Commentary
Sunday, September 17, 2017, Twenty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Let Go and Let God
First Reading Commentary: Sirach 27:30-28:7
Last week’s liturgy was all about the Second Greatest Commandment: Thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself. Today, we get a follow-up to that message.
In his prophecy, Sirach tells us that it is sinful to hold on to wrath and anger because they are hateful things. Indeed, it is impossible to show your love someone if you are consumed with dreams and ideas of getting back at them for something which they have done to offend you. Planning and plotting against that person because you want to see them hurt just as you were hurt or because you want to see them face harm in retaliation for something which they have done to you will come right back to you and it will come from God. It may be in this life or it may be in the next life, which is worse yet because it is eternal. Either way, it will come back at you.
Sirach asks the question, “Could anyone nourish anger against another and expect healing from the LORD?” This question gets right down to the root of the whole message. Long before Christ came to teach us the Lord’s Prayer, Sirach made it very clear in his prophecy that we cannot expect the Lord to forgive us of our sins if we do not forgive others.
Consequently, if we are holding grudges against others, it is a waste of time for us to say the Lord’s Prayer. God will be angry with us for not forgiving others and instead of receiving God’s forgiveness, we will be punished. Jesus tells us just that in today’s gospel, The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant.
God’s forgiveness is healing from the anger and hate that we have within which makes us want to harm or see harm done to others. That healing can only come to us if we obey the Second Greatest Commandment. We do that if we lift up our anger and hate to God. In other words, let it go and ask God for His healing grace—let go and let God.
Who Belongs?
Second Reading Commentary: Romans 14:7-9
Consider this question: Does one who does not believe in the Trinity belong to Jesus Christ? For that matter, does an atheist belong to Jesus Christ? I believe that all of creation exists because there is a God who created it and my commentary is based on that belief.
We all have spiritual convictions which will lead us to a quick answer of “yes” or “no” according to our beliefs. But I invite everyone who is reading this commentary to stop and ponder the question. Be quiet and let God talk to you. I repeat the question: Does one who does not believe in the Trinity belong to Jesus Christ?
I submit that no one can answer this question because to do so would be to pass judgement on another. If we say, “No” to the question, we insinuate that the person in question cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. If we say, “Yes,” we insinuate that the person will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Either way, it is wrong to make that judgement and if we are loyal to our Christian faith, we know that it is not our place to pass judgement.
We do not belong to Christ based on the religion, if any, that we choose to follow here on earth. Rather, we belong to Christ because we all belong to God—our Creator and Christians know that Christ is God the Son.
Paul tells us several times in his letter to the Romans, including today’s reading that we do belong to Christ. He tells us that one does not live or die for oneself. We can meditate on several thoughts from that message. First, we cannot live or die for ourselves because life is not about us. It is about Almighty God who created life. Life is God’s to give and it is God’s to take away.
Any act we make in an effort to create life or to take life away from someone is an attempt on our part to do what God does. In short, whether it be deliberate or out of ignorance, such an act is an attempt on our part to be God or at the very least, it is an attempt to be as great as God. Ask Lucifer how that worked out for him.
Second, we must keep in mind that there is a profound difference between faith and religion. Faith is a divine gift from the Holy Spirit which we all have whether we use it or not. Religion is a human choice. God will not judge us based on the religion that we chose to practice. God will judge us on what is in our hearts. That said, you may ask me why I am Catholic. That is another commentary which takes a deep look at the differences between faith and religion.
Third, as Paul tells us, we live and die for the Lord. That is because we all belong to the Lord. Each of us is a unique person within mankind which God created. Whether we are alive or whether we have left this life, we still belong to God and Jesus Christ, the Son, is Lord over all including both the living and the dead. If that were not so, Christ would have been very specific about who He came to save.
Actually, Christ was very specific. He came to save all of mankind and that is why Christ instructed His Apostles to teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Yes, we all belong to Christ!
Learn to Forgive or Else
Gospel Commentary: Matthew 18:21-35
One of the things that God calls us to do to show our love for our neighbor is to forgive. That is also one of the most difficult things for us to do. You would think that forgiving someone for offending us would be easy considering how much carrying a grudge will weigh us down. You would think that we would want to forgive someone for offending us considering the stress that holding the anger in will cause.
In today’s parable of the Unforgiving Servant, Jesus teaches us that God is always forgiving but we are not. Jesus also warns us of what will happen to us if we fail to forgive.
Before giving the parable, Jesus was asked by Peter how many times he should forgive his brother—seven times? Jesus answered, “I say to you, not seven but seventy-seven times. The number seven is significant because it represents completeness and God’s covenant. So, Peter thought that if he forgave his brother seven times he would have forgiven his brother as many times as God required. But the answer that Jesus gave tells us that there is no limit to the number of times that we are to forgive.
Yes, we have to keep forgiving that obnoxious person who keeps committing the same offense over and over again. We may take some action in an effort to get them to stop committing the offense but we still have to forgive them. Think about it: Most of us are guilty of committing the same sin over and over again and each time that we do, we want God to forgive us. Well, if we do not forgive others, we will not be forgiven.
As the parable goes, a king decided to settle accounts with his servants. A debtor came to him who owed a great sum of money and had no way to pay it. The king ordered that he be sold along with his wife and children and all of his property. The servant fell down and did the king homage which means that he begged for mercy. The king was filled with compassion and forgave the debt.
The king in this parable is the King of Kings—Christ. The servant is any one of us. We sin and our punishment is hell. That is what the servant faced but in falling down and doing the king homage, he repented and was forgiven. So it is with us. We repent and God forgives.
But when someone came before that servant who owed a debt to him, the servant refused to forgive. Instead, he had the person put into prison. When the servant’s master heard what had happened, he summoned the servant. After rebuking the servant, he handed him over to the torturers until he should pay back the whole debt.
The important word here is “torturer.” The torturers in this parable are the demons that will escort us to hell where we will be tortured until our debt is paid in full. The problem is that if we go to hell, there will be no end to the torture. Damnation is just as eternal as the peace and happiness of heaven. Therefore, if we go to hell, we will be paying our debt for all of eternity.
Failing to forgive others is a demonstration of disobedience to the Second Greatest Commandment which means that we do not love our neighbor. Failing to forgive means that we are holding on to anger. As we see in this parable, if we hold on to anger and fail to forgive, hell is our future.
