Homily for 24th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
24th Sunday of Ordinary Time
Sept. 16, 1990
Matt 18: 21-35
Holy Cross, Fairfield, Conn.

“My heavenly Father will treat you in exactly the same way unless each of you forgives his brother from his heart” (Matt 18: 35).

Parable of the Unmerciful Servant

Pieter Coecke van Aelst

The part of Matthew’s gospel that we’re been reading from for the last few weeks is concerned with the life of the Church.  Last week spoke of Church authority, e.g.  This week we look at the down-to-earth question of wrongs suffered and forgiveness.

The passage proclaimed to us today follows immediately on last week’s; last week’s gospel began with Jesus saying to the disciples:  “If your brother should commit some wrong against you,” this is what you are to do (Matt 18:15).  Always the realist, Peter has to jump in:  How does this work in practice?  “Lord, if my brother”—i.e., a fellow Christian—“sins against me, how often must I forgive him?  As many as 7 times?”

By the standard of Jewish law and human instinct, Peter is generous to think of forgiving the same person 7 times.  Jesus gives him 2 answers.  1st, he says, “Not 7 times but 77 times,” which is to say, indefinitely, infinitely.  Don’t even bother counting.  Then Jesus tells a parable.

Most of Jesus’ stories were about pretty realistic situations.  His listeners could imagine people and situations like those in the parables:  farmers, lost belongings, laborers, landowners.  Then Jesus would throw in a surprise ending to make an explicit comparison to make us think, to help us discover a new insight into God.  This parable is different.

It’s different because it’s fantastic.  It starts with a king who is settling accounts with his ministers.  That’s normal enuf.  One minister, evidently the governor of a province, comes up short.  Apparently he’s been pocketing the royal taxes.  In fact, it’s found that he owes the king billions; 10,000 talents is a ridiculously unrealistic sum, sort of like our national debt.  It’s just beyond imagination.  Well, OK, we suspend our disbelief and wait to see what the king will do.  Jesus’ hearers know what kings do.  Recall another parable in which a king orders his servant to bring in his enemies and slay them in his presence (Luke 19:27).  Imagine what King Fahd will do if he ever gets hold of Saddam Hussein.  The unfortunate minister begs for mercy.  “Be patient with me, and I’ll pay you back in full” (Matt 18:26).  Yeah, right.  Next he’s going to offer the king the Brooklyn Bridge.  This man is hopeless.  No way can he pay back what he owes.

We are stunned, then, to hear that the king, in a most unregal manner, is moved by compassion and writes off the whole debt, the equivalent of a billion dollars or two.

Jesus could have ended the parable there and have made an effective point about God’s mercy toward us.  But he wouldn’t have illustrated his answer to Peter.  The forgiven minister leaves the royal audience chamber and meets one of his peers.  This fellow owes him 100 denarii, the equivalent of about $3,600.  He grabs him by the throat and demands payment.  This poor man asks for time, using the exact same words that his assailant had used moments earlier.

We expect that the minister would act as he was acted upon.  What’s 100 denarii to write off, next to 10,000 talents?  On the other hand, his sense of gratitude and obligation was aroused only toward his royal master.  It’s not necessarily transferable.  The way of the world doesn’t exactly transfer obligations or compassion to 3d parties.

Yet the king’s reaction to what the minister has done, and the conclusion that Jesus draws for Peter and for us, tells us that what God has done for us is transferable.  There is no such thing as a private, just-God-and me Christianity.  Christianity is an “us” religion.  If I have received God’s mercy and hope to receive it in the future, I must dispense mercy—not to God, who obviously doesn’t need it, but to my fellow pilgrims.  If, instead, I demand justice, justice is also what I’ll get from God.  “My heavenly Father will treat you in exactly the same way unless each of you forgives his brother from his heart.”

Forgiveness doesn’t depend upon wealth, as almsgiving does.  Forgiveness is something we’ve all received, not only from God but also from some wonderful people over the years.  Forgiveness is a gift it’s always within our means to give, something that Jesus tells us we must give, over and over again if need be.  God certainly forgives us over and over when we beg him, “Be patient with me.”  The gratitude that he wants is our compassion toward our fellow sinners, especially our own brothers and sisters in faith.