Learning Our Way to Jesus’ 77 Times

Homily: Twenty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)

Matthew 18:21-35 

13 September 2020

Fr. Ricky C. Montanez

The other day, the hashtag #SorryToFilipinos became the number two (#2) trending topic among South Koreans on Twitter. This came about after another hashtag #CancelKorea went viral a few days earlier. Are you as puzzled by this online ruckus, as my friends are?  Let me fill you in. A Filipino-American influencer posted a video on TikTok showing her arm tattoo that resembles a Japanese rising sun flag— an offensive symbol for South Koreans—so they lashed out on Twitter, condemning Filipinos in general.  Some alleged that Filipinos are uneducated, short, ugly, poor, etc. Sadly, these insensitive and hateful comments continued even after that Fil-Am influencer apologised for her insensitivity. Filipino Twitter users countered with the hashtag #CancelKorea to mock South Korea’s penchant for surgical enhancements vis a vis the internationally recognized natural beauty of the Filipinas, and to debunk the myth that Filipinos are uneducated by highlighting that our country is a popular destination for South Koreans who want to improve their English skills. Level headed South Koreans, lobbied for an outpouring of apologies via the hashtag #SorryToFilipinos. In the end, Filipinos on Twitter accepted the apology. Lesson learned! Forgiveness wins!

The Sunday’s readings centre on the bountiful mercy of God and our responsibility as believers to extend this same forgiving love to our brothers and sisters. Psalm 103 declares “The Lord is kind and merciful, slow to anger, and rich in compassion.” (Psalm 103:8) We are all in need of God’s abundant mercy because we are all sinners who have at some point offended others. In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells his disciples the Parable of the Merciless Servant whose Master is the best example of how God is lenient with our transgressions. The master does far more than what the servant-debtor asks: “Be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full.” (Matthew 18:26) He does not ask the master to wipe out his debt but to remain patient with him. He is then surprised when the master shows him compassion and condones the debt in full. How blessed we are to have a God who looks on His people with eyes of mercy despite our unworthiness and repeated sinfulness.  Psalm 130:3 reminds us “If you, O Lord, mark iniquities, Lord who can stand?”  

Going back to the parable, we see that it continues with a twist. The beneficiary of the master’s mercy refuses to afford the same concession to a fellow servant-debtor. For this, the master hands over the hard-hearted servant to torturers until he pays the whole debt. Sirach in the First Reading elaborates on this divine reckoning by admonishing us to be merciful with other people’s offences if we want God to be merciful towards our own sins. “Forgive your neighbour’s injustice; then when you pray, your own sins will be forgiven.” (Sirach 28:2) This is in fact no different from the line from the Lord’s Prayer that we so often pray… “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” This is not to be taken lightly!  Someone remarked: “How can we expect God to forgive us our exorbitant debts when we are unwilling to forgive the paltry debts of our neighbour?” Do you realize that whenever we pray this line from the Our Father with unforgiving hearts, we are actually passing judgment on ourselves for withholding mercy? 

The tragic end of the unforgiving servant in the parable is a warning to us. Jesus wants us to forgive one another in the same manner God forgives us.  Fundamental to our mutual forgiveness of one another is our experience of the abundance of God’s mercy and not so much our attempt to be compassionate towards each other.  This realization makes it harder to justify our human tendency to hold grudges against those who have wronged us. St. Paul says “None of us lives for oneself, and no one dies for oneself. If we live, we live for the Lord, and if we die we die for the Lord.” (Romans 4:7-8) 

Admittedly, forgiveness from the heart is not easy for us. This human condition puts into perspective Jesus’ response to Peter’s question on how often we must forgive our erring brother or sister. “I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times.” (Matthew 18:22) As learning is essential to our growth and maturity as persons and followers of Jesus, we continue to allow ourselves to be moulded by God’s grace to keep on forgiving until we have learned to forgive from the heart. As we would often say, practice makes perfect. In the standards of the world, we may look like losers, weaklings and pushovers to those whose hearts are consumed by pride, hatred and vengeance. However, for Jesus we are blessed… “Blest are the merciful for they will be shown mercy.” (Matthew 5:7) And we should not forget… if our recompense is not in this life, surely it will be in the next.

In my ten (10) years of priesthood, I have never presided over as many masses for the dead as I have done virtually during these past months. For me, this is one of the saddest realities of the pandemic. Many people died not just because of COVID but of other lingering illnesses. Not all of them were able to make amends with those they have hurt or who have hurt them, because of the suddenness of their predicament and the restrictions of their hospital confinement. I myself, lost my Mama two (2) days into the lockdown. There is a part of me that knows we have done all we possibly could to make Mama feel that she was loved and cared for until the very end. However, there will always be a part of me that wishes I had had more time to say what needed to be said, including asking forgiveness for whatever it is that I may have done that caused her pain.  The death of a loved one makes us ask the hard questions in life, inviting us to focus on those things that are truly essential; namely, our relationship with God (God’s centrality in our existence), and the expression of this relationship with God, which translates to love of neighbour. 

Does a preference for forgiveness and mercy diminish justice? Is this to say that God does not uphold justice?  Of course, not… but He is in no rush to mete it out.  The Bible holds countless accounts of how God relents from dealing punishment for offences because the sinner expressed sincere contrition. Think about the story of Nineveh. God had threatened to destroy the city for their godless ways but when the king, his subjects and even their livestock repented, they were spared!  In His mercy, God gives us every opportunity for repentance while we are alive. As Christians, we believe, that it is in death that we get our just desserts. 

We live in very uncertain times.  We are learning so painfully that life is too short.  Let us be generous with our mercy and leave justice to God. Forgive so as not to be a prisoner of one’s anger, resentment and vindictiveness. Forgive to rid ourselves of all that hinder us from experiencing the true freedom and peace of forgiving hearts! Be merciful because God has been merciful to us.

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