he has been listening to Jesus talking about the
kingdom of heaven. He is beginning to
understand that mercy is at the center of this kingdom. Based on the teaching of Jesus and his
actions, Peter asks how many times he needs to forgive a brother who sins
against him. Seven times, he asks? In the Hebrew tradition, seven is a symbolic
number. It refers to the perfection of
God’s seven-day work of creation in the first chapter of Genesis. Peter is shocked at his response: “Not seven times, but seventy-times seven
times.” Jesus refers to the perfect seven day creation another seventy
times. In the kingdom of heaven which
Jesus is establishing, forgiveness will be a never ending cycle. Those who belong to the kingdom of heaven
must continue to forgive, not because the offender deserves to be forgiven, but
because his Father has granted forgiveness in the first place.
That is why
Jesus tells this parable about an exchange between the king (called literally
Kyrios or Lord in the Greek text) and his servant, who would never be able to
repay his debt for the rest of his life.
The king could have ordered his servant to be thrown into prison, which
would have resulted in untold pain, torture, and probably death. Instead, he ordered him to be sold, along
with his wife, his children, and his property in payment of the debt. When the servant expresses his deep anguish,
the king is moved with compassion and forgives his debt.
When the
forgiven servant runs into a fellow servant who owes him 600,000 times less
than he had owed the king, he treats him with violence, refuses to forgive the
debt, and throws him into the horrors of a first century prison. Shocked by his lack of compassion, the other
servants report his harsh refusal to forgive to the king. The king (Kyrios) reminds the servant that he
had given pity (eleison) to him, a gift that this servant refuses to give to a
fellow servant. That refusal to have pity
and forgive will cost him his life.
During
Advent and Lent, we use those Greek words at the beginning of Mass (Kyrie
eleison) to remind us of the Lord’s infinite mercy toward us. Because we have received a mercy that we can
never pay back, we are expected to forgive those who sin against us. Forgiving another person does not imply that
the sinful action was not wrong. It
remains wrong. Nor does forgiving
another person imply that we must have warm and tender feelings toward the
offender. In fact, if the offense
involved abuse, the most forgiving action is to avoid that person and seek
professional help to move beyond the terrible pain inflicted by the abuse.
Having the
will to move beyond the hurt and anger offers the key to genuine
forgiveness. Anger is a human emotion,
given to us by God. There is nothing
wrong with expressing anger in healthy ways.
The emotion of anger lets us know that an injustice has been done. But we cannot hold on to that anger and allow
it to turn into hate. In today’s first
reading, Sirach makes an important point.
Wrath and anger can become hateful things. If we insist on holding onto wrath and anger,
we can never forgive another person from our hearts, as God has forgiven
us. Especially in cases of grave
injustice, it takes a long time to let go of that wrath and anger. Bringing wrath and anger to the Sacrament of
Reconciliation allows the Lord who forgives us to strengthen our resolve to
forgive someone else. I remember a woman
whose husband left her with six young children for another woman. For years, she hugged onto that anger and
wrath. For years, her bitterness and
resentment affected the way she treated everyone else. Finally, through the grace of the Sacrament
and the awareness that her anger and wrath did nothing to harm her ex-husband,
she was able to let go. Knowing the
Lord’s mercy to her, she finally was able to move on. Forgiveness works. It is at the heart of the kingdom of heaven.
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