Twenty Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time A.  September 11 2005.  Our Lady of Grace 5:15, 7:30, 11:30.   Sirach 27:30 – 28:7.  Romans 14: 7-9.  Matthew 18: 21-35.

One of the most passionate and tragic love stories ever told is set in the midst of two families with a long history of hatred and violence between them. Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is a clear lesson about the tragic results flowing from our refusal to forgive.  For some unexplainable reason, Romeo from one warring family falls in love with Juliet from the other. The priest Romeo and Juliet go to for help agrees to marry them, hoping that their marriage will end the hatred between the two families.  But the hatred between their families is stronger than the young love that unites their children.  In the last scene members of both families stand around the dead bodies of Romeo and Juliet in deep anguish and grief.  While the two young people had taken their own lives, both families knew that their own hatred and refusal to forgive was by far the greater sin and the reason that this tragedy had happened.  The two warring families left the scene of their dead children united at last by forgiveness, but the price of their reconciliation was almost more than they could bear.   The tragedy of Romeo and Juliet is a graphic story of our lack of forgiveness.  Why do we let this tragic story go on playing in our own lives?

Our first reading from the Book of Sirach says, “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.”

We are all learning that the way to peace in Iraq and throughout the Middle East is the way of forgiveness.  A strong military presence may be necessary now to guarantee public order, but warfare will break out again as soon as the military presence leaves unless there is forgiveness and reconciliation among neighbors and fellow citizens of the land. The way of peace demands forgiveness for past hurts and atrocities, with the help of God’s grace, as we move forward on the path that leads to reconciliation and peace.  Rather than handing on past hurts and offenses to our children, God’s grace empowers us to seek forgiveness and to give our children a fresh start as we pursue the ways of peace.

Jesus not only gave us the new law of love, but he was also very clear about what that new law meant.  When Peter approached Jesus and asked him if forgiving his brother seven times was enough – after all, seven was the perfect number and seemed more than generous– Jesus stunned Peter by saying, “I say to you, not seven times, but seventy-seventy times.” Peter was on the right track in suggesting that he forgive seven times.  Jesus added another seven, two perfect numbers side by side.  In other words, we must forgive always.  Forgiveness is the most convincing sign of God’s presence and God’s grace in our lives.  That doesn’t mean that people should get by with murder or anything else.  We all need to be accountable for what we do.  Yet, holding people accountable and forgiving them are not the same thing.  We must still hold ourselves and others accountable when we seek forgiveness for our sins and forgive others.  Holding ourselves and others accountable in a spirit of mercy and forgiveness is a true work of grace.

Forgiveness is the most convincing sign of God’s presence and God’s grace.  When Jesus was nailed hands and feet to the cross he looked out on those who crucified him and said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are going.”   Jesus not only forgave those who crucified him, but he also made up an excuse for them, “They do not know what they are going.”  The Crucifix not only proclaims God’s love, but it also proclaims that love in a very specific way.  The Cross is about the divine gift of forgiveness.  We proclaim divine forgiveness at the heart of every Mass.  As he holds up the chalice the priests repeats the words of Jesus, “This is the cup of my blood, the blood of the new and eternal covenant that will be shed for you and for all so that sins may be forgiven.”    The Eucharist contains the gift of God’s forgiving love and those who receive the Eucharist are challenged and empowered to live the forgiving love of Christ by forgiving others.

Jesus told Peter and the other disciples a parable that makes it clear that our own future depends on our willingness to forgive others.  The master’s judgment on the servant who refused to forgive his fellow servant after he had himself been forgiven is very clear.  The master said to the unforgiving servant, “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.”  The comment of Jesus on the situation is very strong and it is directed to each of us: ‘So will my heavenly Father do to you, unless each of you forgives your brother or sister from your heart.”

An ancient bit of wisdom says that resentment or hatred is like a poison that we drink thinking that the other person will die.  The fact is that hatred and lack of forgiveness kills our spirits and our emotional health – and sometime that of our children, long before it touches the one we refuse to forgive.  If our own health is not enough reason to forgive, Jesus reminds us that God will treat us just as we have treated those we have not forgiven when we come before God on the Day of Judgment.

For the gift of forgiveness that heals us and our world we give God thanks and praise.