24th Sunday in Ordinary Time

My dear parishioners.

God Is Good!!! All the Time!!! And All the Time !!! God Is Good!!!

Jesus ben Sirach wrote down his reflections on the Torah to help others on their spiritual journey. This we know from the foreword written by a grandson who translated the Hebrew original in the late second century before Christ. Sirach valued the Law of Moses as the source of true wisdom. His insights in this reading could reflect accounts in the Torah—such as Cain and Abel (Gn 4), or the sale of Joseph, son of Jacob (Gn 37).

Today’s Gospel focuses on mercy and forgiveness. An encounter between Jesus and Peter leads to a parable which illustrates Jesus’ teaching.

The rabbis. The rabbis had a general rule of thumb that indicated a sinner could be forgiven as many as three times. This would have been considered very generous and merciful. No doubt, Peter felt that he was raising the bar substantially by suggesting to Jesus that a community member who sins against another should be forgiven as many as seven times. This is double the generosity suggested by the rabbis. How shocked Peter was to hear Jesus correct the number of times a sinner must be forgiven to 77 times (which can also be translated “70 times seven times”). This is a symbolic way of saying that a sinner must be forgiven an indefinite number of times. This teaching of Jesus is illustrated by a parable about forgiveness.

The king. The first part of the parable focuses on a king and his servant who owed the king an amount that he could never repay. At first the king responded in a traditional business manner by selling the slave, his wife, his children, and all his property in payment for the debt. But the servant pleads with the king and promises to pay back the full amount. In a surprising move, the king has compassion on the servant and forgives the entire amount and lets him and his family go. The king has acted in an honorable manner forgiving his servant.

The servant. Ironically, that same servant experienced the very same situation with one of his fellow servants, except the amount of the debt was much smaller. Based on the first servant’s experience with the king, we would expect him to act in a similar manner toward his fellow servant. He does just the opposite and has his fellow servant thrown into prison. There is justice, however, when the king finds out what happened. In response, the “wicked servant” is handed over to torturers and loses everything. The point is that God places no limits on forgiveness, thus humans should do likewise. Forgiveness must be unending from the heart. If humans place limits on forgiveness, limits will be placed on the heart.

Excerpts from “Sunday Homily Helps”, is used by permission of Franciscan Media. www.FranciscanMedia.org. All rights reserved

Sincerely in Christ,

Fr. Aloysius