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Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Forgiveness
September 13, 2026
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.
R. The Lord is kind and merciful, slow to anger, and rich in compassion.
Bless the Lord O my soul;
and all my being, bless his holy name.
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits.
He pardons all your iniquities,
heals all your ills.
He redeems your life from destruction,
crowns you with kindness and compassion.
He will not always chide,
nor does he keep his wrath forever.
Not according to our sins does he deal with us,
nor does he requite us according to our crimes.
For as the heavens are high above the earth,
so surpassing is his kindness toward those who fear him.
As far as the east is from the west,
so far has he put our transgressions from us.
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.
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.”
Forgiveness is the big issue for everyone. We might think we forgive easily, but likely enough we've never been tested. When you get badly hurt - insulted, injured, by someone close whom you knew and loved - not only your feelings and your dignity have been hurt but your very identity threatened. You've been made to feel you're worth nothing. You are nothing.
Try putting that aside! See if you can ignore it and feel as warm towards your friend as before. You've put a lot of yourself into your love for your friend and to have it thrown back in your face with disdain is devastating for one who really cares.
And Jesus says we are to forgive because we all need forgiveness ourselves. Whatever hurt an offence might give us, we have given so much more offence to our Father. Like the person in the story, we have no way of paying off our debt and yet we too are forgiven.
This creates an obligation for us to forgive the one who offends us.
What makes it so hard to forgive? Is it because we have to give away something of our self? We for-give; we abandon our claim to justice, compensation and the restoration of our rights. We die a little! We die to self.
And we don't experience the new life, the promised hundred-fold, immediately. It takes time for things to fall into place in a new arrangement. The one we've forgiven has become especially dear to us because they've cost us so much. The very thought is unfamiliar and the feeling takes some getting used to. Alongside that, something else may gradually make itself known: We are somehow closer to God. We have contributed to the healing of our wounded world and we begin to see that as God sees it, and it is very good.
A particular stumbling-block is worth a mention here. Part of the reason we're unwilling to forgive might be something very personal. Deep down we might not believe we ourselves have been forgiven by God. When we dare to look squarely at our selfishness, our ingratitude, our failures to respect others, even to respect our Father in heaven, it might all seem beyond forgiveness.
Putting this another way, we might find forgiveness hard to accept because it is very humbling to be that much in debt. And for love! Despicable sinner that I am, how could God love me? I am such a failure; such a disappointment.
Pope John Paul II spoke of the Father's infinite love:
"Mercy in itself, as a perfection of the infinite God, is also infinite. Also infinite therefore and inexhaustible is the Father's readiness to receive the prodigal children who return to His home. Infinite are the readiness and power of forgiveness which flow continually from the marvelous value of the sacrifice of the Son. No human sin can prevail over this power or even limit it..." [LINK]
https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_30111980_dives-in-misericordia.html
When we look at some of the awful things people do today, or the shocking harm religious people have done to children for t heir own selfish pleasure, it's hard to believe these people can be forgiven. Yet Christianity teaches that the Fatherf's forgiveness is without limit.
So what claim do I have to hold my fellow human, my brother, to ransom until his debt is paid?
So let us praise and thank our God, all merciful and forgiving. As we read in the psalm today:
For as the heavens are high above the earth,
so surpassing is his kindness toward those who fear him.
As far as the east is from the west,
so far has he put our transgressions from us.
With confidence in his mercy towards us we must forgo judgement about others and forgive them any debt they owe us because our Father forgives us all.
>"...unless each of you forgives your brother from your heart.”
That sounds so simple, but experience shows there is nothing more complicated than achieving reconciliation between offended parties, and the closer they are related by family ties the harder it is.
The way Jesus taught the logic of forgiveness needs no explanation, but there are many instances in our world that are troubling. I am always shocked when a news bulletin shows offended family outraged by a court's perceived leniency towards someone who hurt, or killed, a family member.
I can understand the way the family feel and that does not trouble me, but that the journalists should make an issue of it does. Likewise when it is discovered that someone's record reveals offences committed in the past, sometimes a life-time back. There's much shouting in the media against such a person being nominated for some role.
This is often blatantly hypocritical because the political motivation is obvious, and parallel cases can be found that raised no issue. But where are the voices protesting such manipulation? Is this an opportunity we Christians ought not let pass us by.
Dare I mention the issue that is of most concern for us and for the church at the moment? In last week's "Four Corners" TV program, it was presented as scandalous that the Christian Brothers are caring for some of their members who are convicted pedophiles, presumably after they have served their jail time and been returned to live in society. The question is: What are they meant to do with them? Do not the Brothers have a responsibility to care for their members? Even under civil law one may not refuse to employ someone because they have a criminal record, unless their crime is directly relevant to their new employment. It is to be presumed that the person is rehabilitated and therefore not to be disqualified because of their past.
It seems the church is expected to completely oestracise its fallen members. This was not the way of Jesus, nor does it accord with gospel teaching.
The troubling part is that our society is steadily moving further and further away from our Christian background. The moral standards of Christianity are still among the highest. Reconciliation has become a respected process in healing the wounds of war and revolution. Forgiveness is recognised as part and parcel of healing, both for the victim and for the offender.
Psychologically we seem to be a healthier society for following a rational or scientific approach rather than imposing solutions from religion on secular issues which are the domain of human reasoning. In this gospel episode Jesus is actually using the logic of the human situation to illustrate the reasonableness of how forgiveness works from God's point of view.
* * * * *
Before going any further let's make some points very clearly, if briefly. There's no doubt that abusing young children sexually is among the worst of things anyone can do to another person. The harm cannot be repaired and last throughout life. Even worse, from the point of view of moral responsibility, is the cover-up of the crime to protect the good name of the Institution. Persisting over decades in defensive legal maneuvering to minimise payments only multiplies the insult and the damage. It is hard to understand how this pattern can be allowed to continue.
What does the gospel say?
Perhaps the hardest thing of all is to believe that God is merciful!
Mercy seems wrong.l It upsets our sense of justice, accepting repair above punishing reparations, healing above more hurting, reconciliation above repayment of the debt. Yet there is perhaps no teaching in thew whole of revelation more universal, more fundamental than the teaching that our Father God is intent on forgiving, not on punishing.
They say that "God" is a fabrication of the human imagination, but who would think up a god who would actually forgive us our debts? The revelation of a merciful God is perhaps the greatest proof that revelation is not just a human invention, but is in fact true.
And Jesus teaches most forcefully that the Father is merciful. In today's gospel episode we see him make the Father's mercy the standard to be adopted for our own behaviour. I think that maybe, when I get on my high horse and refuse to agree to be reconciled with someone after an offence, it may be because hiding deep inside there is a festering cancer of despair that tells me I really can't be forgiven - not for the awful things I have done.
If our sense of shame is humiliating, the thought of being healed by being forgiven is doubly humiliating. "Lord, I'm not worthy!" "Leave me, Lord, I'm a sinful man!" And Jesus comes closer and leans down and touches us, and says very softly: "It's okay! Your Father loves you. Your sins are forgiven!"
As we read in the psalm above:
For as the heavens are high above the earth,
so surpassing is his kindness toward those who fear him.
As far as the east is from the west,
so far has he put our transgressions from us.
A useful exercise might be to try to recall the many times that Jesus forgave people their sins. Or you might prefer to skim through the pages of the gospels, noting those occasions as you go. A few things stand out: Usually the person comes to Jesus, but then, that was possible because Jesus had made himself available. Sometimes family or friends are involved too.
The next thing I notice is that Jesus does not talk about the sins, nor does he ask the person to "confess" them, listing them all - leaving nothing out! When as woman came into the banquet hall of a wealthy man where Jesus was a dinner guest, knelt down, washed his feet with her tears and dried them with her hair, Jesus did refer to her sins, "her many sins", to say they are forgiven her, adding "The one who has less forgiven, loves less."
Pope John Paul II spoke of the Father's infinite love:
"Mercy in itself, as a perfection of the infinite God, is also infinite. Also infinite therefore and inexhaustible is the Father's readiness to receive the prodigal children who return to His home. Infinite are the readiness and power of forgiveness which flow continually from the marvelous value of the sacrifice of the Son. No human sin can prevail over this power or even limit it..." [LINK]
https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_30111980_dives-in-misericordia.html
>"...unless each of you forgives your brother from your heart.”
That sounds so simple, but experience seems to show that there is nothing more complicated that achieving genuine reconciliation between offended parties, and the closer they are related by family ties the harder it is very often.
The way Jesus taught the logic of forgiveness needs no explanation for us, but there are many instances in our world that are troubling. I am always shocked when an evening news bulletin shows offended family outraged by a court's perceived leniency towards someone who hurt, or killed, a family member.
I can understand the way the family feel and that does not trouble me, but that the journalists should make an issue of it does. Likewise when it is discovered that someone's record reveals offences committed in the past, sometimes a life-time back. There's much shouting in the media against such a person being nominated for some role in public life.
This is often blatantly hypocritical because the political motivation is obvious, and parallel cases can be found that raised no issue. But where are the voices protesting such manipulation? Is this an opportunity we Christians ought not let pass us by.
The troubling part is that our society is steadily moving further and further away from our Christian background, and I'm not sure this was ever the intention of the people who favoured a secular world over a religious one. The moral standards of Christianity are still among the highest. Reconciliation has become a respected process in healing the wounds of war and revolution. Forgiveness is recognised as part and parcel of healing, both for the victim and for the offender. Psychologically we seem to be a healthier society for following reason's scientific approach.
Dare I mention the issue that is of most concern for us and for the church at the moment? In last week's "Four Corners" TV program, it was presented as scandalous that the Christian Brothers are caring for some of their members who are convicted pedophiles, presumably after they have served their jail time and been returned to live in society. The question is: What are we meant to do with them? Do not the Brothers have a responsibility to care for their members? Even under civil law one may not refuse to employ someone because they have a criminal record, unless their crime is directly relevant to their new employment. It is to be presumed that the person is rehabilitated and therefore not to be disqualified because of their past.
Before going any further let's make some points very clearly, if briefly. There's no doubt that abusing young children sexually is among the worst of things anyone can do to another person. The harm cannot be repaired and last throughout life. Even worse, from the point of view of moral responsibility, is the cover-up of the crime to protect the good name of the Institution. Persisting over decades in defensive legal maneuvering to minimise payments only multiplies the insult and the damage. It is hard to understand how this pattern can be allowed to continue.
What does the gospel say?