Word to the Wise
Sunday, September 11, 2011 - 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time - A
[Sir 27:30-28:7; Rom 14:7-9; Matt 18:21-35,22]Forgive your neighbor's injustice; then when you pray, your own sins will be forgiven. Could anyone nourish anger against another and expect healing from the Lord? Could anyone refuse mercy to another like himself, can he seek pardon for his own sins? If anyone who is but flesh cherishes wrath, who will forgive his sins? [Sirach] His master summoned him and said to him, "You wicked servant! I forgave you your entire debt because you begged me to. Should you not have had pity on your fellow servant, as I had pity on you?"
The parable of the "unforgiving servant" is a response from Jesus to Peter's question, "If my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive? As many as seven times?" I hear variations on that question during the penitential service that is part of the parish missions that I preach. During that service, I ask this question to the congregation, "How many times in your life have you prayed the "Our Father?" That question always draws a slight chuckle from the audience. But then I call attention to the line in that prayer which asks Our Father to forgive us our trespasses as WE FORGIVE THOSE WHO TRESPASS AGAINST US! This focuses not on the forgiveness we receive but on the forgiveness that we must give! The "examination of conscience" that follows the preaching maintains that focus by mentioning all the various relationships in our lives and how we may need to forgive or ask forgiveness in their regard. It is a powerful moment in the service and the silence is really deep! The individual confessions that follow are also profound.
The words from the Book of Sirach that comprise our first scripture were put into writing more than 100 years before Jesus' life. Forgiveness is a major theme in Jesus' teaching and the "Our Father" repeats the wisdom in Sirach! However, if we are honest, we probably think of forgiveness more in terms of receiving it than in giving it. The Sacrament of Reconciliation in its current form (and the older form many of us recall before Vatican II) has the unintended but unfortunate effect of focusing on "receiving forgiveness" from the Master and not on the forgiveness that we owe to our neighbor! Jesus considers the duty of forgiveness to be so important that he tells us in the Sermon on the Mount (which also includes the "Our Father,") that if we come to worship and remember that we are need of reconciliation, that we should go and first be reconciled before we make our offering. He is not talking about the sacrament of reconciliation but of the forgiveness that WE must give!
The penitential service in the parish missions I preach follows the one on Baptism and what it means to be identified with Christ. The most difficult demand of that sacrament is not feeding the hungry or giving drink to the thirsty (as important as those actions are), it is forgiveness! Perhaps we need to pay more attention to the "Our Father" and what it is that we are asking! AMEN