24^th  Sunday   -Sept 11, 2011

Sirach 27:30–28:7 Ps 103     Romans 14:7-9   Matthew 18:21-35 

1.              Today we remember the 10^th anniversary of the infamous 9/11 attacks on the twin towers in New York. It started the prison in Guantanamo Bay with over 700 prisoners. 170 are still there in prison.  Families and friends have been left with a sense of emptiness, frustration, anger and bitterness to name just a few of the emotions. At this point after 10 years, our reasoning tells us that these feelings will not bring our friends and loved ones back to life. Our reasoning tells us that we can work for a more secure world, but “justice” for those who have died – what does that actually mean? People speak of bringing “closure”. It brings closure to what? The Gospel today makes us face reality in a very chilling and stark way.

• are you willing to forgive those terrorists?
• Are you willing to pray for those terrorists?
• Are you willing to love those terrorists? – the ones that harmed you?

The first gut response would be one of shock and surprise. One would even want to say “hell, no.” Then we stop and think. We ask for a response as a Christian. Then we phrase it in a different way: “What would Jesus do?” – it becomes even more embarrassing.  Our response would be a very reluctant, a very hesitant, even a whispered “perhaps Yes.” This is perfectly understandable.

2.              We have heard what George Bush, the president of USA said in response to the Nine /Eleven attack.  The first remark was very Christian,

Tonight, I ask for your prayers for all those who grieve, for the children whose worlds have been shattered, for all whose sense of safety and security has been threatened. And I pray they will be comforted by a Power greater than any of us, spoken through the ages in Psalm 23: “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil for you are with me.”

 Then came a knee-jerk response, which was politically rallying but totally in contrast with the psalm uttered above to a God of mercy and compassion: “we will find those responsible and to bring them to justice. We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbour them.”  In a word: “Those who have done this to the Americans, we will hunt you down wherever you are and you will pay for what you have done. You will be shown no mercy.”

Let us take a different scene. The picture is of our personal behaviour:

• We murder rape, commit adultery assault our fellow men and women who have been made in the image and likeness of God
• We have robbed, cheated, and defrauded people of their hard earned money either at gunpoint or in a white-collar manner like Bernie Madoff.
• We have burnt, pillaged and destroyed the earth. We randomly kill animals for their tusks and fur. We have built obscenely large houses and mansions, eaten food till we suffer from obesity, while other are dying of hunger and thirst.

Now suppose God makes that same threat/promise to us, “you who have destroyed my people and my creation, listen to this: I will hunt you down and you will pay for what you have done. You will be shown no mercy.”   Ouch!

God can wreck more damage than Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Irene and Lee, the two Tsunamis of 2004 and 2011 put together. But God created us so that we can grow, multiply and flourish.  This does not make it easy to forgive friends who have hurt us. This does not make it easy to forgive our enemies, who have harmed us.

Our first reading from Sirach, which is taken from Wisdom Literature in the Old Testament, speaks about emotions that come easily to the surface. It also says that these emotions can be very destructive. It not only destroys the individual but it also destroys the tribe or colony. Anger, Revenge and Bitterness stifle and choke the soul. You might be physically alive, but interiorly and spiritually you are dead.

 The book of Sirach gives us the basic rule for forgiveness. It has said we are weak and hence we sin. We expect God to show mercy and forgive us. It would be presumptuous? arrogant? cheeky? unreasonable? to ask God to forgive if we cannot forgive the one who has hurt us. It would be presumptuous? arrogant? cheeky? unreasonable? to ask God to forgive if we plan to take revenge against those who have sinned against us.

 Sirach’s second reason for forgiveness is eschatological. It deals with the end of our life and judgment. As we try to balance our own book of life, there should not be in the debit column things like anger, wrath, broken commandments, broken covenants. These can be counter -balanced or paid off by the love of our neighbour and a concern for him/her.

The letter to Romans gives us an added reason and cause for forgiveness. Whether we live or die, we do not do it for ourselves, but for the Lord. As a result, we cannot have the decay or stench of sins that lead to death.

There are some interesting things to notice about today’s gospel.

• You will not find it in the other 3 Gospels. It is unique to Matthew.
• The opening verse is discordant with the parable. The parable is not about forgiving repeatedly. It about a “refusal to show mercy on the part of One who has just seen and experienced mercy.”
• It is a parable that fits in with the long discourse just given by Jesus to the community.

The parable is a picture full of exaggerations. The picture of debt is extreme. The debt of ten thousand talents for one individual would be similar to the debt in the USA. It definitely will not and cannot be paid in a lifetime. The debt is not only forgiven, but the slate is wiped clean.

 In contrast, the debt of a fellow slave however is so miniscule. A 100 denarii are daily wages for a hundred days. Working overtime could easily pay this off. The unforgiving slave would hardly be able to get any recompense by simply putting his fellow slave in jail.  This could be our story. “We have been forgiven much, can we love much?”