24th
Sunday in Ordinary Time – September 17, 2017
I
–Forgive your neighbor’s injustice; then when you pray, your own sins will be
forgiven.
R
–The Lord is kind and merciful, slow to anger and rich in compassion.
II
– Whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.
A
– I give you a new commandment, says the lord; love one another as I have loved
you.
G –I
say to you, forgive not seven times, but seventy-seven times.
+ Our readings today have to do with the astounding power of
forgiveness. Where in the world would we be without the
reality of forgiveness? We would be nowhere, we would be desolate, we would be
hopeless.
For the opposite of
forgiveness is mercilessness, is meanness, is blame, accusation and censure –
these things define the state of mankind immediately after the sin of Adam. And
this reality of sin needed to be reversed and transformed into mercy, kindness,
compassion, upbuilding and inclusion.
And the only human qualified
to “reverse this curse” was a human that was also at the same time divine: and
that would be Jesus: sent from the Father of Mercies, to do just that: reverse the curse.
And this reversal is all about
forgiveness manifested and enacted to the fullest on the Cross of suffering,
derision and shame.
And so, in the first reading
today from the book of Sirach / Ecclesiasticus the author tells us to stop wallowing in the things of
unforgiveness, as if we were superior to everyone else, and above the
inherited condition of being guilty – remember
that we will be judged on how forgiving we were – in imitation of Jesus the
Great Forgiver! – and stop hating others,
tune into the commandments that are summed up in the decisions which are
self-sacrificially loving, and do not bear your neighbor ill-will because God
has overlooked your offence.
The responsorial refrain sums
things up nicely: the Lord is compassion
and love, He is slow to anger and rich in mercy. But he cannot distribute
the mercy unless we first have done it to our brothers and sisters.
In the gospel passage we have
the classic account of Jesus setting the practical parameters of forgiveness.
And the parameter is actually: “limitless” – a limitless amount of
understanding, a limitless amount of patience, a limitless amount of times that
we ought to be willing to overlook and forgive our brothers and sisters WHO ASK
FOR OUR FORGIVENESS.
Yes, there is this oft times
overlooked caveat in this equation: we must be willing to forgive our brothers
always, but only when they realize their errors and ask for it. This paves the
way for God’s own healing, and renewal and upbuilding to take effect.
When we observe our brothers
who errantly speak and act in all kind of ways contrary to the laws of truth,
justice, goodness and fairness, then of course we must try to help them see
their errors, and then be willing to accept an apology from them, who ought to
feel moved to present one.
This is another whole homily,
but suffice it for today: our hearts, like the heart of God the Father, and of
His Son, Jesus, ought to be open to smooth things over, when they are requested
to do so!
We must be willing to forgive
our brothers from the heart, always!
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