September 13, 2026: 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Gospel: Matthew 18:21-35

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.”

Reflection

In today’s gospel, we hear more about how Kin-dom of God is built on forgiveness, compassion and understanding. How many of us can say that we have forgiven a sibling seven times? By this point, we may have lost complete trust in the person.

Jesus demonstrates that divine mercy is boundless. If we are to live as God’s children, we must be willing to forgive 77 times – representing abundance and completeness.

Jesus goes on to illustrate God’s mercy through a parable. We are introduced to a royal official who owes the ruler more than the value of all his possessions.

The official is remorseful and begs for more time. In response, the ruler is moved with compassion and completely forgives his debt!

However, the official does not offer the same mercy to his colleague. One the ruler finds out, he is imprisoned.

The gospel ends with “unless each of you forgives your brother from your heart.” This is the challenge: To forgive from our hearts. Was the official truly remorseful? Why was he unable to forgive his debtors? What might it have looked like if the official forgave from his heart?

Perhaps there are two things the official is missing. First, it seems that he did not grasp the depth of his imperfections, poverty and humanity. If he had, he may have taken to heart the ruler’s compassionate gesture and empathized with and forgiven his fellow official.

Second, he did not understand the price of an unforgiving heart. Holding onto grudges and wrongs done can be like imprisonment and torture, separating us from others and God.

Action

Open your heart to hold your human failings and God’s abundant mercy. What heart work might allow you to move from our human preference for punishment to God’s unbounded love and mercy for our human condition?