Homily for 24thSun OT, Year A
Fr. Albert
St. Peter Catholic Church, New Iberia
I’m sorry, but there is no way out. No clever interpretation, no creative explanation can get you off the hook here. There’s really nothing hidden or confusing about what Jesus is saying. If you do not forgive your fellow man, you will not go to heaven. Period. It doesn’t matter how serious their crime, how often they do it, or what kind of pain they’ve caused. Forgive them or you will not be forgiven.
Just last week we heard Jesus explain how we should try to correct our brothers and sisters in the Lord. He said we tell them what they’ve done wrong and ask them to repent. He even said that, if they keep refusing to repent, we should cut them off from our community. But here we have the very next verse. Immediately after saying we can and should excommunicate people in certain situations, he goes on to reiterate that you personally should still forgive them. We forgive even when they don’t want to be forgiven, don’t ask for it, and don’t even accept it. And we do all that for one simple reason: forgive them or you will not be forgiven.
Sure, it’s a strange thing. Most leaders and lawmakers focus on the responsibility of people who commitcrime. Here, Jesus is saying that, when someone offends or hurts you, you are the one with the obligation. Rather than focusing on what society should do with criminals, he gives each person more responsibility every time they are the victim. It sounds strange to us until we take in the whole picture. Thanks to original sin and our own person sins, every person is infinitely more a criminal than a victim. That’s what Jesus is getting at with this parable.
The King forgives this servant a “huge amount.” That tells us first of all that this servant first had to borrow that huge amount in order to get into debt. Every single one of us is in debt to God. We exist because of him. We have intelligence and free will because of him. We have immortal souls because of him. We have the chance to go to heaven because of him. We are all in debt a huge amount. But, what is a “huge amount?” The number it gives is 10,000 talents. That means it would take 60 million days to pay it back. If you were to make $30,000 a year, that would add up to 5 billion dollars. Could you imagine a peasant farmer in ancient Israel ever making enough money to pay that back?
But it isn’t about literal numbers; It is obviously a rhetorical point. The point is that repayment is impossible.And that is where every single one of us is right now. You and I have borrowed billions, even trillions of dollars from our king and he knows we can’t pay it back. But, he is willing to let that go, to forgive our debt on one condition. Forgive your fellow man. And it’s a pretty obvious point when you compare the numbers.
The “much smaller amount” owed by the fellow servant is 100 denarii. That means it is the money you can make in 100 days. So, maybe if we use the annual salary of $30,000 that I used before, we could say about $10,000. That’s barely even what many people owe on their cars right now. Could you imagine if your car salesman were to see you the street, starting yelling at you and choking you, demanding that you pay the money right now? What do you think would happen to that salesman? But you are the car salesman. Your fellow man owes you so money, that’s a fact. People will sin against you and hurt and no one is denying the reality and injustice there. But it doesn’t matter because of the deal God is offering you. Get off the hook for billions of dollars if you’re willing to let go of the $10,000 dollars someone else owes to you. In other words, forgive them or you will not be forgiven.
So why? Why is it so hard to do that sometimes? Because we forget what we owe. Because we are weak. Because of our pride. The good news is that we can fix all three of those reasons: presumption, weakness, and pride.
When you forget what you owe to God, you start to presume that God will forgive or that everything you’ve done is because of your abilities. But you, my dear people, are infinitely in debt. This is good news because the one whom you owe is loving, generous, and forgiving. To solve your problem with being presumption, we have to practice remembering that. The best way to do that is to practice gratitude. First and foremost, you are doing that by coming to Mass. You owe God worship, so you’re here admitting that debt. But it must go further. Begin every morning and end every evening with a brief prayer of gratitude. Thank Him for your existence, for His love, for His Church, and His forgiveness. Then, take time to think of particular small things He’s given you like food, a sunrise, a good conversation, a fun day with friends. Thank Him even for the challenges that make you grow.
Then, there is our weakness. Pain hurts and pain affects our decisions, making it hard to forgive. Part of the problem is what some people say, “forgive and forget.” No, you do not have to forget. You do have to forgive, but not forget. You do not have to let people hurt you again, but you do have to forgive them if they do. And feeling pain is not a failure to forgive. Every time the painful memories return, pray. Say “I forgive them, Lord, help me to keep forgiving them.” Pray for their conversion and pray that your suffering can be joined to Christ on the Cross. He too prayed for his enemies while they were still torturing him. “Forgive them Father.” Even if the pain never goes away, you can and, in fact, must forgive them. Or, you will not be forgiven.
Last – and worst of all – is our pride. Admit it. You like having power over someone: being able to hold a sin over their head; being able to consider yourself better than them; and being able to justify getting even with them. This is the hardest to overcome because it is the devil’s favorite vice and he will fight to keep it in you. So, pray for humility. Every morning and night, when you thank God, ask him to help you accept your sufferings and to learn humility from them. Go to confession often. Pray the litany of humility. Pray Psalm 51.
If you do not, God will humble you Himself eventually, but it will be far worse than if you seek it out yourself.If you do not learn the humility to forgive then, “in anger [the] master [will hand you] over to the torturers.” But this is good news, because the Master is also our Heavenly Father. He wants more than anything to forgive you. The best part is that the most important requirement is up to you. It’s pretty straightforward: forgive them or you will not be forgiven.
