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What Do We Carry in Our Arms?

Forgiving For Our Sake

A married couple was going through a rough time. In the process, they both said and did things that hurt one another deeply.  But with patience and commitment, they worked things out, and began moving forward together.  But not completely.  One day the wife complained, “Why is it that you keep bringing up my past mistakes?  I thought that you had forgiven and forgotten.”  “I have forgiven and forgotten,” said the husband, “but I don’t want you to forget that I have forgiven and forgotten.”

When someone hurts us, it is very difficult to forgive and to forget.  This is what makes today’s gospel so challenging.  Jesus is relentless in his insistence that we do not forgive people once, or seven times, but seventy times seven times.  And what are we to make of that strange violent verse that ends the gospel, where Jesus assures us that our heavenly Father will hand us over to the torturers unless we forgive our brothers and our sisters from our hearts?  What is that about?  Whatever happened to a compassionate and understanding God?

God’s Overwhelming Mercy

Should a man nourish anger against his fellows and expect healing from the Lord? Should a man refuse mercy to his fellows, yet seek pardon for his own sins?

These verses are taken from today’s first reading from the Book of the Sirach, or, as it is sometimes called, the Book of Ecclesiasticus. The message of these verses is brought to life by Jesus in the Gospel reading of the parable of the Unmerciful Servant.

I fear that at times I distance myself from this parable. After all, I wouldn’t go around throttling someone. I wouldn’t react like the Unmerciful Servant and refuse to forgive a small amount after I’ve been forgiven a tremendous amount. I wouldn’t be like that.

Finding Forgiveness Through the Magnificence of Mercy - A Homily for the 24th Sunday of the Year - Community in Mission

The Gospel this Sunday draws us into a remarkably sensitive area of the faith, that of forgiving others who may have harmed us. There are many who been authentically hurt and others who fear that in offering forgiveness they will become vulnerable to further harm. Forgiveness is something we experience as a very personal call; in … Continue reading "Finding Forgiveness Through the Magnificence of Mercy – A Homily for the 24th Sunday of the Year"

Community in Mission

Let’s look at this Gospel in four movements.

1. THE PRESENTATION OF THE PROBLEM
2. THE POVERTY THAT IS PROFOUND
3. THE PITY THAT IS PERSONAL
4. THE PITILESSNESS THAT IS PERILOUS

Forgive – now that is easier said than done, right? We’ve all been there.  For most of us, it seems reasonable to turn the other cheek a few times, but there comes a time when we just have to say “Enough is enough!” If not, we are practically no better than a floor mat begging to be trampled upon. It is sometimes much easier to either ignore your hurt, or you can choose to hang on to it and let it boil over into self-justified bitterness. We reason that it is only human to hold a grudge. But here’s the thing – the Lord tells us to forgive, and so we try, “Fine. I’ll forgive you this time. But if you mess up again, that’s it.” As the old adage goes, “fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.” 

How many times do you forgive someone who’s offended you, and wilfully or maliciously caused you injury? When do you cut them off? Should there be limits on forgiveness, especially for repeat offenders? Today’s gospel addresses these very questions. St Peter approaches the Lord and asked how many times he has to forgive his brother. By proposing to forgive seven times, Peter thought he was being magnanimous. Many of us would have stopped with once or twice. Seven is a perfect number, implying completeness, a fullness, but still a definite number with a definite limit. It is also worth knowing that there is a rabbinical tradition prevalent during the time of Jesus that proposes the following, “If a man commits an offense, let him be pardoned a first, second, and a third time, but not the fourth.” In other words, the prevailing rate at that time was a maximum of three times. Considering this limit, St Peter’s offer certainly sounds so much more generous.

Clergy E-Notes

When we critique the “culture of death”, there can be a great temptation for us as faithful Catholics to succumb to pride and self-righteousness. In our noble efforts to protect life in all its stages, we may unwittingly develop anger and resentment to those with whom we disagree.

Instead, we must “set enmity aside” and give way to mercy. Sirach advises this decision is best made while thinking about the end of our own life and our decision to follow the commandments.

We pro-life Catholics must remember that all that we do is done “for the Lord” as St. Paul says, and should be founded on the Lord who lived, died, and rose for us.

As followers of Christ, we are to imitate the frequency and depth of divine mercy. While we must hate sin, let us love the sinner, as Christ did. The failure to do so has consequences at our final judgment.

Forgiveness is the Key to Freedom

Our Gospel from Matthew 18:21-35 begins with these beautiful words. “Peter went up to Jesus and said, ‘Lord, how often must I forgive my brother if he wrongs me? As often as seven times?’ Jesus answered, ‘Not seven, I tell you, but seventy-seven times”.

Have you ever forgiven someone? It is not so easy to do that am I right? But, have you forgiven as you should do so in Christ Jesus? Forgiveness is the Key to Freedom. To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.

Making Space for Others

Bottom line: In union with the pope and the bishops, we experience the glorious freedom of the children of God.

Message: God makes space for us and wants us to do that for others in practical ways: in our parking lot, in our pews and in our personal relations.

The message for today is about salvation: experiencing God’s mercy and inviting others. In our opening prayer (collect) we asked God “that we may feel the working of your mercy.” Mercy refers to God’s salvation in Jesus. 

In the Hebrew Scriptures salvation has a sense of wide open spaces. In the Psalms we sometimes see the “cords of death” ensnaring a man but then the Lord delivers him into open space. Psalm 23 contrasts the “dark valley” with “verdant pastures.” That’s a glimpse of salvation.

Today’s Gospel has that sense of wide open space. Jesus tells about a man trapped under a mountain of debt. He feels hemmed in on all sides. All of sudden the man gets an unexpected reprieve. It’s like entering a wide open space. The possibilities seem endless. That’s mercy. That’s salvation.

Jesus is our Model in Forgiving Others

Everyone knows forgiving is not easy and may be difficult depending on the person and events involved but it is the only way forward. As long as we do not forgive, we are not free. Forgiveness is freedom. If we do not choose the freedom of forgiveness in this life, I believe that in Purgatory we will want to choose the freedom of forgiveness in order to enjoy heaven.

Christianity is unique among religions in our belief in the intensity of God’s love and closeness to us and God’s desire to forgive us. That is not surprising since only Christianity enjoys the fullness of God’s self-revelation to us in Jesus. God revealed himself in Jesus and revealed his closeness to us and desire to forgive us. Jesus is our model in forgiveness. Many times during his Passion we see Jesus forgiving those harming him. Jesus’ Passion has earned for us the forgiveness of 60 million days’ wages of sin and when someone offends us, we are asked to forgive a paltry 100 days’ wages.

Forgiveness

This is the fundamental meaning of the word ‘for-give’. It means to give and to keep giving, to for-give. If you hurt me and I say it doesn’t matter, but I withdraw my love from you, you know you are not forgiven. If I hurt you and you keep on loving me, I am not automatically forgiven. Certainly not if I abuse your love or take you for granted and keep on hurting you. But you are giving me the chance to be healed. Your giving of yourself to me offers me the key out of the prison that my sin has created. When this offer of forgiveness is without conditions and without reserve it is a tremendous gift of love. Hopefully I will respond, repent of my behaviour and we will experience a deep reconciliation and peace – fruits of renewed love.

Forgiveness in Community

This gospel is a troubling tale. Jesus tells a parable of a king settling accounts with a debtor who begs for patience. Out of pity, the king writes off the debt. But when that same official throttles a servant who pleads for similar patience, the king, hearing of the incident, renounces the one he had forgiven and has him tortured “until he paid” (however that might be done). “My Father,” Jesus concludes, “will treat you the same way.”

What happened to “seventy times seven times”? The king’s sentencing of the first debtor to torture doesn’t seem so very forgiving—especially after only one failing.

The key is that the failing is radical unforgiveness. It’s as if the refusal to forgive, by its very nature, locks us into a torturous circle. So tightly closed against pardoning the other, we have sealed ourselves off from the very experience of pardon.

The Medicine Called Love

This Sunday always reminds me of 9/11 back in 2001. The reason for that is because the Sunday that followed 9/11 was also the 24th Sunday of Ordinary Time Cycle A, same as this weekend, with the same readings, calling us to forgive. That was a really, really hard Sunday as many of us remember, and the Gospel reading made that weekend even harder in some respects. It was good medicine though, very good medicine. And yet, these reading also seem very applicable to the times we live in today.

I don’t know about you, but for me it just feels like everyone around us is angry about something. There are protests and counter protests in the streets. If we have bad weather, politicians blame each other for it. Spouses and family members are arguing with each other over whatever is being talked about on the cable news channel. There is a lot going on in our country and world today. It is all very overwhelming.