THE FREEDOM OF FORGIVENESS

Reflection for the Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time - 13.09.2026 (Year A)

First Reading: Sir 27:30-28: Second Reading: Rom 14:7-9 Gospel: Mt 18:21-35

Dear friends, we are all human beings who experience limitations, difficulties and uncertainty. These human experiences show how fragile and weak we are, despite enormous potentialities. The awareness of our conditioned nature and the surety of our demise from this world one day – although we do not know the exact date and time – must humble us. We must become grateful for the things that are under our control and be kind to things that are beyond our capacities. When we approach life from the awareness of its transitory nature, we either embrace life as a gift or as a burden. Anyone who considers life as a burden due to its fleeting nature may not see any goodness around. On the other hand, anyone who considers life as a gift would make it a point to use the life well until the end comes. Such a person would try avoid adding more burdens to life. The readings of this twenty fourth Sunday invite us to avoid adding more burdens to life. They give us a call to make our life simpler and happier.

In the present world, the greatest burden most of the people face is financial burden. The one word that make people worry a lot is, ‘debt’. No one wants to have any debts to be cleared. To be a debtor is like being in prison. It constrains our freedom, desires and plans. Above all, it affects all the aspects of one’s life – personal, family, social and spiritual. Almost in every election campaign, the political parties promise to waiver the loan for particular group or category of people, if they are elected to power. The release from the debts is a real freedom today. Apart from becoming financial debtors, we are also debtors to many other things. We are debtors to anything that we use is not our own. Consider our life, it is not our own. It is being give to us as gratuitous gift. Therefore, we have the duty to use it well. Similarly, many good things we experience in life, even people who come across in our life are gifts. Therefore, we need to use it well or else we become debtors. If we use it well, we have nothing to be pay back – no interest, not even the things lent. But in today’s Gospel, Jesus shows that we are not only lent many things from Him without the condition of paying Him back or without any interest, but also have received great mercy from Him through the cancellation of all the debts that we owe Him.

In the Gospel, a king cancels 10,000 talents debts of his servant. This is not a simple gesture from the part of a king. 1 talent is fifteen years wage of a servant. Therefore, however the servant tries, he would not be able to pay back the debts. This is only a parable, in reality no king would lend such a huge amount to a servant. This parable is to show how much God has blessed us with. He has given us many things in life which we would never be able to pay back if he started collecting loans back, much less the interest. Therefore, all of us enjoy not being a debtor to God who has given us all things. We would become debtor to Him, if we do not use the gifts well. The servant in the gospel goes out and chokes fellow servant who owed him a hundred denarii, which is a payable amount, had he given his fellow servant some more time. But, he acted instantly, showing no mercy to his fellow servant. This only enrages the king to make the servant one again accountable for the debts which he had cancelled it earlier. From here, Jesus takes to show the calculation of God. We become debtors, when we do not have the heart to cancel the debts others owe us. It is not just financial debts that Jesus is talking about. It is about forgiving people for the evil they have done to us intentionally. We are affected by their thoughts and deeds. But when we forgive them, we become like a king in the gospel who cancels great debts and accepts the loss incurred. The responsorial psalm praises the forgiving nature of God; He forgives all your iniquity… He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor requite us according to our iniquities… as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. (Ps 103). If God who is entitled to collect back everything with interest is waiving, who are we mortals to choke each other for owing simple debts? (Sir 28:5).

The first reading clearly says, “Anger and wrath, these also are abominations, and the sinful man will possess them.” (Sir 27:30). It invites us to look at the limitations of our life and be kind. Christ took up suffering although He had no need of it. We too must accept sufferings and difficulties caused by others. When we forgive people wholeheartedly for what they have done to us, we become free to move on, rather than get struck with particular thing and harbour it unproductively. It would only make us sinners more, the debtors to God. In the world we have the vocation to be just. Being a just person involves forgiving the unjust. Sometimes we mix up this vocation with fighting for the rights. We need to fight for rights that have been denied, but that does not justify that the person involved in denial of rights must be banished without mercy. Let us be merciful, so that the world may come to know Jesus through us. The greatest proclamation of the Gospel is not what the missionary does in new places, or the preaching done by priests and religious in religious settings. The greatest proclamation takes place when people of God forgive wholeheartedly without any reservation. Let the world know the good news of Jesus through our forgiveness. Let us be ambassadors of Christ to the people around us. Let our merciful life contrast the world that seeks every penny back with interest. May the merciful God be revealed through us.