Mother Church invites us to celebrate Sunday, September 13, 2020, as the twenty fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time – Year A. In the Entrance Antiphon we pray: “Give peace, O Lord, to those who wait for you, that your prophets be found true. Hear the prayers of your servant, and of your people Israel. Amen.”
The theme of this day’s Mass is forgiveness of those who wrong us. All the readings are unequivocal in saying that God demands that we forgive one another. In the first reading, from Ecclesiasticus, the sacred writer, Ben Sira, warns against resentment and revenge and asks us to love our neighbor and promote peace and reconciliation. In the second reading from the Letter to the Romans, Saint Paul emphasizes the fact that through our baptism we have been made members of Christ's mystical body, we have become brothers of Christ, intimately united with him in his death. In the Gospel, Jesus relates the parable of the ungrateful servant whom the master forgives but who, in turn, proves unwilling to forgive his fellow worker. The conclusion being that there must never be a limit to forgiveness. Let us pray for the grace to forgive.
First Reading: Ecclesiasticus 27:33, 28:7
Wrath and anger are hateful things, yet the sinner hugs them tight. The vengeful will suffer the Lord’s vengeance, for he remembers their sins in detail. Forgive your neighbor's injustice; then when you pray, your own sins will be forgiven. 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 own sins? If one who is but flesh cherishes wrath, who will forgive his sins? Remember your last days, set enmity aside; remember death and decay, and cease from sin! Think of the commandments, hate not your neighbor; remember the Most High's covenant, and overlook faults.
V/ The word of the Lord.
R/ Thanks be to God.
Comment
The author of the Book of Ecclesiasticus is called Jesus, son of Sira, a teacher of Israel and a lover of learning, who devoted himself to the teaching of the Law. He ran a rabbinic school in Jerusalem for studying the sacred books of Judaism. He wrote this book around the year 190 BC, making it one of the last Old Testament books to have been written. He wrote the book from the Egyptian city of Alexandria.
Writing in praise of wisdom two centuries before the birth of Christ, Ben Sira’s long book is mainly concerned with the practical consequences of God’s Law, which he sees as identical with God’s Word and divine wisdom.
Revenge and resentment are the subjects of today’s meditation. In spite of the ancient teaching of “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” Ben Sira goes further to present the God of Israel as a God of compassion who is slow to anger and full of compassion. He is a God who wills that the Jews should be holy by loving their neighbor.
The passage asks that we always seek peace and reconciliation, not discord and revenge. We must therefore give priority to forgiveness because to receive forgiveness we must forgive others ourselves. We must not bear grudges against each other and we should always remember who we are and how good God himself has been to us. The author also warns against getting into arguments because such arguments can only make things worse.
Our Lord may well have had these or similar sayings in mind when he taught the “Our Father” to his disciples. “Forgive us our debts as we also forgive our debtors” (Mt 6: 12). The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us that “Forgiveness is the high point of Christian prayer; only hearts attuned to God’s compassion can receive the gift of prayer. Forgiveness also bears witness that, in our world, love is stronger than sin. The martyrs of yesterday and today bear witness to Jesus. Forgiveness is the fundamental condition of the reconciliation of the children of God with their Father and of men with one another” (No 2844).
Saint John Chrysostom asks, “How can you ask God to treat you with good grace, if you yourself do not show mercy to those who have sinned against you?”
Let us say this prayer for reconciliation which Saint Dionysius of Alexandria left to the Church.
“God the Father, origin of all that is divine, good beyond all that is good, fair beyond all that is fair, in you is calmness, peace and concord. Heal what divides us from one another and bring us back into the unity of love, bearing some likeness to your divine nature. Through the embrace of love and the bonds of goodly affection, make us one in the Spirit by that peace of yours that makes all things peaceful. We ask this through the grace, mercy and tenderness of your only begotten Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, One God forever and ever. Amen.”
Second Reading: Romans 13: 8-10.
Brothers and sisters: None of us lives for oneself, and no one dies for oneself. For if we live, we live for the Lord, and if we die, we die for the Lord; so then, whether we live or die, we are the Lord's. For this is why Christ died and came to life, that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.
V/ The word of the Lord.
R/ Thanks be to God.
Comment
This reading concludes Saint Paul’s Letter to the Romans and it raises the question of strong and scrupulous consciences. It is a question of motivation. Some people in Church might believe a certain conduct to be pleasing to the Lord, while others might think otherwise. Saint Paul thinks that such an argument is not really important provided it is to please our Lord. Remembering therefore what Christ did for us, he talks about our living and dying. Living and dying embrace the whole scope of human existence; and so all our personal efforts should be for Christ, since his loving sacrifice on our behalf left us the example of a life entirely open to God. By sharing in his life in whatever we do, we recognize his Lordship over us and confess that in our dying we share in his resurrection and in our living he grants us his resurrection in hope. Whether we ordain our conduct for him or not, is what counts.
We do not own ourselves, we are not our own masters. God created us and Jesus Christ freed us from sin by redeeming us with his blood. He is therefore our Lord and we are his servants, committed to him body and soul. Just as the slave is not his own master, but he himself and all he does are for the benefit of his master, everything we are and everything we have are geared, in the final analysis, not to our own use and benefit; we have to live and die for the glory of God Almighty. He is the lord of our life and of our death.
Commenting on these words of Saint Paul’s Saint Gregory the Great says, “The saints, therefore, do not live and do not die for themselves. They do not live for themselves, because in all that they do they strive for spiritual gain: by praying, preaching and persevering in good works, they seek the increase of the citizens of the heavenly fatherland. Nor do they die for themselves because men see them glorifying God by their death, hastening to reach him through death” (Ezechielem homiliae, II, 10).
Alive or dead, Saint Paul tells us, we belong to the Lord. Let us pray with Saint Ignatius of Loyola: “Lord, I freely yield all my freedom to you. Take my memory, my intellect and my entire will. You have given me everything I am or have; I give it all back to you to stand under your will alone. Your love and your grace are enough for me; I shall ask for nothing more. We make our prayer through Jesus Christ, the risen Lord, who lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen.”
Gospel acclamation: “Alleluia, alleluia. Speak, Lord, your servant is listening: you have the message of eternal life. Alleluia!”
Gospel: Matthew 18: 21-35.
Peter approached Jesus and asked him, "Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive? As many as seven times?" Jesus answered, "I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times. That is why the kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who decided to settle accounts with his servants. When he began the accounting, a debtor was brought before him who owed him a huge amount. Since he had no way of paying it back, his master ordered him to be sold, along with his wife, his children, and all his property, in payment of the debt. At that, the servant fell down, did him homage, and said, 'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full.' Moved with compassion the master of that servant let him go and forgave him the loan. When that servant had left, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a much smaller amount. He seized him and started to choke him, demanding, 'Pay back what you owe.' Falling to his knees, his fellow servant begged him, 'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.' But he refused. Instead, he had the fellow servant put in prison until he paid back the debt. Now when his fellow servants saw what had happened, they were deeply disturbed, and went to their master and reported the whole affair. His master summoned him and said to him, 'You wicked servant! I forgave you your entire debt because you begged me to. Should you not have had pity on your fellow servant, as I had pity on you?' Then in anger his master handed him over to the torturers until he should pay back the whole debt. So will my heavenly Father do to you, unless each of you forgives your brother from your heart."
V/ The Gospel of the Lord
R/ Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
Comment
Today's Gospel reading directly follows last week’s Gospel in which Jesus taught the disciples how to handle disputes and conflict within the Christian community. In today's reading, Peter asks Jesus how many times one ought to extend forgiveness to another. Peter’s question and Jesus’ response prescribe the spirit of understanding and mercy which should govern our lives as Christians. In Hebrew, the figure seventy times seven times means always, forever. Our Lord is therefore asking us not to limit our forgiveness for a fixed number. It must be continuous; it must be forever.
In Peter’ question, we see the contrast between man’s ungenerous, calculating approach to forgiveness and God’s infinite mercy and generosity. Where Peter is giving a mathematical calculation to forgiveness Christ talks in terms of infinity. Jesus elaborates his initial response to Peter in the parable of the unforgiving servant. Through this parable we see the depths of God's mercy toward us and the results of our acceptance of God's forgiveness.
The king in the parable decides to settle accounts with his servants. We are told that one servant in particular owes the king an enormous sum of money. Even though he vows to repay his debt if given the time, it is unlikely that he would ever be able to live up to his promise. The king is moved by the humility of the pleading servant and mercifully forgives the debt he owes. Rather than displaying gratitude for this forgiveness, the servant confronts a fellow servant who owes him a small debt—a pittance when compared with the amount that he owed the king. The unmerciful servant refuses the pleas of his fellow servant and sends the servant to prison.
Some servants, who have witnessed the ingratitude of the forgiven servant, tell the merciful king about the actions of the servant who debt he has just written off. The king punishes the servant because he refuses to show the kind of mercy he has himself received from the king. Jesus concludes by indicating that this is the way God will punish us, if we do not forgive one another.
True mercy belongs to those humble souls who understand how much they have been forgiven. Commenting on this parable, in his Angelus of September 16, 1984, Saint John Paul II said: “Just as the Lord is always ready to forgive us, so we must always be ready to forgive one another. And how great is the need of forgiveness in our world today – indeed in our communities and families, in our very own hearts. That is why the special sacrament of the Church for forgiveness, the Sacrament of Penance, is such a precious gift from the Lord. In the Sacrament of Penance, God extends his forgiveness to us in a very personal way. Through the ministry of the priest, we come to our loving Saviour with the burden of our sins. … Then through the priest, we hear Christ say to us: ‘Your sins are forgiven’. Can we not also hear him say to us as we are filled with his saving grace: ‘Extend to others, seventy times seven times, the same forgiveness and mercy?’ Lord, forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who have offended us; through Christ our Lord. Amen.
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