Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 130
Reading 1
Wrath and anger are hateful things,
yet the sinner hugs them tight.
The vengeful will suffer the LORD’s vengeance,
for he remembers their sins in detail.
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 one who is but flesh cherishes wrath,
who will forgive his sins?
Remember your last days, set enmity aside;
remember death and decay, and cease from sin!
Think of the commandments, hate not your neighbor;
remember the Most High’s covenant, and overlook faults.
Responsorial Psalm
R. (8) The Lord is kind and merciful, slow to anger,
and rich in compassion.
Bless the LORD, O my soul;
and all my being, bless his holy name.
Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits.
R. The
Lord is kind and merciful, slow to anger, and rich in compassion.
He pardons all your iniquities,
heals all your ills.
He redeems your life from destruction,
crowns you with kindness and compassion.
R. The
Lord is kind and merciful, slow to anger, and rich in compassion.
He will not always chide,
nor does he keep his wrath forever.
Not according to our sins does he deal with us,
nor does he requite us according to our crimes.
R. The
Lord is kind and merciful, slow to anger, and rich in compassion.
For as the heavens are high above the earth,
so surpassing is his kindness toward those who fear him.
As far as the east is from the west,
so far has he put our transgressions from us.
R. The
Lord is kind and merciful, slow to anger, and rich in compassion.
Reading 2
Brothers and sisters:
None of us lives for oneself, and no one dies for oneself.
For if we live, we live for the Lord,
and if we die, we die for the Lord;
so then, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.
For this is why Christ died and came to life,
that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
I give you a new commandment, says the Lord:
love one another as I have loved you.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Peter approached Jesus and asked him,
“Lord, if my brother sins against me,
how often must I forgive?
As many as seven times?”
Jesus answered, “I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times.
That is why the kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king
who decided to settle accounts with his servants.
When he began the accounting,
a debtor was brought before him who owed him a huge amount.
Since he had no way of paying it back,
his master ordered him to be sold,
along with his wife, his children, and all his property,
in payment of the debt.
At that, the servant fell down, did him homage, and said,
‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full.’
Moved with compassion the master of that servant
let him go and forgave him the loan.
When that servant had left, he found one of his fellow servants
who owed him a much smaller amount.
He seized him and started to choke him, demanding,
‘Pay back what you owe.’
Falling to his knees, his fellow servant begged him,
‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.’
But he refused.
Instead, he had the fellow servant put in prison
until he paid back the debt.
Now when his fellow servants saw what had happened,
they were deeply disturbed, and went to their master
and reported the whole affair.
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?’
Then in anger his master handed him over to the torturers
until he should pay back the whole debt.
So will my heavenly Father do to you,
unless each of you forgives your brother from your heart.”
MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS,
Wrath and anger are not normal to us but are things that are distortions of our true nature. They are ugly and dark; having their roots in evil. God is the perfect good and nothing evil can come from God. We read in Sacred Scripture about the story of Cain and Abel. Abel, who was in right relationship with God, offered a loving sacrifice of one of the firstlings from his flock. His love found favor with God. Cain, in comparison, gave a sacrifice that was of lesser importance to him and thus was treated with less importance to God. Each of the brothers’ sacrifices represented their relationship with God: Abel’s was stronger and more intimate than that of Cain’s. The reaction of Cain was a negative reaction that brought about negative results. He ignored the counsel of God who said:
“Why are you so resentful and crestfallen? If you do well, you can hold up your head; but if not, sin is a demon lurking at the door: his urge is toward you , yet you can be its master.”
God is telling us that if we do His will and live in right relationship with Him then good things will result. If we fall short we still have the ability to correct those actions instead of acting out in reaction to our own failure. Sin is failure and not doing good is failure. Both of these thing bring about negative results and more negative action. The further we are away from a relationship with God and not actively involved with Him the more we are susceptible to sin and doing bad things. Among these things are anger and wraith. They bring about negative action and only bad things can result from them.
The Book of Sirach reminds us today that anger and wraith are hatful things yet the sinner holds them tight. God is telling us that if we feel these things then we are indeed sinning. We as believers have an expectation to be loved and forgiven by God. When we are loved and forgiven we can feel it and want it all the more. If we have that expectation should we not be expected to do the same as God’s children and as ones who are being loved and forgiven? We are taught that this love that God has for us is not earned; He loves us because we are His children. This love and forgiveness not being earned is something that we too must then give away freely. There is no place for anger, wraith, or any negative emotion in our lives. In fact God tells us that if we do have these feelings and act out on others with these then God will reflect our own bad behavior back on us. Some might consider this punishment but it can be considered better in the category of a tree being known by its fruit: negative will always produce a negative result while positive will bring about positive things. God is all about the positive.
As Christians we no longer just live for ourselves. Our sight and focus is far beyond that which we can obtain for our own gratification. As Paul writes we live and die for the Lord. These words can serve as a constant reminder that we are representatives of Jesus Christ on this earth and have a responsibility to demonstrate to others what being a Christian means. It serves both their benefit and ours. Living for the Lord means we ought to want to please Him all of the time and to please Him means that we find pleasure ourselves in these actions. Everything else in society and in God’s creation should be secondary to pleasing Him. God sets forth this standard for our benefit and with a reminder that it is through these things that our life can reach its maximum potential and all of our experiences can be fulfilling as long as we remain with Him.
There are two sayings that should be familiar to us all:
“I forgive but I never forget.”
“Say you are sorry through your actions not your words.”
Many people in society today live out these sayings but they are far from what God wants. If we want to be good Christians than it is impossible to demand that forgiveness is earned. Jesus Christ died for the forgiveness all of our sins so that we may receive eternal life. He cleared the pathway to salvation and to a loving relationship with God. He did all of the work while we received all of the benefits free of charge. Living our lives with Jesus Christ means that we must act accordingly in all of our affairs. We cannot demand something different from other people then what we expect from God. Who are we to demand such a thing? Are we God? Absolutely not! Yet, in our brokenness we tend to act that way. When we do act in such a manner we must correct ourselves and ask God to forgive us for it is a sin in conduct ourselves that way. Jesus mentions this in the Gospel Reading today. He also mentions the repercussions of this behavior: we will be judged and forgiven in the same manner that we have handed out judgment and forgiveness. We can expect to be treated the same way that we treat other people. Our faults and short-comings should be our chief concern while the ones we find in others should be visible wounds that we pray God will heal with the same lovingness that He heals us.
When someone disappoints us in a particular or does us harm it can easily become a teachable moment for us and something we can learn from. We are presented with an opportunity to better ourselves and to develop ourselves as good Christians. Instead of letting anger and wraith get the best of us we can ask ourselves if we had done what was done to us to someone else at some point in the past. Did we ever hurt or harm someone in much the same way that it was being done to us right now? What was the reason for it? If we cannot find a correlating event then maybe we can find a similar situation where we did something wrong to another person. No one is without sin so there should always be a circumstance in our lives where we conducted ourselves badly and hurt another person. Taking ourselves back to that event we can then revisit the guilt and the emotion we felt during and after the event. Being Christians, there must have been a time when we asked God for forgiveness and maybe even sought to make amends for the wrong that we did. At that moment were we asking for forgiveness and mercy? Did God forgive us? To receive mercy and forgiveness we must give mercy and forgiveness. If we strive for this goal in all of our interactions then we will be well on our way to fulfilling the expectations of God. This was the point that Jesus was making in the Gospel reading today.
God tells us that we are forgiven. God tells us that we are loved. The only thing He asks for in return is to give to others what was given to us. Mercy and love is the foundation of our entire faith and these things come directly from God. The more important we hold these tenants the better off we will be. There is no room for Anger and wraith in a relationship with God and in the life of a Christian. We are better off without them because they do not originate from God. Anything that does not directly come from God is like poison in our veins: there is only one thing that can result from it. It is obviously better to receive and give what comes directly from God: His love and mercy.
Deacon Tom
MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS
Society loves wrath and anger. I tend to call it, “The Kim Kardashian Effect.” The more drama the better for so many people. Each situation, regardless of what it is, is blown out of proportion and extreme emotion is encouraged. This leads to emotional outbursts and confrontational attitudes. Chaos ensues where the propensity of violence is sought after. We are constantly fed encouragement to actually act against what our conscious is telling us to do. If we are not solid in our Christian Faith then we can easily be lured into this trap with drastic results. Our lives become uncontrolled emotion where erratic behavior can take command, beckoning us to do the most negative things which will then ultimately hurt us.
Jesus Christ wants to heal us. He wants to love us completely and encourages us to live a fruitful life with Him as the foundation. There is opposition to this. Satan beckons us to dismiss the Love of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in exchange for a much easier route. Satan wants us to rage and lash out at those we feel are trying to undermine our free will and hunger to be fulfilled by all that is material and satisfying for the moment. We cannot give into this mindset. There is so much more to this life than living in the moment. The obstacles that we face are nothing more than mere inconveniences that prevent us from reaching the ultimate truth which is that Jesus Christ is our savior and He loves us completely. We cannot be healed unless we let the physician do His work.
As Christians, we are encouraged to recognize our own faults and sins. These are then placed before us so that we may validate them. Afterwards, these things are taken and destroyed by God. Nothing remains from that which caused us so much pain and desolation. God loves us and He wants us to experience the joy of living with Him. Whatever we have done and whatever we will ever do is already forgiven through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. From a man that it takes a lifetime or more to know come the keys to our living a complete existence of love and satisfaction. We will never be satisfied with what this world offers but only be tempted to consume more of what will stimulate us but never bring us to fulfillment. Fulfillment only comes through Jesus Christ.
The beginning of our journey to Jesus always starts with forgiveness. First and foremost, we are told and encouraged to believe that all we have done wrong is forgiven. Beyond that, we are then presented with a new way of thinking: Jesus forgives us completely without any preconditions except that we must forgive those who have wronged us the same way. To many, especially those who do not follow Jesus, this seems outrageous. Society tells us that we must react negatively to those who oppose us, fighting whatever challenge we encounter with as much force and power that we can muster. All the while, Jesus asks us why we should do this. If He has already forgiven us for our own fault and transgressions without an preconditions, why should we not do the same? Anything beyond would be entirely hypocritical.
That which is freely given to us, forgiveness and redemption, must be given to those who hurt us. This is not a prerequisite but more as an obligation for us being Christian. Without forgiveness there is no love. Without love there is not Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Without the Passion there is no salvation. We are commissioned to act the way Jesus acts: He loves us completely and would give anything for us to receive Him into our lives. As Christian, we too are asked to be the presence of Jesus Christ in other people’s live. Why would we ever refrain from giving to other people what we hold so dear. If we do refrain, then we are hypocrites. If we are hypocrites, then we will suffer the consequences.
This way of life might be very challenging yet the challenge is worth the reward. Love, satisfaction, and joy through Jesus Christ.
Deacon Tom
My Dear Brothers in Christ,
Greetings! How I have missed you and being part of your special worship community both at Sunday Mass, and programs. I miss seeing your smiling faces, hearing about the pieces of your week and lives you share with me as well as the welcoming warmth as I shared with you. Spending time with you has always been the highlight of my week, the separation from you is one of the things I have grieved the most during this time. I long and pray for the day we can gather again.
I hold you all close in my heart, lifting you up in prayer every day. We have all endured so many trials during this pandemic but I have been painfully aware that yours has been much greater and more challenging. A separation from your families, friends, and programs the very things that bring you hope and keep you connected to life outside. My heart broke as I thought of you enduring weeks of lockdown. Yet, as I struggled with intense loneliness and fear of my own I offered it up for yours, asking Jesus to draw closer to you pouring His mercy, comfort, strength and peace into your hearts. When I brought our pain and sufferings to prayer, I found comfort, hope, deep peace and a closeness to Jesus I had not experienced before. Sharing in, bearing one another’s burdens and carrying the load is what Jesus asks us to do for one another assuring He will be right there with us. Our God is an awesome God and praise Him from whom all blessings flow!
One scripture verse that has been particularly powerful for me recently is Romans 12:12 “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.” Ten words in a short verse that packs a punch. It offers a guide to all that is needed to get us through our days in life’s sometimes-difficult journey.
Stay well my friends; I look forward in joyful hope to the day we can once again be together, supporting and encouraging one other in person.
Peace and blessings,
Kathy
Do I always forgive others? This is today’s challenge from our readings. Or do I forgive some who offend me and not others? Am I a person who bears grudges? How do I deal with the person who harms me or hurts my feelings?
Only God can give us the grace to forgive all others, those who have harmed us in any way at all. God’s calls us to immediate and complete forgiveness of others. God is so clear in today’s readings: if you do not forgive, how can you possibly ask forgiveness?
We know the story of the older brother within the story of the prodigal son. The older brother really resents his younger brother. The younger brother goes off and wastes all of his inheritance and then comes home and is received with incredible kindness and love by his father. This is truly injustice! And yet it is how God wants us to live: judge not and you will not be judged!
How do I treat the person who harms me? Jesus gives us the story of the servant who could not pay his debt. None of us can repay our debt to the Lord. Should God then put us in prison and torture us? Instead he forgives us our debts and asks us to forgive others.
All of us who have sinned can understand the debt that we owe to the Lord. The more we see that debt, the more we can understand that we must forgive others. So much of our spiritual literature is focused on this type of forgiveness: look at the beam in your own eye before you try to take out the small piece of straw in the eye of your brother!
The Book of Sirach spells out the teaching of today’s Gospel as well: If anyone who is flesh cherishes wrath, who can forgive his sins? In order to be forgiven, we must learn to forgive.
The Letter to the Romans also speaks of our debt to one another: None of us lives for oneself, and no one dies for oneself. We can only truly live when we live for the Lord—and the Lord is always compassionate and merciful. Today, when we hear His voice, let us not harden our hearts. Instead, let us learn to forgive, even those things that seem unforgivable. It is God Himself inviting us to cleanse our souls and to forgive all who have harmed us in any way. Every time that we hold on to our anger, we damage only ourselves. Every time that we refuse forgiveness, we harm ourselves.
Let us live for God and live God’s forgiveness every day—from our hearts!
-MONASTERY OF CHRIST IN THE DESSERT
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