Sunday Reflection
24 Sunday year A
You must forgive your brother
1. ✠ A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew 18:21-35
Peter went up to Jesus and said, ‘Lord, how often must I forgive my brother if he wrongs me? As often as seven times?’ Jesus answered, ‘Not seven, I tell you, but seventy-seven times.
‘And so the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who decided to settle his accounts with his servants. When the reckoning began, they brought him a man who owed ten thousand talents; but he had no means of paying, so his master gave orders that he should be sold, together with his wife and children and all his possessions, to meet the debt. At this, the servant threw himself down at his master’s feet. “Give me time” he said “and I will pay the whole sum.” And the servant’s master felt so sorry for him that he let him go and cancelled the debt. Now as this servant went out, he happened to meet a fellow servant who owed him one hundred denarii; and he seized him by the throat and began to throttle him. “Pay what you owe me” he said. His fellow servant fell at his feet and implored him, saying, “Give me time and I will pay you.” But the other would not agree; on the contrary, he had him thrown into prison till he should pay the debt. His fellow servants were deeply distressed when they saw what had happened, and they went to their master and reported the whole affair to him. Then the master sent for him. “You wicked servant,” he said “I cancelled all that debt of yours when you appealed to me. Were you not bound, then, to have pity on your fellow servant just as I had pity on you?” And in his anger the master handed him over to the torturers till he should pay all his debt. And that is how my heavenly Father will deal with you unless you each forgive your brother from your heart.’
2. Today’s readings focus on forgiveness. The first reading (Ecclesiasticus 27:33-28:9) gives an apologetics on why we must forgive our neighbours. It states that anger and resentment are bad things which are given birth to by lack of forgiveness and these lead to vengeance. However, he who acts in vengeance will receive vengeance from God who keeps a strict record of human acts. The wise man teaches that forgiveness has an advantage for the one who forgives. It makes it possible for his prayers to be heard and it disposes God to forgive him his own sins. He then urged all to remember the judgement that comes with death and practice forgiveness.
3. The gospel reading dramatized the theme through the parable of the unforgiven servants. Peter introduced the theme by asking Jesus a question and suggesting an answer: how often must I forgive my brother? Is it seven times? Behind this question is a tremendous progress from the traditional Jewish moral teaching that one can be forgiven only three times. At the fourth time there must be punishment. The Prophet Amos used the formula in his pronouncement of punishment for unfaithful nations. Peter knowing the novelty of Jesus’ teachings decided to double the normally accepted number and still added one to the double. But Jesus has more to say. Seven times is not enough. It is rather seventy times seven.
4. To illustrate the foundation for such teaching Jesus told the parable of a man who has a debt of 10,000 talents, an equivalent of €2,400,000 or billions of naira to his master. The master cancelled this debt because the man could not pay and pleaded for mercy. This same man met a colleagues who owes him 100 denarii, an equivalent of €5 or 5,000 naira. He threw the man into prison until he could pay his debt. The master learnt of this and had to condemn him to the prison until he could pay what he owes. The lesson of the parable is given by Jesus at the end of the story: “that is how my heavenly Father will treat each one of you if you do not forgive each other from your heart.”
5. The key expression is “forgiving from your heart.” I personally know how difficult it could be to forgive from the heart. Reconciliation is sometimes difficult in certain situations. Last Sunday we were given the steps to be taken for reconciling with a stubborn brother. Today, the process has shifted to forgiving without counting. What does this teaching imply for our christian life?
a. Forgiveness is necessary for freedom from anger and resentment:
The second reading (Rom 14:7-9) affirms that we are all linked to each other. Our lives has impacts on other people around us. We often, knowingly or unknowingly hurt others and even go against God’s commandments. Each offence provokes anger and when the anger lasts longer, it breeds resentment. These two eat up the owner not his enemies. As long as there is no forgiveness from the heart the unforgiving person continues to suffer and nurture his pains. This could lead to sicknesses and emotional outburst at the least provocation. The only way out is to learn to forgive from the heart. Jesus told St. Faustina that this can be difficult but if one succeed in praying for the offender in spite of the hard feelings against him/ her, one has taken a good step that shows forgiveness.
b. Forgiveness is the key to heaven:
In several of his teachings, Jesus made it clear that he who does not forgive, should not expect to be forgiven. He even put the formula in the Lord’s prayer: “forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us”, meaning that if we do not forgive others, God will not forgive us. But we know that it is impossible not to go against God or neighbour in our day to day life. The parable conveys the message that whatever we have done against God should be far greater than whatever any of our neighbour could ever do against us. That is the sense of the two debts in the parable. There is only one possible eternity for one who could not forgive: hell.
6. Forgiving some people could be difficult for you considering what they did. Ask God to help you. Forgiving does not mean forgetting. You may not be able to forget but if you obtain the grace of being able to pray for God’s positive blessings upon the offender and not just for his/ her conversion, you have truly forgiven from the heart. Grow to a point when you could say of yourself: “I can forgive every person and anything at all.”
