2017September 17,SUN24ORDA

2017September 17,SUN24ORDA

SIR 27:30—28:7

PS 103:1-2, 3-4, 9-10, 11-12
R. (8) The Lord is kind and merciful, slow to anger, and rich in compassion.

ROM 14:7-9

MT 18:21-35


Good…


Today we celebrate the 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time A and the theme of the Readings today is Forgiveness.

We usually hear the words: “ To err is human and to forgive is Divine”. And surely most of us have heard this and also believe in this. But for me, it is important to understand what it means, since throughout the years people have understood this saying differently meaning that God forgives while human may not.

For Me, I believe that Forgiveness is a human character, without forgiveness human beings will not prosper and will never last into this world. As Human Beings we are designed for relationships and community and as such what is important in relationships and community is the acceptance not only of the strengths and of one another but more so the acceptance of the whole person including his own weaknesses and failures.

In the Secular world, this has been recognized and leaders had set up structures to mitigate our weakness and ultimately address them so that we can be an asset to the community and business.

Also in our Christian Faith, Jesus has provided us with the way to address failures and weakness as we have seen in the Gospel last Sunday giving us the process to correct one another.

Even the giving of His Commandment “ to love one another as I have loved you” present us our responsibility for one another. And more so that in Loving, forgiveness is one of its best expressions. We cannot love without forgiveness, it is just two side of the same coin.

Pope Francis in his visit to Colombia urges the youth and the people to work for “ Forgiveness” for the many atrocities that happened. It will be hard but that will be the start of progress and peace. Without Forgiveness there will be no peace.

Some people usually say that it is hard to forgive. I usually ask them why is it hard to forgive? The usual answer is that the wound and the pain is still there and it is hard to forgive and accept back those who hurt you.

This is actually the problem with Forgiveness, it is not so much on forgiveness but on forgetting the hurts and pains done to us. And usually, what happens is that: we do not forget the pain and hurts because we keep them in our hearts, and do not want to let them go. And surely, when we keep those pains and hurts, it grows and makes our lives miserable.

I heard one story of a husband talking about the problem with her wife. He says that when my wife gets mad at she became ‘Historical”. Another tries to correct him that it is not Historical but Hysterical and The Man says no it is historical because she tells me back all the sins and failures that I have done. Historical because the wife kept on those sins and failures.

In Christian Forgiveness, we not only forget the sins and failures but we removed them from our hearts. Since, those who keep the sins and hurts in their hearts do not forgive as God forgives us. When God forgives, he forgets the sins.

And so as Christians today, let us forgive one another for we are also forgiven by God. Let us not be like the wicked servant who was forgiven from his debts by his master but did not forgive the debts of his fellow servant.

Let us always remember the proclamation of St. Paul that as Christians we live and die for the God and as such we strive to do the Will of God including the forgiveness of one another.

In the First Reading Sirach also proclaims: “Forgive your neighbor's injustice; then when you pray, your own sins will be forgiven” and this is also what Jesus taught us in the Our Father: Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

Forgiveness is at the heart of Loving and that forgiveness is not only Divine but Forgiveness is very human. AMEN.