Homily (Reflection) for the Twenty-Fourth
Sunday of the Year (A) (17th September, 2017) on the Gospel
Sir 27:30–28:7;
Ps 102:1-4.9-12.
(R.v. 8);Rom 14:7-9;
Matt 18:21-35.
There is a story
of the grandmother who told the secret of her long and happy marriage. “On my
wedding day, I decided to make a list of ten of my husband’s faults which, for
the sake of the marriage, I would overlook.” A guest asked the woman what some
of the faults she had chosen to overlook were. The grandmother replied, “To
tell you the truth, I never did get around to making that list. But whenever my
husband did something that made me hooping mad, I would say to myself, ‘Lucky
for him that’s one of the ten.”[1]
Topic:
...if you do not forgive (Matt 18:35).
Beyond three times prescribed by
the Jewish law, Peter asked Jesus in today’s gospel whether we are required to
forgive others only seven times. However Jesus replied, “Not seven times, but,
I tell you, seventy-seven times” (seventy times seven). To drive the message
home, He gave a parable of the unforgiving servant in which a king forgave his
slave who could not repay ten thousand talents he owed him because he pleaded
not even for the cancellation of the debt but just for time. The same slave as
he was leaving the king’s presence met a fellow slave who owed him a hundred
denarii. He seized him by the throat and demanded his money. His fellow slave
pleaded with him, “Have patience with me, and I will pay you” (v. 29) but he
refused and threw him into prison. Note that his fellow slave pleaded in the
same words he pleaded with the king, cf. Matt
18:26. When the news reached the king, he summoned the slave and said to
him,
You wicked slave! I forgave you all
that debt because you pleaded with me. Should you not have had mercy on your
fellow slave, as I had mercy on you? And in anger his lord handed him over to
be tortured until he would pay his entire debt (Matt 18:32-34).
To better understand what the wicked slave lost because he
could not forgive, let us compare the two debts. A denarius was the usual day’s
wage for a labourer and a talent worth more than fifteen years’ wages of a
labourer. It is palpable that the two cannot be compared and the possibility of
the wicked slave repaying can only be imagined.
We often consider what others did against us as unbearable.
However, we rarely think of what we do ourselves. The Psalmist wrote, “...he is
our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand” (Ps 95:7). In the words of Saint Paul,
“...whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s” (Rom 14:8). Again, “...we are the temple of the living God” (2Cor 6:16). In sum, we are not our own,
cf. 1Cor 6:19. Therefore, whatever
wrong one does even those against oneself is done against God. Just imagine the
magnitude. Like the wicked servant, nobody can pay back what he/she owes God,
cf. Ps 49:7-8. Hence, “Happy are
those whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered” (Ps 32:1).
We ought to forgive others. It
saves us from a lot of troubles. That is the assurance of God’s mercy without
which we are doomed, cf. Matt 6:12. 14-15; Lk 11:4. Hence Jesus warns each
and every one of us, “So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you,
if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart” (Matt 18:35). Again, “whenever you stand
praying, forgive, if you have anything against any one; so that your Father
also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses” (Mk 11:25) lest our prayers will become abomination in the sight of
God, cf. Prov 15:8-9. 21:27. Finally,
it is what one gives that awaits him or her, cf. Lk 6:37; Matt 7:2; Mk 4:24.
Bible Reading: Ps 32; Ps 50; Matt
6:9-15; Eph 1:3-7; Col 1:11-14.
Thought for today: ...forgive, and you will be forgiven (Lk 6:37).
Let
us pray: Let us pray: Lord, forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors
– Amen.
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