Monday, September 18, 2017

Twenty Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, cycle A

Matthew 18:21-35
There is a wonderful movie called “Rosanna” which is set in Italy. The hero runs a little bar and his wife seems to be sickly, and anticipates dying soon. Her one wish is to be buried next to the child they lost. However, the cemetary is rapidly filling up, and although there is land that could be used for a new cemetary, the owner was spurned by the woman before she married the barkeeper, and out of spite will not sell the land. Much of the movie has to do with the hero trying desperately to keep people from dying before his wife can be buried. In one particular scene, the hero has discovered a dead body, but propped him up in a chair to look like he is still alive. A mortal enemy discovers that the man is actually dead, and pulls out a pistol and says, “You think you can get away with me by dying? I'm coming after you!” And he shoots himself in the head, making the problem for our hero even worse.
This gospel passage shows us Jesus telling Peter that his followers are expected to forgive, seventy times seven times, which basically means “always”. To be a follower of Jesus, you have to forgive those who harm you. But the rest of the passage – what is it about? Jesus likens the Kingdom of heaven to the situation where a king is owed a huge debt, and is about to sell the debtor, his family and all his property to get what he is owed, but when the debtor begs him, saying he will pay the debt if he is given a little more time, the king forgives the whole debt. He does not say, Okay, you have more time, he forgives the debt. And then the debtor goes out and throttles a fellow servant who owes him a very small debt. The onlookers are offended and they tell the king, who takes the debtor and throws hands him over to the torturers until the whole debt is paid. And Jesus then threatens us with the statement that Our Father in heaven will do that to us if we do not forgive our brother in our hearts.
Three things catch my attention in this parable. The first is that the king forgives the whole debt. He had every right to his first option, which was to recover his money. He could have been more merciful and given terms of repayment to the man. But he forgave the whole debt. The second thing is that Jesus tells us Our Father in heaven will do this to us if we don't forgive. The third thing is that we have to forgive in our hearts.
A lot of people look at this passage and say that we are like that unjust servant, and the king in question is like God, and the second servant is like our neighbor, and that's certainly a legitimate way to look at the passage. But maybe if we plunge a little deeper.
The King forgives – and does so at the request of his servant. When the king forgives it is as though there is no debt, as though the servant had never borrowed anything. The pre-debt relationship is restored. And all because the servant asked. If the king is meant to represent God, then the king is also giving an example of Godly forgiveness – forgiveness in the heart, as it were. I think most of us can think of someone who offended us in the past, and maybe we forgave that person, and maybe we even are on fairly good terms again. But when we remember the offense, it sets off our adrenalin, we relive the offense, we can still feel how we felt then. I think that means we have not forgiven in our hearts. I think it means that at some level there is still a barrier between us.
When the servant refuses to extend the same kind of charity to his fellow servant, having him put into prison until he pays his debt, the wicked servant widens the gap between him and his fellow servant. His heart is hardened; his fellow servant becomes less of a human, more of a thing, in his eyes. And when this happens, the wicked servant also drives a wedge between himself and the king; in a way, the wicked servant has lost his status before the king as a fellow human being and as such pays the consequences.
Now although Jesus tells us that if we do not forgive in our hearts, our Father will do the same thing to us, it isn't that God is waiting for us to slip up, and then plans to punish us if we do. The real point is that as long as we have not forgiven others in our hearts, we really can't have that relationship with God which we seek. A heart full of resentment, bitterness, anger, is not a heart that can give itself entirely to God. And if we can't become one with God then we will be very sorry indeed.
Being a Christian takes work. Some of our fellow Christians say that all you need to do is acknowledge Jesus as your Lord and Savior. Others say that if you avoid sin and frequent the sacraments, that's all you need. And you know, I suspect given the love God has for us, and given the fact that He gets what he wants, and that he wants every one of us to be with him in heaven, We'll probably wake up someday and know that we are going to heaven. But even in the next life, we can't come into his presence as long as there is anything holding us back. Maybe God will give us an infinite amount of time to forgive our brother in our heart, but it will certainly make things go a lot smoother if we learn to do this now. In fact some saints have said that forgiveness in the heart is literally the key to living in the Kingdom of heaven. Sometimes if we cannot forgive in our hearts, we actually need help. Being unable to forgive is one of the main reasons people see mental health professionals. So on this Sunday let us ask, is there anyone we need to forgive?