Homily Twenty-Fourth Sunday Year A: Michael
Ufok Udoekpo
·
Sir
27:30–28:7· Ps103:1-2,3-4,9-10,11-12
· Rom 14:7-9
· Matt 18:21-35
Our God is Slow to Anger, Rich in Love, Mercy
and Compassion!
In the Book of Psalms, according Saint
Ambrose:
“There
is a profit for all, with healing power for salvation. There is instruction
from history, teaching from the law, prediction from prophecy, chastisement
from denunciation, persuasion for moral preaching. All who read it may find the
cure for their own individual failings. All with eyes to see can discover in it
a complete gymnasium for the soul, a stadium for all the virtues, equipped for
every kind of exercise; it is for each to choose the kind he judges best to
help him gain the prize.”
Today’s psalm 103 “the Lord is kind and
merciful, slow to anger, and rich in compassion” is available for us. It
captures the essence of today’s worship and scriptural reflection on the nature
of God, sin and sinner, forgiveness and reconciliation,
divine virtues, especially of charity, love and care.
If God’s nature, going back to the Book of
Exodus 34:6-7(cf. Jonah, Ps 85, Micah), is mercy, kindness, forgiveness, infinite love, boundless charity, unlimited care,
throughout the history of human salvation, every generation, including today’s generation,
is expected to imitate God whose image they are made of.
The generation of Ben Sira of today’s first
reading, Book of Sirach, a wisdom book, is aware of the usual human problems, such
as appetite for vengeance, injustices, debts, loans, anger against one’s
neighbor, and the difficulty in forgiving those who may have offended us. Or
those, that God may have forgiven, in a big way! But, the good news is that, Ben Sira is wise
and is aware of the very nature of God, who is mercy, love, joy
, care and compassionate throughout the history of God's dealings with the humans. Ben Sira rightly admonish
his audience saying: “forgive your neighbor’s injustice; then when you pray, your
own sins will be forgiven.” He rhetorically
ask, “Could anyone nourish anger against another and expect healing from the
Lord? Could anyone refuse mercy to another like himself, can he seek pardon for
his on sins... He went on to say, ‘remember the Most High’s covenant, and
overlooks faults.”
Similarly, the generation of Christ and his disciples is aware of these human
problems, as well (appetite for vengeance, injustices, hatreds, violence,
debts, loans, anger against one’s neighbor, and the difficulty in forgiving
those who may have offended us, slightly, or those that God may even have
forgiven, in a big way), as reflected in today’s Gospel parable, prompted by
Peter’s question, “Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I
forgive? As many as seven times? Jesus answers,
“I say to you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times,” Meaning, infinite
numbers of time of forgiveness ! (Matt 18:21-35).
Having proposed unlimited forgiveness, Jesus, God’s incarnate, follows up with a
parable, understandable to us. Here is a servant whose huge debt have been forgiven
by the king. He is happy and seems to leave with a sense relief. But, the bad
news is that he who had been forgiven a huge debt, is unable to forgive his friend,
whom he threw into prison, the tiniest fraction of what he had been forgiven of,
attracting upon himself, the king’s punishment, that he pays back his huge debt
as well!
In our daily lives, forgiveness must not
have any boundary. It must go beyond seven times, to the divine seventy-seven
times. In forgiving, seventy-seven
times, it is good to look at the face of God, the face of Jesus, the King of
Mercy, whom Pope Francis also sees mercy, love, and compassion in his
pontificate! God chose him because he was merciful to him, as expressed in his
motto: Miserando atque elegendo. How different would the modern world be if we imitate half of the pastoral approach or the theology of mercy, proposed by Francis, the Pope.
How different would our world be if we take
"forgiveness" seriously as well as "reconciliation"? For “where there is no reconciliation
or at least hope for reconciliation there cannot be forgiveness in real sense.”
As in the case of the wicked servant of today’s gospel parable; he refuses the
king’s forgiveness by refusing to reconcile with his friend who owed him a tiny
debt.
How different would our world be if we all
realize that God and the Church can forgive sinners, but they cannot condone
evil behavior that causes suffering and injustices to others, offensive to
truth, love and charity, or a sinner who chooses to stay in sin!
How different would our planet be if we imitate
the forgiving instances Christ, in the Bible, be it in the case of the woman
caught in adultery, the case of Matthew the tax collector, the case of Zacchaeus,
the case Thomas the doubter, or in instance of the denying Peter!
At this Mass and worship, may we acknowledge
that we are sinners in need of God’s forgiveness! May we also go out to the
whole world, a changing world, and serve where ever we can, as agent of God’s
love, boundless charity, mercy, compassion and forgiveness to our neighbors!
Reflection Questions:
1.
Have you
ever owed or feel indebted and how do you go about it?
2.
What lessons
have you drawn from today’s parable and scripture passages?
3.
How do you
help to foster healing and reconciliation in your faith community?
4.
Are there
moment that you feel unforgiving? And and how often do you reflect on the nature of
God and his merciful face? Or Consider yourself forgiven?
