Twenty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A Gospel Reflection
In this Sunday’s Gospel (Mt 18:21-35), we learn that when others sin against us—when they do something that offends, angers or hurts us, it is as though they have incurred a debt with us that must be paid. Forgiveness is choosing not to collect that debt. Indeed, it is choosing not to even demand it.
This cannot always be easy. Sometimes the wounds other people have caused us are old and deep. And even if they are not, we feel that it would only be fair if they are repaid in equal measure to what they caused us. They would, by all human logic, deserve it. It is how justice works, right?
Our Lord commands that we let go of the anger, the grudge, and the pain. And this is necessary for at least three reasons:
First, forgiveness is an act of love. As Christians, we are people of Love. We believe in a God who is by His very nature Love itself (see 1 Jn 4:16), and we hold as the (second) greatest commandment the charge to “love your neighbor as yourself” (Mt 22:39). If to love is to will the good of the other (see St Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae I-II, q. 26, a. 4.), then we can never say we love our neighbor if we refuse to relieve them of the burden of their debt against us.
Second, we must realize that we have been forgiven so much more than we are owed. In this Sunday’s parable, Jesus uses the image of a servant who owes his master ten thousand talents. A single talent was worth about 15 to 20 years of wages for a laborer. There was absolutely no way this servant could possibly pay back this debt; even if the master had gone through with selling him off together with his family, he would not have gotten back the money owed. Forgiven of this large amount, the servant ought to have remembered the mercy shown to him and not demanded the hundred denarii owed by his fellow (a denarius was a single day’s wage for a laborer). Jesus offers us a sobering checkpoint: whatever it is our brothers and sisters have done to offend us, God’s mercy towards us has always been, and will always be, infinitely greater.
Third, refusing to forgive is like putting up walls between us, our neighbor, and God. These walls are supposed to protect us from further hurt, but instead, they lock us in so that we are stuck in an echo chamber of anger, pain, and haunting memories. If we keep the walls up, we become like persons who hold burning coals expecting them to scorch another, or who drink poison expecting it to kill someone else. Worse yet, the walls keep God’s graces out. Because we refuse to forgive, we cannot receive God’s forgiveness. We cannot receive what we refuse to give.
Again, forgiveness is not always easy. But it is possible. Our Lord commands it, and what He commands, He gives us the grace to undertake. He Himself was the greatest exemplar of what He commanded on the Cross (see Lk 23:34), and down through the ages many saints have imitated Him—notably, St Maria Goretti.
St Maria Goretti was eleven years old when she was fatally stabbed fourteen times by Alessandro Serenelli on July 5, 1902, for refusing to give in to his sinful sexual advances. She died the next day after enduring so much pain, but not before forgiving Alessandro. The priest who came to give her Viaticum asked her if she forgave the man who had caused her so much suffering. Her reply came without hesitation: “Yes, I too, for the love of Jesus, forgive him … and I want him to be with me in Paradise … May God forgive him, because I already have forgiven him.”
Catholic Gospel Reflections
The Liturgical Sense of The Readings at Mass – Year A by David L. Gray
Food for the Soul: Reflections on the Mass Readings (Cycle A) (Food for the Soul Series)
Breaking the Bread: A Biblical Devotional for Catholics Year A
The Word of the Lord: Reflections on the Mass Readings for Solemnities and Feasts
Through the Year with Jesus: Gospel Readings and Reflections for Children
Image: Photo by Cody Otto on Unsplash
