September 13th 2020. The Twenty-fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time

GOSPEL: Matthew 18, 21-35

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini broadcast on Vatican Radio

 

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Don Fabio’s homily follows the Gospel

 

GOSPEL: 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.’

The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ

 

Summary . . . In the Gospel passage, Jesus recounts a parable to help us understand how to forgive others continually. The starting point is to recall that each one of us has enormous debts. Each one of us is in debt to God, to nature, to others, for the poor use of our intelligence, for the lack of love we have shown in our actions. The fact that God is ready to forgive us these sins should be central when it comes to the challenge of forgiving others. In fact, our relationship with others must be illuminated by the nature of our relationship with God. God forgives me and I live by his mercy. Am I then to be ungrateful for his loving mercy in my lack of forgiveness towards others? One of the Beatitudes says: Blessed are the merciful, they shall have mercy shown onto them. The dynamo of my relationship with others ought to be gratitude for the fact that I have been forgiven by the Lord. Let us be aware that God is a Father who is always on our side! Let us rejoice in the mercy of God which each one of us needs desperately. In the parable, a servant has a truly colossal debt. In fact, Jesus chose an enormous magnitude of debt to make it clear that repayment was impossible. How can a man who has been forgiven so much be so unforgiving to others? Because the servant in the parable deludes himself into thinking he can pay it back! And for that reason, he expects others to pay back immediately what they owe him. This servant has all the characteristics of a serial debtor, who needs counselling to help him face up to what he owes. Who is this serial debtor? It is each one of us! We all owe more than we can pay, so let us stop thinking that we can settle our debts with the Lord. This attitude causes us to expect others to settle their debts with us, immediately! Rather, let us live in gratitude for the mercy of God. And may this gratitude inform us of how we relate to others. We live by the grace of the mercy of the Lord. Therefore, let us show mercy in our relationships with others.

 

Let us try to understand how a man who has been forgiven so much can be so unforgiving to others.

The parable of this Sunday's Gospel is prompted by Peter's question: “If my brother commits an offence against me, how many times should I forgive him? Up to seven times?” Jesus replies: "Not seven times, but seventy-seven times ", in other words, always. The Lord then recounts the parable, which is to help us understand how to forgive in this way. A servant has just been freed by the king of an enormous debt, but he goes on to punish a colleague who owed him only a small sum. The question is: how can a man who has been forgiven so much be so severe with someone who owes him much less?

 

The servant in the parable is unaware of the magnitude of his debt. He thinks that he can pay it back, even though the sum is colossal. The only think he needs is for the king to be patient. The problem is not the size of the debt in itself, but the size of the King’s patience!

Let us try to understand where this attitude comes from: the servant owes ten thousand talents to the king in the parable. This is a monstrous debt when you consider that a talent, at the time of Jesus, was worth about thirty kilos of gold! More than five hundred million euros in today's currency ... a truly colossal amount. We do not understand how this situation arose, but the debtor's response should be noted: "Have patience with me and I will pay you everything back". This is more absurd than the size of the debt: the idea of being able to pay it all back! The servant does not say "I will give back what I can", but "I will give back everything". This is impossible, the debt is too great, but what is most revealing is the beginning of the sentence: "Have patience with me and I will pay back". This shows us that, for the servant, the problem is not the amount, but the patience of the king. If the king is patient, the thing will be resolved; he must simply wait and the money will arrive, in full. The servant believes that he just needs time, he doesn't really feel in debt. Those who provide counselling for serial debtors would recognize this precise mentality: they think they have no real debts; people just need to have a little patience with them; this is just a difficult moment, it will pass; a little calm, and everything will be resolved. When debtors think like this, they are incurable. They have developed an entrenched victim attitude - the responsibility is always someone else's and the problem is denied.

 

Who are these serial debtors? They are us! We all owe more than we can pay, so let us stop thinking that we can settle our debts with the Lord. This attitude causes us to expect others to settle their debts with us, immediately! Rather, we live by the grace of the mercy of God, and this must be central in how we relate to others. We live by mercy. Therefore, let us show mercy.

But these people are no strangers to us, are they! We are those chronic debtors! We all tend to have the idea that we are  able to pay our debts, that we are able to stop sinning. All we need is a little more commitment, a little more determination. If I decide to stop committing this sin, then I will stop, you will see. But this is false! It is a fallacy that makes us look at the debts owed to us by others as debts that should be settled, right now! After all, if I wanted to, I could settle my debts with God and stop sinning. Therefore, these other people should stop offending me, immediately. Unfortunately, it is a fact that overcoming one's sinful behaviour is a very difficult process. Good will alone, for the most serious problems of our inner life, is not enough. There is only one solution for settling these accounts that do not add up. If we settle them with the Lord, they will never come back. The solution is to live in mercy. We can't afford to maintain unresolved estrangements with anyone. "Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy".