TWENTY-FOURTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Sirach 27: 30-28: 7; Romans 14: 7-9; Matthew 18: 21-35
(Rev. Dr. Francis Perry Azah)
The readings today speak about anger and hatred. They offer us one of the most challenging themes of Christian life, namely turning away from anger and forgiving others. The key message is that we cannot receive forgiveness unless we too are ready to forgive our brothers and sisters. The first reading from the Book of Sirach links forgiveness to our prayer life. “Forgive your neighbor the wrong he does to you, and when you pray, your sins will be forgiven”. If we want to be forgiven by the Lord, we too must forgive others. In other words, we cannot demand forgiveness from the Lord while we still nurse anger and bad feelings against our neighbor. We must first be reconciled and let go of our anger and resentment. To underline this theme, the responsorial Psalm portrays a kind and merciful God. “The Lord is kind and merciful; slow to anger and rich in compassion”.
This is precisely the central point of Jesus' parable of the unforgiving servant in the Gospel. Jesus uses the parable in order to draw a direct contrast between the unforgiving servant and the Father who always forgives. “The Lord is kind and merciful; slow to anger and rich in compassion”. In the parable, Jesus urges us to forgive others, not just three times as the Law prescribed, nor even seven times as Peter was proposing, but seventy seven times, which means always. The Message in this parable is extremely relevant for many regions of the world torn apart by bitter memories of past wrongs and failure to forgive. The Gospel challenges us to do the unthinkable, namely to forgive those who have wronged us not once, but always. The Lord knows how much we may have suffered or even been humiliated, but he asks us to pardon, forgive, and be reconciled.
In our Gospel of today, the servant pleaded with the king who was about to throw him in prison that the king should be patient with him, and he will pay back what he owed the king. One of the hallmarks of sincere repentance is not a mere apology but reformation of character. Thus, if someone were to offend you and should they apologize to you, one should give them the benefit of the doubt. Furthermore, if you see a sincere effort on their part to reform their lives, mend their ways, and take to corrections, you should overlook their faults. An apology or a plea for forgiveness should be accompanied by sincere repentance and a change of behaviors. Thus, the king was moved with compassion on the servant who pleaded that the king should be patient with him because the king has a big heart. But that servant himself, who had a small, vicious, and unforgiving heart, refused to be patient with his fellow servant who owed him a much smaller amount.
he king represents the big heart of God, who is slow to anger but quick to forgive. The wicked servant, on the other hand, represents those who are unwilling to forgive, especially after a sincere apology has been rendered. The wicked servant, in spite of the remorseful pleas for his fellow servant, refused to extend the same kind treatment he received from the king to his fellow servant. Mind you, justice demanded that the wicked servant pay back to the king what he owed the king. Similarly, the fellow servant of the king was obliged in justice to pay back the debt he owed the wicked servant to the wicked servant. Therefore, one can contrast forgiveness and justice. Within our context here, justice is rendering to another what is their due, while forgiveness, amongst other things, is canceling the moral debt or the financial debt of another.
Forgiveness and forgetfulness are not easy things. It is hard enough even if an offence is incurred once, if the offender is a person very close to us, one whom we trusted. It is even harder when the offence is repeated. For many people, a repetition of the same offence three times would already be too much. In that case, Peter's suggestion of seven times would seem heroic, something beyond ordinary strength. Forgiveness is harder for some people than for others, either due to their psychological constitution or due to the nature, intensity and frequency of the offence inflicted upon them. There are people who try very much to forgive, because they know how important it is, but do not seem to succeed. Each time they remember, the pain and the anger come back anew. Yet it is not difficult to see how forgiveness and forgetfulness are important for all of us. The one who holds a grudge can be hurt by it, sometimes more than the one to whom the resentment is directed. It creates in us negative feelings of anger, confusion, or sadness.
Holding on to grudges can lead to resentment, hostility, and vengeance. The bitterness and anger we feel can negatively influence many areas of our life. Non-forgiveness can result in a whole host of psychosomatic diseases. We need to forgive others for the sake of our own well-being. Secondly, we need to forgive for the sake of peace and harmony in the community or society. Today's gospel gives a third and even more important reason why we need to forgive others. It is because God has forgiven us a much greater offence, and he is ready to forgive us as many times as we sincerely ask him for forgiveness. Jesus demonstrates that in the parable of the unforgiving servant. The lesson of the story is that no offence inflicted on us can compare with what God has forgiven us by giving us his Son in ransom and offering us the possibility of eternal life, and that our non-forgiveness of those who are in debt to us may well cancel God's forgiveness of us.
