Other Sunday and Holy Day Readings
24th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (Cycle A)
Readings:
Sirach 27:30-28:7
Psalm 103:1-4, 9-12
Romans 14:7-9
Matthew 18:21-35
Abbreviations: NABRE (New American Bible Revised Edition), NJB (New Jerusalem Bible), IBHE (Interlinear Bible Hebrew-English), IBGE (Interlinear Bible Greek-English), or LXX (Greek Septuagint Old Testament translation). CCC designates a citation from the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The word LORD or GOD rendered in all capital letters is, in the Hebrew text, God's Divine Name, YHWH (Yahweh).
The two Testaments reveal God's divine plan for humanity; therefore, we read and relive the events of salvation history in the Old and New Testaments in the Church's Liturgy. The Catechism teaches that the Liturgy reveals the unfolding mystery of God's plan as we read the Old Testament in light of the New and the New Testament in light of the Old (CCC 1094-1095).
The Theme of the Readings: Lord, Help Us To Forgive Others
As You Forgive Us
The Christian's duty to love as Christ loves us has been the
theme of the readings for the past three Sundays. We demonstrate our love for
Christ by showing the same mercy and forgiveness to others that God has shown us.
Mercy and forgiveness should be at the heart of the lives of those who love God. However, as the First Reading reminds us, we sometimes stubbornly hold on to our anger and withhold forgiveness when we feel wronged. The inspired writer of Sirach summarized his message, writing: Wrath and anger are hateful things, yet the sinner hugs them tight. 28:1 The vengeful will suffer the LORD's vengeance, for he remembers their sins in detail (Sirach 27:30-28:1, NABRE). Acting out in anger that inflicts harm is an abomination to God. As for those motivated to do wrong by releasing hateful feelings, God will remember their transgressions. The appeal in the First Reading is to seek peace and reconciliation instead of disharmony and discord. Anger and conflict are the products of a vengeful and unforgiving heart. At the end of the Lord's Prayer, Jesus warned: "If you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions" (Mt 6:14-15, NABRE).
Today's Responsorial Psalm encourages us to be merciful to others just as our Father in Heaven is merciful to us. St. Thomas Aquinas eloquently expressed the message of our reading when he wrote: "So splendid is the grace of God and his love for us that he has done much more for us than we can ever comprehend" (Expositio in Credum, 61).
In our Second Reading, St. Paul reminds us that we do not belong to a world controlled by sin; Christians belong to Christ. We are no longer our own because we have been purchased by the precious blood Jesus shed for us on the altar of the Cross. Extending our forgiveness to others is the best expression of our gratitude to Jesus for the mercy and forgiveness He offers us in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
In the Gospels, Jesus repeatedly warned us that when we withhold our forgiveness, our anger and desire for vengeance can become a hindrance to experiencing God's forgiveness for our sins (i.e., Mt 6:14-15; Mk 11:25). In today's Gospel Reading, Jesus gave an example to His disciples to illustrate the necessity of forgiveness in the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant. Jesus's parable teaches Christians, who are His servants, to forgive their brothers and sisters who have wronged them in the Church's covenant family. When Christians face the Judgment Throne of God and are held accountable for any sins committed against love, God will take our selfish desire to withhold forgiveness into account. Jesus calls us to practice His example of forgiveness when, from the altar of the Cross, He cried out, "Father, forgive them" (Mt 23:34).
The First Reading Sirach 27:30-28:7 ~ Forgive Others as God Forgives You
27:30 Wrath and anger are hateful
things, yet the sinner hugs them tight. 28:1 The vengeful will suffer the
LORD's vengeance, for he remembers their sins in detail. 2 Forgive your neighbor's
injustice; then when you pray, your own sins will be forgiven. 3 Could anyone
nourish anger against another and expect healing from the LORD? 4 Could anyone
refuse mercy to another like himself, can he seek pardon for his own sins? 5 If
one who is but flesh cherishes wrath, who will forgive his sins? 6 Remember your
last days, set enmity aside; remember death and decay, and cease from sin! 7 Think
of the commandments, hate not your neighbor, remember the Most High's covenant,
and overlook faults.
This book is one of the few Bible Books that gives the name of the inspired writer. According to Sirach 50:27, the writer is Jesus, son of Eleazar, son of Sira. The earliest title of the book was apparently "Wisdom of the Son of Sira [Sirach]." However, the title "Liber Ecclesiasticus," "Church Book," appears in many Greek and Latin manuscripts, probably due to the Church's extensive use of this book in presenting moral teaching to catechumens.
Jesus ben Eleazar ben Sira lived in Jerusalem and wrote the book between 200 and 175 BC. It was translated into Greek, the international language of the time, sometime after 132 BC, by the author's grandson. He also wrote a forward to the book, which contains information about his grandfather, the book itself (which he testifies was initially written in Hebrew), and the circumstances under which he did the translation. The Book of Sirach was known only from the Greek and Latin manuscripts until the end of the 19th century. Then, between 1896 and 1900, again in 1931, and several times since 1956, Hebrew manuscripts were discovered containing about two-thirds of the book, all of which agreed with the Greek texts.
The Catholic Church has consistently recognized the Book of Sirach as divinely inspired and canonical except for the forward written by the author's grandson. However, Catholic Bibles include the grandson's introduction because of its importance to the history of the book. The Jews dropped the book from their Bible in the Middle Ages, insisting that only books written in Hebrew could be included in their canon (there were no Hebrew copies discovered at that time). The Protestants dropped Sirach from their Bibles after the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century AD, along with six other books, and parts of two others also dropped from the Jewish canon. St. Jerome (342-420 AD) and the rabbis of his time quoted from Sirach and knew the book in its original language. See the comparison between the Jewish, Catholic, and Protestant Bibles.
The inspired writer of Sirach summarizes the message of our passage in 27:30-28:1, NABRE ~ 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. Unbridled anger is an abomination to God, and as for the sinners who possess and act out in hate, God will remember their transgressions.
In verses 3-5, Ben Sira asks three rhetorical questions:
The answer to the first two questions is "No." The answer to the third rhetorical question appears in verse 2, NABRE ~ Forgive your neighbor's injustice; then when you pray, your own sins will be forgiven. A sinner cannot receive expiation for the sin of anger against a covenant brother or sister until the sinner seeks reconciliation with his or her covenant brother or sister (Ex 23:4-5; Lev 19:17-18). For this reason, we seek out our covenant brothers and sisters and extend to them our love in the greeting of peace at Mass before we go to the altar to receive Christ's love in the Eucharist. It is good to remember St. Paul's warning in his first letter to the Corinthians concerning receiving the Eucharist: Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord. A person should examine himself, and so eat the bread and drink the cup (1 Cor 11:27-28, NABRE).
6 Remember your last days, set enmity aside; remember
death and decay, and cease from sin! 7 Think of the commandments, hate not your
neighbor, remember the Most High's covenant, and overlook faults.
Verses 6-7 are a warning that one must be willing to offer
forgiveness and to let go of the sin of an angry and vindictive spirit before
it is too late and death removes the possibility of reconciliation. In verse 7,
the words "Think of the commandments" is a reminder of the commandment from the
Holiness Code in Leviticus 19:17-18, NJB ~ You shall not bear hatred for
your brother in your heart. Though you may have to reprove your fellow man, do
not incur sins because of him. Take no revenge and cherish no grudge against
your fellow countrymen. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the
LORD. Jesus alluded to the command from Leviticus 19:18 in Matthew 5:43 and
quoted from it in Matthew 22:39 and Mark 12:3 (using the Greek Septuagint
translation) as the second of the two most important commandments of God:
The point of this teaching then and now is to demonstrate our gratitude to God in our actions. God has shown us His mercy and compassion by forgiving our sins, and we demonstrate our love when we manifest the same mercy, compassion, and forgiveness to others. A spirit of forgiveness is a high point of the Christian life. Those hearts attuned to God's compassion are the hearts that can bear witness to the truth that love is stronger than sin.
St. John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople (347-407), wrote concerning today's passage: "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 compunction, 1.5). The Catholic Catechism teaches: "Forgiveness is the fundamental condition of the reconciliation of the children of God with their heavenly Father and of men with one another" (CCC 2844). The appeal in our passage is to seek peace and reconciliation instead of disharmony and discord. They are the antithesis of love and the product of a vengeful and unforgiving heart.
Responsorial Psalm 103:1-4, 9-12 ~ God is Merciful
The response is: "The Lord is kind and merciful, slow to
anger, and rich in compassion."
1 Bless the LORD, O my soul; and all my being, bless his
holy name. 2 Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.
Response:
3 He pardons all your iniquities, heals all your ills. 4 He
redeems your life from destruction, crowns you with kindness and compassion.
Response:
9 He will not always chide, nor does he keep his wrath
forever. 10 Not according to our sins does he deal with us, nor does he requite
us according to our crimes.
Response:
11 For as the heavens are high above the earth, so
surpassing is his kindness toward those who fear him. 12 As far as the east is
from the west, so far has he put our transgressions from us.
Response:
This psalm, attributed to David, praises God for all the blessings He bestows upon the psalmist, then continues with God's mercy to all people. The survey of all that God has done for His people (summarized in verses 9-10) concludes by acknowledging the immensity of God's love for His people in verses 11-12.
Our eternal God is well aware of our human frailties but does not withhold His love and mercy. St. Thomas Aquinas eloquently expresses the message of this passage: "So splendid is the grace of God and his love for us, that he has done much more for us than we can ever comprehend" (Expositio in Credum, 61).
The Second Reading Romans 14:7-9 ~ Living For Christ
7 None of us lives for oneself, and no one dies for
oneself. 8 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. 9 For this is why
Christ died and came to life that he might be Lord of both the dead and the
living.
From the time of our Christian Baptism, we no longer belong to the world, and we no longer belong to ourselves. We belong to Christ! We are no longer our own masters because Jesus has redeemed us by the shedding of His Precious Blood. In 1 Corinthians 6:20, NJB, St. Paul wrote, You are not your own property then, you have been bought at a price. So use your body for the glory of God. We have become Christ's servants, committed to Him body and soul. Therefore, we live and die for the glory of God because He is the Lord of our life and our death. We also live in the Body of Christ, which is the Church; it is a communion of love communicated to us through the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
Living in harmony in this communion of love, if one member of the Body suffers, then all suffer together. And, if one member is honored, then all the communion of believers, in Heaven and on earth, rejoice. As Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 12:26-27, NJB ~ If one part is hurt, all the parts share its pain. And if one part is honored, all the parts share its joy. Now Christ's body is yourselves, each of you with a part to play in the whole. Concerning today's Second Reading, Pope St. Gregory the Great wrote, "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" (Pope St. Gregory V: In Ezechielem homiliae, II, 10). See CCC 946-948 and 953.
The Gospel of Matthew 18:21-35 ~ The Necessity of
Christian Forgiveness and the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant
21 Peter approached Jesus and asked him, "Lord, if my
brother sins against me, how often must I forgive? As many as seven times?" 22 Jesus
answered, "I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times. 23 That is
why the kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who decided to settle accounts
with his servants. 24 When he began the accounting, a debtor was brought before
him who owed him a huge amount [a myriad of talents]. 25 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. 26 At that, the servant
fell down, did him homage, and said, 'Be patient with me, and I will pay you
back in full.' 27 Moved with compassion, the master of that servant let him go
and forgave him the loan. 28 When that servant had left, he found one of his fellow
servants who owed him a much smaller amount [one hundred denarii]. He seized
him and started to choke him, demanding, 'Pay back what you owe.' 29 Falling to
his knees, his fellow servant begged him, 'Be patient with me, and I will pay
you back.' 30 But he refused. Instead, he had the fellow servant put in prison
until he paid back the debt. 31 Now, when his fellow servants saw what had
happened, they were deeply disturbed, and went to their master and reported the
whole affair. 32 His master summoned him and said to him, 'You wicked servant! I
forgave you your entire debt because you begged me to. 33 Should you not have
pity on your fellow servant, as I have had pity on you?' 34 Then in anger, his
master handed him over to the torturers until he should pay back the whole
debt. 35 So will my heavenly Father do to you, unless each of you forgives his
brother from his heart."
[...] = literal translation from the IBGE, Vol. IV, page 54.
Our passage from the Gospel of Matthew is from the last two sections of Jesus's discourse that began in Matthew Chapter 18. This part of His discourse concerns the obligation of the disciples to forgive brothers and sisters in the covenant family who have wronged them.
Verses 21-22 concern forgiving a brother or sister within the covenant family. St. Peter approached Jesus and wanted a more explicit definition of how many times he was obligated to forgive someone who had wronged him. The number Jesus gave Peter is significant but should not be taken literally. Jesus gave a number that had a symbolic value. The number in the Greek text can be understood as seven times ten plus seven times = 77 times, or it can be seen as seven times ten times seven = 490 times. In both cases, seven is the symbolic number of perfection, fulfillment, and completion. It is also the number of the Holy Spirit and the number representing a covenant. Ten is the number of divine government. The numbers seven and ten together symbolize divine government's spiritual perfection and fulfillment within the covenant with God. In any event, the answer is that Peter's forgiveness should be limitless. See the document "The Significance of Numbers in Scripture."
What generated St. Peter's question to Jesus in verse 21 may be an exchange not recorded in the Gospel of Matthew. In Luke 17:3-4, NABRE, Jesus taught the disciples about forgiveness and said: "Be on your guard! If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. And if he wrongs you seven times in one day and returns to you seven times saying, 'I am sorry,' you should forgive him" (underlining added for emphasis). If you approach Matthew 18:21-22 in light of the passage in the Gospel of Luke, the interpretation is quite different. In the Gospel of Luke exchange, Jesus spoke about forgiveness within the community of believers, and the command was to forgive seven times, using the number that symbolically expressed fullness and completion. Perhaps St. Peter, as the spokesman of the disciples, was asking the question because he was looking for clarification since the rabbis considered three times forgiveness to be sufficient (Mishnah: Yoma, 86b-87a). In any event, Jesus told Peter he must forgive not seven times, as Jesus told the other disciples, but seventy-seven times or seventy times seven times, exercising the spiritual perfection and fulfillment of the Church's divine government.
When Peter asked for clarification on the perfection of brotherly forgiveness, one might ask why Jesus's answer was such a larger symbolic number than what Jesus gave to the other disciples in Luke 17:3-4. The simple answer is that forgiveness to the repentant covenant member should be unlimited. However, considering Peter's status as the Vicar of Christ, Jesus's demand may be greater because the Church must be unlimited in offering forgiveness for sins even to the greatest sinner who seeks mercy, a requirement beyond the mere human capacity for forgiveness.
To illustrate His point about forgiveness within the covenant community of His Kingdom of the Church, Jesus continued His teaching with a parable that was an extension of His exchange with St. Peter. In verse 24, the first servant owed the king an incredibly large amount of money. In ancient Greek, a "myriad of talents" equaled ten thousand talents, with a single talent worth six thousand denarii. A single denarius was worth a day's wage for the typical laborer. Therefore, the money owed to the king was an impossible sum for the servant to repay. In contrast, the money the second servant owed was one hundred denarii, equivalent to about 100 days of labor, and not an impossible sum to repay (C. Mitch and E. Sri, The Gospel of Matthew, page 234).
In the parable, both servants begged for mercy. The first servant asked the king for mercy because of his vast debt (of sin). The second servant asked the first servant to whom the king had granted mercy and forgiveness for the same compassion for his debt to his fellow servant. When the first servant refused to forgive his fellow servant, the king/master's anger was justified since he offered the first servant sinner his bountiful forgiveness. The king's mercy was more than the servant deserved, and yet the first servant was not willing to extend even a small portion of the forgiveness he received from his master to his fellow servant. The king/master then harshly judged the servant who refused to forgive; his lack of forgiveness cut him off from the king's mercy and forgiveness.
Keep in mind that this is an allegory about the Church of Christ's Kingdom, and each of the elements is symbolic:
Jesus gave this same teaching about being shown God's mercy and the requirement to extend the same forgiveness to others three times in the Sermon on the Mount:
The prison/torturers that the unforgiving servant was handed over to by the king/master in verse 34 cannot be the Hell of the damned/Gehenna, as some have suggested. Prison is temporary, but Hell/Gehenna is forever (CCC 1030-32 and 1033-37). In the ancient world, prison was always a temporary confinement for someone who broke the law. Convicted criminals suffered execution, and debtors were confined until the debt was "paid in full." Jesus was straightforward when He referred to eternal punishment. He either refers directly to Gehenna (Mt 5:22, 29, 30; 10:28; 18:9; 23:15, 33) or indirectly to Gehenna as the place of "wailing and grinding of teeth" (Mt 13:42, 50) or the place of unquenchable fire (Mt 7:19; 13:40, 42; 18:8, 9; 25:41). This passage uses none of those descriptions. Verse 34 states the debt can be paid, and when the whole debt is paid, the servant will be released. There is no release from the Hell of the damned, but there is a release from Hades (abode of the dead in Greek and Sheol in Hebrew), what we now call Purgatory, once one has become purified of one's sins.
Jesus used the metaphor of prison and debt payment in referring to Sheol/Hades in His teaching about forgiveness in Matthew 5:25-26, NABRE ~ "Settle with your opponent quickly while on the way to court with him. Otherwise, your opponent will hand you over to the judge, and the judge will hand you over to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison. Amen, I say to you, you will not be released until you have paid the last penny" (emphasis added; also see Lk 12:58-9).
St. Peter also referred to Sheol/Hades as a prison in 1 Peter 3:19, NABRE ~ In it he also went to preach to the spirits in prison, who had once been disobedient while God patiently waited in the days of Noah during the building of the ark, referring to Jesus's descent into Sheol/Hades from His tomb (also see 1 Cor 3:10-15; CCC 633 and 1030-35). The prison imagery for Sheol/Hades in Matthew 5:25-26 and the judicial imagery in both 5:25-26 and 18:34-35 connect these passages to the Church's judicial power to bind and loose sins in holding the keys to Sheol/Hades and the Kingdom of Heaven (see Mt 16:18-19; 18:18; Jn 20:22-23). Withholding our forgiveness from those who seek it will not cost us our eternal salvation, but it will require the fiery purifying love of God in our penance owed for our sin-debt in Purgatory (see 1 Cor 3:12-15; CCC 1030-32).
Our lack of love can reach a point that puts our eternal salvation in jeopardy, as Jesus taught in Matthew 25:3-46. It is best to remember today's Gospel acclamation from John 13:34 and St. John's advice in 1 John 4:20-21, NABRE ~ If anyone says, "I love God," but hates his brother, he is a liar; for whoever does not love a brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. This is the commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.
Catechism References (*indicates Scripture quoted or
paraphrased in the citation)"
Sirach 27:30-28:7 (CCC 2844)
Romans 14 (CCC 1971*); 14:7 (CCC 953); 14:9 (CCC 668)
Matthew 18:21-22 (CCC 982*, 2227, 2845); 18:23-35 (CCC 2843*)
God is love (CCC 218*, 219*, 220*, 221*)
God manifests His glory by sharing His goodness (CCC 294*)
"Forgive us our trespasses" (CCC 2838*, 2839*, 2840*, 2841*, 2842*, 2843*, 2844*, 2845*)
Michal E Hunt, Copyright © 2014; revised 2023 Agape Bible Study. Permissions All Rights Reserved.