Gospel Delights!

Sunday, September 17, 2023

24^th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Sir 27:30-28:7; Rom 14; 7-9; Mt 18:21-35

The twenty-fourth Sunday in ordinary time invites us to practice forgiveness as a distinctive virtue of being Christians. 

The first reading warns us against anger and calls us to forgive.

In anger, we not only neglect our responsibility to be neighborly, but because it harbors vengeance, we also neglect forgiveness. Anger is thus counterproductive and a hindrance to our spiritual and moral lives. If we cannot be neighborly, we cannot be godly either. Hence, we should be watchful to avoid this destructive negative emotion.

Secondly, the reading summons us to practice forgiveness by remembering four things that could facilitate our magnanimity.

1.We must remember our last days and set enmity aside. It is a reminder of human weakness and vulnerability, which again would increase our dependency on others. Such an inevitable human condition gives us a compelling reason to end hatred and enmity. 

2. We should remember death and decay and cease from sin. Human impermanence and mortality require that we cease from sin and safeguard our souls by walking in holiness.

3. We should think of the commandments and not hate our neighbor. The Divine Commandments (the Ten Commandments) consist of prescriptions and prohibitions. They act like signposts leading us to our final destination, which is God Himself. 

4. We should remember God’s covenant and overlook our neighbor’s faults. The patience and faithfulness of God should be an adequate reminder that, as recipients of God’s mercy and fidelity, we should now extend the same to our neighbors. 

The second reading by St. Paul to Romans defines judging our neighbors as an inappropriate attitude and calls on us to imitate the model of Christ, in whom we live, move, and have our being (Acts 17:28). When our life and death depend on and find their fulfillment in the Lord, why should we indulge in judging others and procure God’s judgment upon ourselves? The fact that God is the master of our lives should help us live our lives in ways that God has destined for us. 

In the gospel, Jesus comes up with a gripping parable to teach us the importance of practicing forgiveness and, through that, the love of our neighbors. 

It is interesting to note that the number of times that one has to forgive others is being multiplied, first by Peter and then by Jesus. ‘Three’ was the number that the rabbis recommended for practicing forgiveness. However, Peter makes it seven. And Jesus makes it uncountable by making it ‘seventy-seven times.’ The intention is not to keep a deliberate count of the number of times we forgive, but to ensure that we never fail to forgive our neighbors. There is no possible excuse we can give as to why we cannot forgive our neighbor. 

Secondly, Jesus, the master storyteller, leaves behind a powerful teaching through the parable of the unforgiving servant. The unforgiving servant’s debt was an unimaginable amount. To put things in perspective, we can draw an analogy with the parable of the talents (Mt 25:14-30). The maximum number of talents that the master gives his servants is five. It was still a significant sum for people who made their living doing servile jobs. Made clear through an analogy, we can understand that the money this unforgiving servant owes his master is unpayable for his capacity. The comparison helps us perceive the hugeness of his debt and the near impossibility for him to pay it back in full. Jesus puts the numbers deliberately high to show what the unforgiving servant was made to partake of by his magnanimous master. 

However, the attitude of the unforgiving servant is shocking. 

He is the recipient of the master’s generous goodness. But when it is his turn to show forgiveness to his fellow servant, who only owes an insignificant amount, he withholds the privilege. His refusal to acknowledge the gratuitous blessings he received from his master amounts to a betrayal. Now, by not paying it back in kind, though an opportunity presents itself, the wicked servant makes it a double betrayal. 

The unforgiving servant only asks for patience as if he would pay back the entire amount. But, knowing that it would be impossible for him, the master shows him mercy. Whereas when the second servant begs for some more time so that he can repay, his request for patience is punished with imprisonment. The forgiven servant does not live up to the blessings he was privileged with. Thus, he fails. 

His betrayal and ingratitude arouse the master’s anger, who decides that the unforgiving servant does not deserve mercy but justice and treats him accordingly. 

‘You received without paying; give without pay’ (Mt 10:8). St. Francis of Assisi prayed: ‘It is in pardoning that we are pardoned.’ We were often forgiven, though we were not deserving of it. Let us pray that we will be blessed with a heart that happily shares what we enjoy most from God. 

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar