Homily- Twenty-Fourth Sunday of Year A
God Is Slow to Anger, Rich in Love, Mercy, and Compassion (A)
v Sir 27:30–28:7
v Ps 103:1-4, 9-12
v Rom 14:7-9
v Matt 18:21-35
Today’s
Psalm 103:8, “The Lord is merciful
and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love,” captures the essence
of today’s worship and scriptural reflection on the nature of God, sin and sinners,
forgiveness and reconciliation, and divine virtues, especially the virtues of charity,
love, and care. If God’s nature, going back to Exodus 34:6-7 (cf. Jonah, Ps 85,
Micah), is mercy, kindness, forgiveness, infinite love, boundless charity, and unlimited
care, every generation throughout the history of human salvation, including today’s
generation, is expected to imitate God, in whose image they are made.
Ben Sira’s
audience in today’s first reading—the book of Sirach, a wisdom book—is familiar
with the usual human problems. They experienced injustice, debt, loan, anger against
one’s neighbor, the appetite for vengeance, and the difficulty of forgiving those
who have offended us. But the good news is that Ben Sira is wise, and he is aware
of the nature of God: God’s mercy, love, joy, care, and divine compassion in history.
He admonishes his audience, saying: “Forgive your neighbor the wrong he has
done” (Sir 28:2). He rhetorically asks, “Does anyone harbor anger against
another, and expect healing from the Lord? If one has no mercy toward another
like himself, can he then seek pardon for his own sins?” (Sir 28:3-4). He then
goes on to say, “Remember the covenant of the Most High, and overlook faults”
(Sir 28:7).
Christ,
his disciples, and those who heard Christ’s teachings were also familiar with
the human problems we listed earlier. This is reflected in today’s Gospel parable,
which was prompted by Peter’s question, “‘Lord, if another member of the church
sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?’ Jesus
said to him, ‘Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times’ ” (Matt
18:21-22)—meaning an infinite number of times.
Having
proposed unlimited forgiveness, Jesus, God’s incarnate, follows up with a parable
that we can understand. Here is a servant whose huge debts the king has forgiven.
The servant is happy and likely feels a sense relief. But he is unable to forgive
his friend. Instead, he has his friend thrown into prison for a debt worth the tiniest
fraction of what he had been forgiven of. The king punishes him for his
actions, and ultimately the servant pays back his huge debt.
In our
daily lives, forgiveness must not have any boundary. It must go beyond seven times,
to the divine seventy-seven times. As we forgive seventy-seven times, we must look
at the face of God, the face of Jesus, the king of mercy, whom Pope Francis also
sees as mercy, love, and compassion in his pontificate. God chose Pope Francis because
he was merciful to him, as expressed in his motto: Miserando atque elegendo.
How different would the modern world be if we were to imitate even half of the pastoral
approaches or the theology of mercy proposed by Pope Francis?
How different
would our world be if we were to take seriously both forgiveness and reconciliation?
For “where there is no reconciliation or at least hope of reconciliation there cannot
be forgiveness in real sense.” This is 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 the world be if we were to realize that God and the church can forgive sinners,
but they cannot condone evil behavior that causes suffering and injustice to others—behavior
that is offensive to truth, love, and charity, or a sinner who chooses to stay in
sin. How different would the world be if we were to imitate Christ’s acts of forgiveness
in the Bible, be it the woman caught in adultery, Matthew the tax collector, Zacchaeus,
Thomas the doubter, or 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 wherever we can
as agents of God’s love, boundless charity, mercy, compassion, and forgiveness.
Reflection
Questions:
1. Have
you ever owed a debt or felt indebted?
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 moments that you feel unforgiven? How often do you reflect on the nature of
God and his merciful face or consider yourself forgiven?
