TWENTY FOURTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR
17 September 2017
Homily
This is such a tricky story and Jesus is at his best in telling it.
There’s a king who is rich beyond our experience.
In a kind of fickle move, he decides to settle up with all the people who owe him.
So the debtors are brought in. One by one: pay up, or suffer the consequences.
A poor man who owes a lot—
It could have been anyone of us who has a mortgage,
Is hauled in and forced to pay up now.
The guy has no way to pay.
He begs for time, the time he thought he had anyway.
The king relents and not only that, forgives him the whole loan.
We say, “Way to go King.”We get the point. You’re a hero if you forgive.
But the story doesn’t end there. This is where Jesus is tricky.
The debtor himself refuses to forgive the a fellow servant.
We think: “You jerk. Don’t you get it?
You have mercy shown you,
And you turn around with this harsh judgment against someone in the same boat as you.
You deserve what the king gave you in the end.”
And that’s of course when Jesus catches us.
We see how easily, quickly, without even thinking,
We move from forgiving to judgmental and unforgiving.
What sticks out in my mind, immediately when I read this passage,
are the people I have not forgiven,
the people I have not reconciled with.
I am reminded of the gaps in my discipleship.
What about you?
And that’s as it should be.
In fact, I am not guilt free and I should feel guilty.
This guilt is a good thing.
It assures me I have not totally hardened my heart against hearing what the Lord calls me to.
This guilt assures me, that all is not lost,
And even though I am not yet a perfect disciple, something in me still wants to be.
I hope that is true for you as well.