24th Sunday in Ordinary Time

 Last Sunday we heard about conflict resolution in the Christian community. Today we receive a lesson on the personal obligation of forgiveness. The focus is not on the offender nor is it primarily on myself. Rather, the focus is on God's mercy towards me as the source of the duty to forgive those who have wronged me. St Paul points out: "If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's." (Rm 14: 8) The king, in the parable, says to the servant: "You wicked slave! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. Should you not have mercy on your fellow slave, as I had mercy on you?" (Mtt 18: 32-33) Every time we come to Mass we make the penitential act in which we invoke and celebrate God's mercy towards us. Every time we come to reconciliation we avail ourselves of God's forgiveness. Every time we receive the anointing of the sick we rely on God to heal us and forgive us our sins. We acknowledge God's mercy in the Lord's Prayer each time we say: "... forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us." As a result, we should not be unmindful of the duty to forgive others when we are such rich beneficiaries of God's mercy. If that is not enough, there is further incentive from our First Reading: "Remember the end of your life... remember corruption and death... Remember the commandments... remember the covenant of the Most High" (Sir 28: 6-7) The last thing we want to happen to me is that: "And in anger his lord handed him over to be tortured until he would pay his entire debt." (Mtt 18: 35)