24TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME, CYCLE A
Sirach 27: 30 – 28:7 + Psalm 103: 1-4, 9-12 + Romans 14: 7-9 + Matt. 18: 21-35
Holy Spirit Catholic Church: September 17, 2017
Peter’s question on how often we need forgive flows naturally from Jesus’ instruction
on the process of forgiveness laid out in last Sunday’s Gospel.
The parable which is an answer to Peter’s question begins first by reminding us
of the limitless nature of God’s forgiveness toward us his servants,
that it is it is greater than anything we can imagine.”
For we who are servants of the King of Kings can never repay the debt we owe Him.
The gift of God’s forgiveness is a free gift, unearned and undeserved,
which can never be repaid in this world or the next.
The English translation of this parable, which says the servant was forgiven
a “huge amount,” does not come close to capturing the enormity of the debt forgiven.
The “huge amount” in the original Greek text is 10,000 talents.
Each “talent” equals 1000 denarii, and one denarius is payment for one day of work.
So, each talent equals 1000 days of work.
Thus 10,000 talents equals 10 million days of work this servant would have to perform
in order to pay back the debt owed.
So the king, moved by compassion at the plea of his servant for forgiveness,
offers to forgive a debt which can never be repaid.
Jesus, by means of this parable, reveals the debt that every human being owes
to His Father, which we have no way of paying back.
Each one of us depends upon God for every breath we breathe—
our life is a gift for which no payment is possible.
The Son of God, who gives his life so death might be destroyed and evil conquered, cannot be repaid by us, either.
As we stand at the foot of the cross, we see this gift of mercy beyond price,
given to us by virtue of the free gift of Christ’s life poured out for us.
We owe God everything we have and are in this life,
and we are indebted to God for the gift of life without end in the world to come.
When we wake up and realize the nature of the gift we have been given,
we are transformed.
When we receive the great gift of God’s forgiveness, we are changed from the inside out in this way---our heart begins to beat in unison with the heart of Christ.
The great gift of God’s forgiveness flows into us as life-giving water
and is meant to flow out of us into the lives of others.
But we can only forgive our brother or sister from the heart
when we have opened our hearts to receive divine love.
Then we have the power to love in a similar way,
the grace to forgive as we have been forgiven.
For the offenses committed against us, the debts we are called to forgive,
pale in comparison to the debt God has forgiven.
But too often we forget this truth, and we “choke” others, demanding they pay us back.
All of us do this—we refuse to forgive our brother or sister.
Like the servant set free from a debt he had no way to pay and who throttles
his fellow servant who owes him a mere trifle in comparison (only 300 day’s wages),
we fail to offer the gift of forgiveness we have received.
But we have been forgiven by the King in order that we his servants
can then share that gift freely with others.
The assumption underlying this parable is that we will hurt each other, that we cannot not hurt each other, which is why forgiveness has to be practiced over and over again.
Even good people hurt others.
Spouses disappoint one another.
Friends say and do unkind things to their friends.
Which is why forgiveness is so essential and so central to our life of faith.
When we choose not to share the forgiveness we have received from God,
then we end up torturing ourselves.
When we close our hearts to the love of God offered us in Jesus Christ,
then are hearts are not open to share that love with others who hurt and offend us,
and we end up suffering.
The obstinate refusal to forgive another person means we choose to live in hell on earth!
This is what the final part of the parable is all about.
When we choose not forgive, when we hang onto anger
which then turns into resentment and bitterness, we torture ourselves.
Saying to another person, “I will never forgive you” is like taking a poison pill and hoping that person dies, when in reality we are the ones who suffer the consequences.
Often we do not even realize the resentment we carry till the grace of God exposes it
and invites us to be free.
All of us, in one way or another, have our hearts shackled by “unforgiveness”,
our lives weighed down by resentment bitterness of which we may not even be aware.
The summer after my senior year of high school I played on an American Legion baseball team, which was a team of all-star ballplayers
from all across south-central Oklahoma.
I loved playing baseball, but that summer turned into a nightmare,
as the coach would not play me hardly at all.
Even when he did let me play, he would yank me out of the game
for what seemed to me to be no reason at all.
I was one of the best base-stealers in the region, but one game after I got a base hit and was on first base, the coach subbed in another player to run for me.
Though I did not realize it at the time, that summer my heart filled up with bitterness toward this coach.
Three years later I was at seminary and reading my hometown newspaper,
and in the news that week was a story about this coach.
As I read the article, all the buried resentment and bitterness and anger in me towards him rose to the surface.
I was caught completely off guard.
I realized in that moment, that I had to forgive him in order to freely move on
with my life, otherwise I would be carrying him around for the rest of my days.
Forgiveness is a power greater than any known source of energy.
It is the greatest of all miracles, because it has the power to free us and to
transform us into peacemakers and ambassadors of reconciliation.
The greatest weapons by the greatest armies have no power to bring peace---
it has only one source, and that is forgiveness.
Forgiveness can open doors that hatred has closed
and dissolve memories that torment us of atrocities done in the past.
Forgiveness can recreate broken friendships and restore unity.
Since we cannot withhold forgiveness and expect God to forgive us,
we pray daily:
“Our Father who art in heaven…forgive us our trespasses
as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
Without forgiveness, we remain frozen in the past.
Practicing forgiveness brings each one of us into the warm light of a new day,
and blesses us as a people with a future full of hope.
Fr. Joseph A. Jacobi