24th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A
Sirach 27:30-28:7
Psalm 103:1-2, 3-4, 9-10, 11-12 (8)
Romans 14:7-9
Matthew 18:21-35
September 17, 2023

Last week we heard Jesus give us instructions on what to do when our brother sins against us.  Deacon Tom talked about our need to forgive others.  Our readings today continue on the theme of forgiveness.

Why is it important for us to forgive others?

As Sirach writes “Wrath and anger are hateful things.”  When we hold onto our anger and wrath, we fill our hearts with hate instead of love.

This can hurt us more than the original offense.  The original offense may be done and over with but if we hold onto the anger, it affects us everyday until we let go of the anger. 

This is the “anger” that I see as one of the seven deadly sins.  There can be a momentary anger that we feel when we see an injustice but we don’t hold on to it and it doesn’t control us.  We immediately let go.  That’s an emotion.  However, when we hold onto our anger, it can begin to control us. 

Amish people are known for their forgiveness.  There’s a book called Amish Grace (Kraybill, Donald B., Steven M. Nolt, David L. Weaver-Zercher.   Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy. Jossey-Bass (John Wiley & Sons, Inc.) 2007.) that speaks about the shooting at an Amish school in Pennsylvania in 2006.  The book tells the story of the Amish response of forgiveness to the shooter. 

We should note that Amish forgiveness doesn’t eliminate justice.  They just leave that to the police and the court system (see page 170). 

In a shooting, we might wonder if forgiveness is even possible.  The Amish understand the need to let go.  Sirach says, “Could anyone nourish anger against another and expect healing from the LORD?” 

When we hold on to anger, we prevent God from healing us of our hurt.

Peter asks Jesus “how often must I forgive?  As many as seven times?”

Jesus answers with “seventy-seven times.”  If you wonder how often you need to forgive someone, I suggest you ask yourself how often you have needed to ask for forgiveness.

Of course, besides letting go of the hurt, the “other” reason that we need to be willing to forgive is so that we might be forgiven ourselves.  As Sirach says, “Could anyone refuse mercy to another like himself, can he seek pardon for our sins.”

In the Lord’s Prayer we say, “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”  Do you mean the second part?

Jesus tells the parable of the king who decides to settle his accounts with his servants.  One owes him a huge debt and has no way to repay it.  The servant begs for more time to pay it back.  The master forgives him but the servant is later unwillingly to forgive another person who owes him a much smaller amount.  The master punishes him for his lack of forgiveness. 

The servant begged his master for forgiveness.  Do we appreciate the forgiveness Jesus offers us on the Cross?  Or do we take it for granted?

When we recognize our need for forgiveness from God, how do we seek it out?

God has given us a special sacrament for this, the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  We call it “confession” because we are confessing our sins. 

Why confess them?  God already knows our sins.  He was there when we committed the sins.  We confess them not to tell him what we did but as proof that we realize how we have sinned and that we repent.

Before we confess our sins in the Sacrament of Reconciliation we are called to examine our conscience so that we can confess all our mortal sins since our last confession. 

In conjunction with that, we should think about those we need to forgive and to actually forgive them so we can let God heal us.

Why don’t we want to forgive?  Sometimes it is pride.  We say we shouldn’t have been treated that way or sometimes it is because we want to make sure we aren’t taken advantage of in the future.  Sometimes we think they are the ones who did the wrong.  So, they need to repent first and ask for forgiveness. 

What good does it do you to hold on to the anger?

Forgive and be forgiven.

(For more on our struggle to forgive see my video presentation, Why Is It So Hard to Forgive Myself (and others)?)