24th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Sept. 11, 2011 (Sirach 27:30-28:7; Rom.

14:7-9; Matthew 18:21-35) Sundays first reading from Sirach certainly reflects a keen awareness of the human mind. The things he mentions are among the most common of human experiences. Wrath and anger are hateful things. We seem to live in ever more wrath-filled and hateful times. Taking revenge on enemies has become a national sport. Yet, Sirach says, The vengeful will suffer the Lords vengeance. The teachings of Jesus share the same basic morality found in Sirach, as we see in Sundays Gospel. Peter asks How often must I forgive the brother who sins against me; seven times? Jesus says Not seven, but seventy-seven times. Many will recall the older and more familiar seventy times seven translation of this line. The Greek word used actually is a composite word which could be translated either seventy times seven or seventy-seven. Whatever the Greek word meant, Jesus does not mean seventy-seven; he means, as often as the brother sins against you, that is how often you must forgive him. The parable which follows shows quite pointedly the need to forgive others if we expect to receive Gods forgiveness. This supports the prayer Jesus had taught his disciples during the Sermon on the Mount (Mt.6:9-15). It also underscores what Sirach had said: Forgive your neighbors injustice; then when you pray, your own sins will be forgiven. In the Lords Prayer we pray forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. But after the words of the prayer are completed Matthew adds: If you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will for give you. But if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions. (Mt6:14-15) Note what Sirach says: Could anyone refuse mercy to another like himself, can he seek pardon for his own sins? The kingdom of heaven then is like the situation of the servant who owed more than anyone could imagine, something like the current amount of the U.S. national debt. In the parable, this enormous debt is forgiven after the servant pleads for time, and I will pay back in full. In fact the debt was so large that he could never have paid it back. But his master (king/Lord) chooses to forgive his debt. The same Greek word is used for forgiving the debt and forgiving the sinner. The enormous debt that the servants could not possibly repay is something like forgiving the brother who sins against one seventy seven times. It is a huge amount and probably not something most humans would be able to do. After repeated offenses, we would probably sever our relationship with the offender, rather than keep on forgiving from the heart.

Yet that is required for would-be citizens of the kingdom. Forgiveness often seems like a very difficult act for us with our offended egos. Ironically when we forgive the debt of the one who sins against us, we free ourselves from carrying the burden of anger: free of worrying about what he/she did to us; free of worrying about getting revenge; free to love others as God has first loved us. Note too Pauls words to the Romans: None of us lives for oneself, and no one dies for oneself. For if we live, we live for the Lord, and if we de, we dies for the Lord; so then, whether we live or die, we are the Lords. Christians must make the hard decisions of life, like forgiving one who sins against us, as often as necessary. We do so because we are the Lords and as the Lord has done, so we must do.

Fr. Lawrence Hummer