Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Love appears again and again in the readings and feasts of this liturgical week, and often in its most challenging form: forgiveness. There is within us a natural sense of justice which can quickly twist into a sense of self-righteousness that strongly resists forgiving another. Peter in today’s Gospel shows that he may be on the path to self-righteousness by raising the question of forgiveness, but focusing solely on the instances in which those closest to him would need to ask forgiveness from him.
Our Lord then speaks to him about the servant who was forgiven a huge debt, but refused to forgive the minor debt which his neighbor owed him. Reflecting on this servant who at one moment is so very desperate, and at the next moment so furiously self-righteous, Peter (and each of us) has a mirror held up in front of him. The God who teaches us to forgive is not a simple witness to my own claims to justice against everyone else. The God who teaches us to forgive is the God who, out of infinite love, has forgiven us our sins. How quick we are to take God’s place in judgment, forgetful of His merciful nature!
This week we ask for the grace to know deeply how much God loves us, to begin counting our own experiences of God’s merciful forgiveness towards us. May we Christians remember that mercy we have received from Christ, especially the next time a brother tells us that he is sorry for what he said or did to us.