Tuesday of the Twenty-sixth Week in Ordinary Time

456 Tuesday of the Twenty-sixth Week in Ordinary Time

CCC Cross Reference:
Lk 9:51 557

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Reading 1
Zec 8:20-23

Thus says the Lord of hosts:
There shall yet come peoples,
the inhabitants of many cities;
and the inhabitants of one city shall approach those of another,
and say, “Come! let us go to implore the favor of the Lord”;
and, “I too will go to seek the Lord.”
Many peoples and strong nations shall come
to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem
and to implore the favor of the Lord.
Thus says the Lord of hosts:
In those days ten men of every nationality,
speaking different tongues, shall take hold,
yes, take hold of every Jew by the edge of his garment and say,

“Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.”

Responsorial Psalm
Ps 87:1b-3, 4-5, 6-7

R. (Zec 8:23) God is with us.

His foundation upon the holy mountains
the Lord loves:
The gates of Zion,
more than any dwelling of Jacob.
Glorious things are said of you,
O city of God!
R. God is with us.

I tell of Egypt and Babylon
among those that know the Lord;
Of Philistia, Tyre, Ethiopia:
“This man was born there.”
And of Zion they shall say:
“One and all were born in her;
And he who has established her
is the Most High Lord.”
R. God is with us.

They shall note, when the peoples are enrolled:
“This man was born there.”
And all shall sing, in their festive dance:
“My home is within you.”
R. God is with us.

Gospel: Lk 9:51-56

When the days for Jesus to be taken up were fulfilled,
he resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem,
and he sent messengers ahead of him.
On the way they entered a Samaritan village
to prepare for his reception there,
but they would not welcome him
because the destination of his journey was Jerusalem.
When the disciples James and John saw this they asked,
"Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven
to consume them?"
Jesus turned and rebuked them,
and they journeyed to another village.

Readings from the Jerusalem Bible

First reading Zechariah 8:20-23

The Lord of Hosts says this: ‘There will be other peoples yet, and citizens of great cities. And the inhabitants of one city will go to the next and say, “Come, let us go and entreat the favour of the Lord, and seek the Lord of Hosts; I am going myself.” And many peoples and great nations will come to seek the Lord of Hosts in Jerusalem and to entreat the favour of the Lord.’

The Lord of Hosts says this: ‘In those days, ten men of nations of every language will take a Jew by the sleeve and say, “We want to go with you, since we have learnt that God is with you.”’

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 86(87):1-7

God is with us.

On the holy mountain is his city
  cherished by the Lord.
The Lord prefers the gates of Zion
  to all Jacob’s dwellings.
Of you are told glorious things,
  O city of God!

God is with us.

‘Babylon and Egypt I will count
  among those who know me;
Philistia, Tyre, Ethiopia,
  these will be her children
and Zion shall be called “Mother”
  for all shall be her children.’

God is with us.

It is he, the Lord Most High,
  who gives each his place.
In his register of peoples he writes:
  ‘These are her children,’
and while they dance they will sing:
  ‘In you all find their home.’

God is with us.

Gospel Luke 9:51-56

As the time drew near for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely took the road for Jerusalem and sent messengers ahead of him. These set out, and they went into a Samaritan village to make preparations for him, but the people would not receive him because he was making for Jerusalem. Seeing this, the disciples James and John said, ‘Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to burn them up?’ But he turned and rebuked them, and they went off to another village.

Readings and Commentary from the Navarre Bible

26th Week in Ordinary Time

From: Zechariah 8:20-23

Ten promises of messianic salvation (conclusion)
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[20] "Thus says the Lord of hosts: Peoples shall yet come, even the inhabitants of many cities; [21] the inhabitants of one city shall go to another saying, ‘Let us go at once to entreat the favour of the Lord, and to seek the Lord of hosts; I am going.’ [22] Many peoples and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem, and to entreat the favour of the Lord. [23] Thus says the Lord of hosts: In those days ten men from the nations of every tongue shall take hold of the robe of a Jew, saying, ‘Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.’"

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Commentary:

8:20-22. The new situation described by the prophet will be marked by efforts on the part of the nations to seek the God of Israel, the one, true God. All will find divine favour in Jerusalem. This will mean the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham that all the nations of the earth would be blessed in him (cf. Gen 12:3). The picture painted by the prophet is a figure of what will happen with the coming of Christ and the establishment of his Church.

8:23. Here the prophet graphically describes the power of intercession with God that the Jews will have, enabling all mankind to find favour with him. The number ten symbolizes completeness, and the name "Jew" here means an inhabitant of Judea after the return from exile (cf. Jer 32:12). "By saying that men of every tongue shall take hold of the robe, it is made abundantly clear that on that day the call to holiness will be heard not only by the Israelites, but by all men and women everywhere throughout the world" (St Cyril of Alexandria, "Commentarius in Zacchariam", 8, 23).

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From: Luke 9:51-56

Some Samaritans Refuse to Receive Jesus
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[51] When the days drew near for Him (Jesus) to be received up, He set His face to go to Jerusalem. [52] And He sent messengers ahead of Him, who went and entered a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for Him; [53] but the people would not receive Him, because His face was set toward Jerusalem. [54] And when His disciples James and John saw it, they said, "Lord, do You want us to bid fire come down from Heaven and consume them?" [55] But He turned and rebuked them. [56] And they went on to another village.

The Calling of Three Disciples
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[57] As they were going along the road, a man said to Him (Jesus), "I will follow you wherever You go." [58] And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head." [59] To another He said, "Follow Me." But he said, "Lord, let me first go and bury my father." [60] But He said to him, "Leave the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the Kingdom of God." [61] Another said, "I will follow You, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home." [62] Jesus said to him, "No one who puts his hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the Kingdom of God."

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Commentary:

51. "When the days drew near for Him to be received up": these words refer to the moment when Jesus will leave this world and ascend into Heaven. Our Lord will say this more explicitly during the Last Supper: "I come from the Father and have come into the world; again, I am leaving the world and going to the Father" (John 16:28). By making His way resolutely to Jerusalem, towards His Cross, Jesus freely complies with His Father's plan for His passion and death to be the route to His resurrection and ascension.

52-53. The Samaritans were hostile towards the Jews. This enmity derived from the fact that the Samaritans were descendants of marriages of Jews with Gentiles who repopulated the region of Samaria at the time of the Assyrian captivity (in the eighth century before Christ). There were also religious differences: the Samaritans had mixed the religion of Moses with various superstitious practices, and did not accept the temple of Jerusalem as the only place where sacrifices could properly be offered. They built their own temple on Mount Gerizim, in opposition to Jerusalem (cf. John 4:20); this was why, when they realized Jesus was headed for the Holy City, they refused Him hospitality.

54-56. Jesus corrects His disciples' desire for revenge, because it is out of keeping with the mission of the Messiah, who has come to save men, not destroy them (cf. Luke 19:10; John 12:47). The Apostles are gradually learning that zeal for the things of God should not be bitter or violent.

"The Lord does everything in an admirable way [...]. He acts in this way to teach us that perfect virtue retains no desire for vengeance, and that where there is true charity there is no room for anger--in other words, that weakness should not be treated with harshness but should be helped. Indignation should be very far from holy souls, and desire for vengeance very far from great souls" (St. Ambrose, "Expositio Evangelii Sec. Lucam, in loc.").

An RSV footnote after the word "rebuked" in verse 55 points out that other ancient authorities add "and He said 'You do not know what manner of Spirit you are of; for the Son of Man came not to destroy men's lives but to save them'". These words appear in a considerable number of early Greek MSS and other versions and were included in the Clementine Vulgate; but they do not appear in the best and oldest Greek codices and have not been included in the New Vulgate.

57-62. Our Lord spells out very clearly what is involved in following Him. Being a Christian is not an easy or comfortable affair: it calls for self-denial and for putting God before everything else. See the notes on Matthew 8:18-22 and Matthew 8:22.

[The notes on Matthew 8:18-22 state:

18-22. From the very outset of His messianic preaching, Jesus rarely stays in the same place; He is always on the move. He "has nowhere to lay His head" (Matthew 8:20). Anyone who desires to be with him has to "follow Him". This phrase "following Jesus" has a very precise meaning: it means being His disciple (cf. Matthew 19:28). Sometimes the crowds "follow Him"; but Jesus' true disciples are those who "follow Him" in a permanent way, that is, who keep on following Him: being a "disciple of Jesus" and "following Him" amount to the same thing. After our Lord's ascension, "following Him" means being a Christian (cf. Acts 8:26). By the simple and sublime fact of Baptism, every Christian is called, by a divine vocation, to be a full disciple of our Lord, with all that that involves.

The evangelist here gives two specific cases of following Jesus. In the case of the scribe our Lord explains what faith requires of a person who realizes that he has been called; in the second case--that of the man who has already said "yes" to Jesus--He reminds him of what His commandment entails. The soldier who does not leave his position on the battlefront to bury his father, but instead leaves that to those in the rearguard, is doing his duty. If service to one's country makes demands like that on a person, all the more reason for it to happen in the service of Jesus Christ and His Church.

Following Christ, then, means we should make ourselves totally available to Him; whatever sacrifice He asks of us we should make: the call to follow Christ means staying up with Him, not falling behind; we either follow Him or lose Him. In the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) Jesus explained what following Him involves --a teaching which we find summarized in even the most basic catechism of Christian doctrine: a Christian is a man who believes in Jesus Christ--a faith he receives at Baptism -- and is duty bound to serve Him. Through prayer and friendship with the Lord every Christian should try to discover the demands which this service involves as far as he personally is concerned.]

[The notes on Matthew 8:22 state:

22. "Leave the dead to bury their own dead": although this sounds very harsh, it is a style of speaking which Jesus did sometimes use: here the "dead" clearly refers to those whose interest is limited to perishable things and who have no aspirations towards the things that last forever.

"If Jesus forbade him," St. John Chrysostom comments, "it was not to have us neglect the honor due to our parents, but to make us realize that nothing is more important than the things of Heaven and that we ought to cleave to these and not to put them off even for a little while, though our engagements be ever so indispensable and pressing" ("Hom. on St. Matthew", 27).]

We see here the case of the man who wanted to follow Christ, but on one condition--that he be allowed to say goodbye to his family. Our Lord, seeing that he is rather undecided, gives him an answer which applies to all of us, for we have all received a calling to follow Him and we have to try not to receive this grace in vain. "We receive the grace of God in vain, when we receive it at the gate of our heart, and do not let it enter our heart. We receive it without receiving it, that is, we receive it without fruit, since there is no advantage in feeling the inspiration if we do not accept it [...]. It sometimes happens that being inspired to do much we consent not to the whole inspiration but only to some part of it, as did those good people in the Gospel, who upon the inspiration which our Lord gave them to follow Him wished to make reservations, the one to go first and bury his father, the other to go to take leave of his people" (St. Francis de Sales, "Treatise on the Love of God", Book 2, Chapter 11).

Our loyalty and fidelity to the mission God has given us should equip us to deal with every obstacle we meet: "There is never reason to look back (cf. Luke 9:62). The Lord is at our side. We have to be faithful and loyal; we have to face up to our obligations and we will find in Jesus the love and the stimulus we need to understand other people's faults and overcome our own" (St. J. Escriva, "Christ Is Passing By", 160).

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Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and by Scepter Publishers in the United States. We encourage readers to purchase The Navarre Bible for personal study. See Scepter Publishers for details.

Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

130A Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Catechism Links
CCC 218-221: God is love
CCC 294: God manifests his glory by sharing his goodness
CCC 2838-2845: “Forgive us our trespasses”

CCC Cross Reference:
Ps 103 304
Rom 12-15 1454, 1971; Rom 14 1971; Rom 14:7 953; Rom 14:9 668
Mt 18:21-22 982, 2227, 2845; Mt 18:23-35 2843

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Reading 1: Sir 27:30-28:7

Wrath and anger are hateful things,
yet the sinner hugs them tight.
The vengeful will suffer the LORD's vengeance,
for he remembers their sins in detail.
Forgive your neighbor's injustice;
then when you pray, your own sins will be forgiven.
Could anyone nourish anger against another
and expect healing from the LORD?
Could anyone refuse mercy to another like himself,
can he seek pardon for his own sins?
If one who is but flesh cherishes wrath,
who will forgive his sins?
Remember your last days, set enmity aside;
remember death and decay, and cease from sin!
Think of the commandments, hate not your neighbor;
remember the Most High's covenant, and overlook faults.

Responsorial Psalm: Ps 103:1-2, 3-4, 9-10, 11-12

R. (8) The Lord is kind and merciful, slow to anger, and rich in compassion.

Bless the LORD, O my soul;
and all my being, bless his holy name.
Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits.
R. The Lord is kind and merciful, slow to anger, and rich in compassion.

He pardons all your iniquities,
heals all your ills.
redeems your life from destruction,
he crowns you with kindness and compassion.
R. The Lord is kind and merciful, slow to anger, and rich in compassion.

He will not always chide,
nor does he keep his wrath forever.
Not according to our sins does he deal with us,
nor does he requite us according to our crimes.
R. The Lord is kind and merciful, slow to anger, and rich in compassion.

For as the heavens are high above the earth,
so surpassing is his kindness toward those who fear him.
As far as the east is from the west,
so far has he put our transgressions from us.
R. The Lord is kind and merciful, slow to anger, and rich in compassion.

Reading 2: Rom 14:7-9

Brothers and sisters:
None of us lives for oneself, and no one dies for oneself.
For if we live, we live for the Lord,
and if we die, we die for the Lord;
so then, whether we live or die, we are the Lord's.
For this is why Christ died and came to life,
that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.

Gospel: Mt 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."


Readings from the Jerusalem Bible

First reading: Ecclesiasticus 27:33-28:9

Resentment and anger, these are foul things,
and both are found with the sinner.
He who exacts vengeance will experience the vengeance of the Lord,
who keeps strict account of sin.
Forgive your neighbour the hurt he does you,
and when you pray, your sins will be forgiven.
If a man nurses anger against another,
can he then demand compassion from the Lord?
Showing no pity for a man like himself,
can he then plead for his own sins?
Mere creature of flesh, he cherishes resentment;
who will forgive him his sins?
Remember the last things, and stop hating,
remember dissolution and death, and live by the commandments.
Remember the commandments, and do not bear your neighbour ill-will;
remember the covenant of the Most High, and overlook the offence.

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 102:1-4,9-12

The Lord is compassion and love, slow to anger and rich in mercy.

My soul, give thanks to the Lord

  all my being, bless his holy name.

My soul, give thanks to the Lord

  and never forget all his blessings.

The Lord is compassion and love, slow to anger and rich in mercy.

It is he who forgives all your guilt,

  who heals every one of your ills,

who redeems your life from the grave,

  who crowns you with love and compassion.

The Lord is compassion and love, slow to anger and rich in mercy.

His wrath will come to an end;

  he will not be angry for ever.

He does not treat us according to our sins

  nor repay us according to our faults.

The Lord is compassion and love, slow to anger and rich in mercy.

For as the heavens are high above the earth

  so strong is his love for those who fear him.

As far as the east is from the west

  so far does he remove our sins.

The Lord is compassion and love, slow to anger and rich in mercy.

Second reading: Romans 14:7-9

The life and death of each of us has its influence on others; if we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord, so that alive or dead we belong to the Lord. This explains why Christ both died and came to life, it was so that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.

Gospel: Matthew 18:21-35

Peter went up to Jesus and said, ‘Lord, how often must I forgive my brother if he wrongs me? As often as seven times?’ Jesus answered, ‘Not seven, I tell you, but seventy-seven times.

‘And so the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who decided to settle his accounts with his servants. When the reckoning began, they brought him a man who owed ten thousand talents; but he had no means of paying, so his master gave orders that he should be sold, together with his wife and children and all his possessions, to meet the debt. At this, the servant threw himself down at his master’s feet. “Give me time” he said “and I will pay the whole sum.” And the servant’s master felt so sorry for him that he let him go and cancelled the debt. Now as this servant went out, he happened to meet a fellow servant who owed him one hundred denarii; and he seized him by the throat and began to throttle him. “Pay what you owe me” he said. His fellow servant fell at his feet and implored him, saying, “Give me time and I will pay you.” But the other would not agree; on the contrary, he had him thrown into prison till he should pay the debt. His fellow servants were deeply distressed when they saw what had happened, and they went to their master and reported the whole affair to him. Then the master sent for him. “You wicked servant,” he said “I cancelled all that debt of yours when you appealed to me. Were you not bound, then, to have pity on your fellow servant just as I had pity on you?” And in his anger the master handed him over to the torturers till he should pay all his debt. And that is how my heavenly Father will deal with you unless you each forgive your brother from your heart.’

Readings and Commentary from the Navarre Bible

24th Sunday in Ordinary Time

From: Sirach 27:30 - 28:7

Forgiving others
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27:30 Anger and wrath, these also are abominations,
and the sinful man will possess them.

28[1] He that takes vengeance will suffer vengeance from the Lord,
and he will firmly establish his sins.
[2] Forgive your neighbor the wrong he has done,
and then your sins will be pardoned when you pray.
[3] Does a man harbor anger against another,
and yet seek for healing from the Lord?
[4] Does he have no mercy toward a man like himself,
and yet pray for his own sins?
[5] If he himself, being flesh, maintains wrath,
who will make expiation for his sins?
[6] Remember the end of your life, and cease from enmity,
remember destruction and death, and be true to the commandments.
[7] Remember the commandments, and do not be angry with your neighbor;
remember the covenant of the Most High, and overlook ignorance.

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Commentary:

28:1-11. This passage contains three groups of sayings on one theme: seek peace and reconciliation, not discord. The first group (vv. 1-5) has to do with forgiveness: one needs to forgive others in order to be forgiven oneself. The second group (vv. 6-7) gives the various reasons for not bearing grudges against one's neighbour: we should "remember" who we are and how good God has been to us. The third (vv. 8-11) wants against getting into arguments because they only make matters worse.

Our Lord may well have had these or similar sayings in mind when he taught in the Our Father, "Forgive us our debts as we also forgive our debtors" (Mt 6:12; cf. also Mt 6:14). "Christian prayer extends to the 'forgiveness of enemies' (cf. Mt 5:43-44), transfiguring the disciple by configuring him to his Master. Forgiveness is a high-point of Christian prayer; only hearts attuned to God's compassion can receive the gift of prayer. Forgiveness also bears witness that, in our world, love is stronger than sin. The martyrs of yesterday and today bear this witness to Jesus. Forgiveness is the fundamental condition of the reconciliation of the children of God with their Father and of men with one another" ("Catechism of the Catholic Church", 2844). And St John Chrysostom, quoting 28:2-4, writes: "Although you may not deliberately do harm to your enemies, if you fail to show goodwill to them and leave the wound open on their souls, you are disobeying the commandment laid down by Christ. How can you ask God to treat you with good grace, if you yourself do not show mercy to those who have sinned against you?" (:De compunctione:, 1, 5).

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From: Romans 14:7-12

Seeing Things from the Other Person's Point of View (Continuation)
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[7] None of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. [8] 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. [9] For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.

[10] Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God; [11] for it is written, "As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall give praise to God." [12] So each of us shall give account of himself to God.

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Commentary:

4-12. These ideas and counsels addressed to the faithful at Rome provide the basis of the motto traditional in the Church, "Unity in essentials, freedom in doubtful matters, and in all things charity" (cf. John XXIII, "Ad Petri Cathedram"; Vatican II, "Unitatis Redintegratio", 4). They mark the limits within which Christians should exercise their freedom--at one extreme, what is laid down by lawful authority; at the other, the need to practice charity towards all. The freedom of the "strong" ends where the demands of charity begin: therefore, they should not scandalize the weak; and the mistake the weak make is to regard as obligatory something which is not, something a person can do or not as he pleases.

Love for freedom, properly understood, is never a danger to the faith: "The only freedom that can assail the faith is a misinterpreted freedom, an aimless freedom, one without objective principles, one that is lawless and irresponsible. In a word, license [...]. This is why it is inaccurate to speak of 'freedom of conscience', thereby implying that it may be morally right for someone to reject God [...]. I defend with all my strength 'freedom of consciences' (Leo XIII, Enc. "Libertas Praestantissimum"), which means that no one can licitly prevent a man from worshipping God" (St. J. Escriva, "Friends of God", 32).

Freedom is "an exceptional sign of the image of God in man. For God willed that man should 'be left in the hand of his own counsel' (Sir 15:14) so that he might of his own accord seek his Creator and freely attain his full and blessed perfection by cleaving to him. Man's dignity therefore requires him to act out of conscious and free choice, as moved and drawn in a personal way from within, and not by blind impulses in himself or by mere external constraint" (Vatican II, "Gaudium Et Spes", 17). Therefore, the exercise of freedom consists in obeying a well formed conscience and thereby, with the help of grace, attaining one's last end and the means necessary thereto. In fact, man will be judged on his obedience or disobedience to the law written on his heart. "Conscience is man's most secret core, and his sanctuary. There he is alone with God" ("ibid.", 16f). Its dictates must always be obeyed, even if they be mistaken, and others should always respect a person's conscience, for only God can read and judge the human heart, and he forbids us to judge the inner blameworthiness of others (cf. "ibid.", 28).

"The just man, when he finds no way to excuse the action or the intention of someone whom he otherwise knows to be honest, not only does not judge him but rejects the very idea of doing so and leaves judgment to God. Our Lord on the Cross, not being able fully to excuse the sin of his crucifiers, at least lessened their malice saying that they did not know what they were doing. When we cannot excuse someone of sin, let us have pity on him, and try to find grounds for excusing him, such as ignorance or weakness" (St Francis de Sales, "Introduction to the Devout Life", III, chap. 28).

7-9. We do not own ourselves, we are not our own masters. God, One and Three, has created us, and Jesus Christ has freed us from sin by redeeming us with his Blood. Therefore, he is our lord, and we his servants, committed to him body and soul. Just as the slave is not his own master, but he himself and all he does redounds to the benefit of his master, everything we are and everything we have are geared, in the last analysis, not to our own use and benefit: we have to live and die for the glory of God. He is lord of our life and of our death. Commenting on these words St Gregory the Great says: "The saints, therefore, do not live and do not die for themselves. They do not live for themselves, because in all that they do they strive for spiritual gain: by praying, preaching and persevering in good works, they seek the increase of the citizens of the heavenly fatherland. Nor do they die for themselves because men see them glorifying God by their death, hastening to reach him through death" ("In Ezechielem Homiliae", II, 10).

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From: Matthew 18:21-35

Forgiveness of Injuries. The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant
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[21] Then Peter came up and said to Him (Jesus), "Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?" [22] Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven.

[23] "Therefore the Kingdom of Heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. [24] When he began the reckoning, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents; [25] and as he could not pay, his lord ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. [26] So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, 'Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.' [27] And out of pity for him the lord of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. [28] But that same servant, as he went out, came upon one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii; and seizing him by the throat he said, 'Pay what you owe.' [29] So his fellow servant fell down and besought him, 'Have patience with me, and I will pay you.' [30] He refused and went and put him in prison till he should pay his debt.

[31] When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their lord all that had taken place. [32] Then his lord summoned him and said to him, 'You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you besought me; [33] and should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?' [34] And in anger his lord delivered him to the jailers, till he should pay all his debt. [35] So also My Heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart."

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Commentary:

21-35. Peter's question and particularly Jesus' reply prescribe the spirit of understanding and mercy which should govern Christians' behavior.

In Hebrew the figure of seventy times seven means the same as "always" (cf. Genesis 4:24): "Therefore, our Lord did not limit forgiveness to a fixed number, but declared that it must be continuous and forever" (Chrysostom, "Hom. on St Matthew", 6). Here also we can see the contrast between man's ungenerous, calculating approach to forgiveness, and God's infinite mercy. The parable also clearly shows that we are totally in God's debt. A talent was the equivalent of six thousand denarii, and a denarius a working man's daily wage. Ten thousand talents, an enormous sum, gives us an idea of the immense value attaching to the pardon we receive from God. Overall, the parable teaches that we must always forgive our brothers, and must do so wholeheartedly.

"Force yourself, if necessary, always to forgive those who offend you, from the very first moment. For the greatest injury or offense that you can suffer from them is nothing compared to what God has pardoned you" (St. J. Escriva, "The Way", 452).

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Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

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