24th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A
\n<\/a>Sirach 27:30-28:7
\nRomans 14:7-9
\nMatthew 18:21-35
\nSeptember 11, 2011<\/p>\nThe traditional Jewish custom was to forgive a person three times.\u00a0 If they continue to sin against you after that you were not obligated to forgive them.<\/p>\n
Peter puts the question to Jesus, \u201chow often must I forgive?\u201d\u00a0 Peter knows the importance of forgiveness, so he suggests seven times.\u00a0 The people would have been impressed at the level of forgiveness when only three times was required.<\/p>\n
While the people may have been impressed with Peter\u2019s suggestion of seven times, Jesus was not.\u00a0 Jesus replies with a much larger number, \u2018seventy-seven.\u2019<\/p>\n
What is your reaction to Jesus suggesting the number \u201877\u2019?\u00a0 Did you let out a mild groan?\u00a0 Do it seem impossible or ridiculous?\u00a0 Maybe there’s someone thinking, ‘Ok, if Jesus says forgive 77 times, but NOT 78!’<\/p>\n
We’re not supposed to keep a scorecard.\u00a0 That’s missing the point. The point of \u201877\u2019\u00a0is that it seems huge.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 The point is that there should be no limit to our willingness to forgive.<\/p>\n
Sound impossible?\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Isn\u2019t it what we hope we have available from Jesus \u2013 unlimited forgiveness?\u00a0 We must strive to do our best (not to sin) but when we do, we count on Jesus\u2019 forgiveness.<\/p>\n
Forgiving can seem so difficult.\u00a0 What does it really mean to forgive?<\/p>\n
Sometimes we think forgiveness means forgetting that the person ever did something to hurt us.\u00a0 That would be nice and with the little things should be the reality.\u00a0 We must not keep a scorecard.\u00a0 But this must be balanced against justice and protecting ourselves.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
For instance, if a person commits a violent crime against us, we are called to forgiveness, but we also have a right to make sure they don\u2019t do the same thing us to again.\u00a0 They also need to be willing to accept the consequences of their actions.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Forgiveness precludes revenge (an emotional response) but justice can still be served.<\/p>\n
We might also ask \u201cwhy should I forgive?\u201d<\/p>\n
First, because it is the right thing to do.\u00a0 To forgive is to love as Jesus calls us to love<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\nSecondly, we forgive in recognition of our own need for forgiveness.\u00a0 None of us is perfect.\u00a0 We need forgiveness from God and from other people that we may have hurt.\u00a0 We cannot be like the servant who begged for patience and mercy to his master and, after receiving complete forgiveness (more than he asked for), he went and did not reciprocate with the person in debt to him.<\/p>\n
Think of the words of the Lord\u2019s Prayer, \u2018forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.\u2019\u00a0 What right do we have to ask for forgiveness if we are not willing to forgive others?<\/p>\n
A third reason to forgive \u2013 if we have not forgiving, then we are holding a grudge with angry in our heart.\u00a0 Holding that angry in our hearts can keep us from loving, not just the one who has hurt us but from loving others.\u00a0 It can also keep us from moving forward.\u00a0 If we wish to move forward in hope, then we need to let go of the past.\u00a0 Part of that letting go is to forgive.\u00a0 When we don’t forgive, we hurt ourselves.<\/p>\n
Today is\u00a0the 10th anniversary of the 9-11 terrorist attacks.\u00a0 The attacks were a terrible thing.\u00a0 Many innocent people died.\u00a0 We cannot forget what happened.\u00a0\u00a0But does that mean we can’t forgive?\u00a0<\/p>\n
Have we let go?\u00a0 Or at we still stuck on 9-11?\u00a0 We can still seek justice but is it justice or revenge we seek?\u00a0 What’s the difference between revenge and justice?\u00a0 Sometimes, the difference doesn’t seem very clear.\u00a0 I think revenge has a lot more to do with emotions (primarily anger) while justice comes from reason and God.\u00a0<\/p>\n
What concerns me is things like the reaction from many people when our military killed Osama Bin Laden.\u00a0 There is certainly an element of justice and our safety involved but when people start celebrating a human death, I don\u2019t see that as justice.\u00a0 It seems more like revenge to me.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t know how you feel about 9-11 and forgiveness.\u00a0 But I imagine that at some point we have all found forgiveness difficult.\u00a0 It can be done.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For example of forgiveness, look at Pope John Paul II when he was shot.\u00a0 What did he do to the man who shot him?\u00a0 He forgave him.<\/p>\n
May we have the grace we need to forgive others as we need to be forgiven ourselves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Here’s my homily on September 11th 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A Sirach 27:30-28:7 Romans 14:7-9 Matthew 18:21-35 September 11, 2011 The traditional Jewish custom was to forgive a person three times.\u00a0 If they continue to sin against you after that you were not obligated to forgive them. Peter puts the question to Jesus, …<\/p>\n
Continue reading ‘9-11 & Forgiveness’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[82],"tags":[83,70],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-8X","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=555"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":558,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555\/revisions\/558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}