24th Sunday, Year A: Homily by Fr Justin Adiele
THEME: “FORGIVE AND BE FORGIVEN”
INTRODUCTION
The readings today talked about forgiveness, one of the special secret to a happy life, and one of the special attributes of a true Christian. The joy and peace of the world somehow depends so much on the amount of forgiveness we give and receive from each other. When we do not forgive and receive forgiveness, life itself a meaningless and irreconcilable war.
THE FIRST READING (SIR. 27: 30–18: 7)
In the first reading, forgiveness was given as a code of life, a religious code, and a code for obtaining favour. The wisdom writer urged us to forgive the wrong of others for God to forgive us our sins and for us to obtain healing and mercy from God. A lot of favours we expect from God are directly or indirectly dependent on the rate of mercy/forgiveness we have shown towards our fellow men. And to achieve the habit of forgiving others, we must firmly resolve today to shun every anger, wrath, enmity and vengeance within us which are the qualities of un-forgiveness and mark of a real sinner. A sinner never forgives others nor is he forgiven by God.
THE SECOND READING (ROM. 14: 7–9)
St. Paul in the second reading made a very important statement, that none of us lives or dies to himself; we live for God and die to God. And the God we live for and die for is a forgiving and merciful Father who has commanded us to be merciful and forgiving as God our Father lest we live and die for ourselves and not for him.
THE GOSPEL READING (MT. 18: 21–35)
In the gospel reading, Jesus narrated the parable of the unforgiving servant. Funny enough the unforgiving servant was a special beneficiary of huge/bumper forgiveness from his master but found it very difficult to show/grant little mercy/forgiveness to his fellow servant. This was so irritating in the sight of men (his fellow servants) and in the sight of God (his master). Consequently, he could not receive again forgiveness from his master; and he could not even preserve nor enjoy the forgiveness he had already received from his master. His un-forgiveness revoked and reinstated his forgiven debts. His joy was cut short by his lack of forgiveness.
CONCLUSION
A grandmother celebrating her golden jubilee wedding anniversary was asked about the secret to her long, happy married life and she replied; “On my wedding day, I decided to make a list of ten faults of my husband which for the sake of our marriage, I would constantly forgive or overlook.” Another guest now asked her to list some of those ten faults she chose to overlook. The granny answered; “To be honest with you, I never did get the chance to make that list. But whenever my husband did something wrong to me, I would say to myself, “lucky for him that’s one of the ten.” Develop your own strategy of forgiveness! Destroy that list/account of your brother’s wrongs/offences, and you would be able to forgive and be forgiven and live and die happily ever after.
Happy Sunday!
Fr. Justin