Thursday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Peter H. Davids

Ordinary Time • Sermon • Submitted 9 months ago • Presented 9 months ago

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While Peter wanted to go beyond the rabbinic limit to forgiveness, Jesus calls us to unlimited forgiveness. That is because forgiveness, unlike reconciliation that requires both to be involved, is under our control and makes us like Jesus/his Father, and frees us, as the parable shows. Failing to forgive leaves us bound and tortured. So let us forgive, let go of our issues to Jesus, first by a decision, then by repeated times of release to Jesus as the memory rises with its feelings, and finally enjoying the full freedom of being able to remember without pain - we are free.

Notes

Transcript

Title

Forgiveness

Outline

Forgiveness is in short supply in our society

We want to call out the offender publicly and to get our pound of flesh or at least our pounds of money

Jesus calls us to the freedom of forgiveness

Forgiveness is not reconciliation, for reconciliation requires that the offending party admit their wrong, communicate their sorrow to the one they have wronged, and seek to change their behavior. Forgiveness is simply our releasing the one who has wronged us.

Peter knows forgiveness must be generous, not the 3 or 4 times of rabbinic interpretation, but he has a very reachable limit.

Jesus knows the forgiveness that God is offering and so says that there is no limit (the 77 being beyond what one could keep track of).

In the parable Jesus points out that God has forgiven us a vast amount, like the amounts used in international commerce, while the debts we suffer are real, but finite, in this case about 1/3 of a year’s wages for a laborer.

The point is that having being forgiven so much we should forgive our much smaller debts and if we do not note that in the end of the parable the unforgiving servant is bound and in torture.

That is what failing to forgive does to us: we end up bound to the one who owes us and we end up tortured by this bondage - sometimes by demons.

Brothers and sisters let us forgive

Reconciliation is the ideal, but it requires two. Forgiveness is the necessity, for it is being like Jesus and his Father.

Forgiveness is letting go; I think of it as letting go of the issue by placing it in the hands of Jesus.

Forgiveness is a process: the first forgiveness is a decision, then as the memory comes up again with its emotion with quietly, perhaps with a breath prayer, release the situation to Jesus until we return to peace. Finally comes the time when we can remember without the feelings being there.

Forgiveness is being like Jesus. Forgiveness is our healing for many diseases. Forgiveness is our freedom. Let us be people of forgiveness.

Readings

Catholic Daily Readings 8-17-2023: Thursday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time

FIRST READING

Joshua 3:7–10a, 11, 13–17

7 Then the LORD said to Joshua: Today I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. 8 Now command the priests carrying the ark of the covenant, “When you come to the edge of the waters of the Jordan, there take your stand.”

9 So Joshua said to the Israelites, “Come here and listen to the words of the LORD, your God.” 10 He continued: “By this you will know that there is a living God in your midst: he will certainly dispossess before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites, and Jebusites.

11 The ark of the covenant of the Lord of the whole earth will cross the Jordan before you.

13 When the soles of the feet of the priests carrying the ark of the LORD, the Lord of the whole earth, touch the waters of the Jordan, it will cease to flow; the water flowing down from upstream will halt in a single heap.”

14 The people set out from their tents to cross the Jordan, with the priests carrying the ark of the covenant ahead of them. 15 When those bearing the ark came to the Jordan and the feet of the priests bearing the ark were immersed in the waters of the Jordan—which overflows all its banks during the entire season of the harvest— 16 the waters flowing from upstream halted, standing up in a single heap for a very great distance indeed, from Adam, a city in the direction of Zarethan; those flowing downstream toward the Salt Sea of the Arabah disappeared entirely. Thus the people crossed over opposite Jericho. 17 The priests carrying the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood on dry ground in the Jordan riverbed while all Israel crossed on dry ground, until the whole nation had completed the crossing of the Jordan.

Catholic Daily Readings 8-17-2023: Thursday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time

RESPONSE

Text

PSALM

Psalm 114:1–6

1 When Israel came forth from Egypt,

the house of Jacob from an alien people,

2 Judah became God’s sanctuary,

Israel, God’s domain.

3 The sea saw and fled;

the Jordan turned back.

4 The mountains skipped like rams;

the hills, like lambs.

5 Why was it, sea, that you fled?

Jordan, that you turned back?

6 Mountains, that you skipped like rams?

You hills, like lambs?

Catholic Daily Readings 8-17-2023: Thursday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time

GOSPEL ACCLAMATION

Psalm 119:135

135 Let your face shine upon your servant;

teach me your statutes.

GOSPEL

Matthew 18:21–19:1

21 Then Peter approaching asked him, “Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? 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. 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. 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 him 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 had pity on your fellow servant, as I 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.”

CHAPTER 19

1 When Jesus finished these words, he left Galilee and went to the district of Judea across the Jordan.

Notes

Catholic Daily Readings 8-17-2023: Thursday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time

THURSDAY, AUGUST 17, 2023 | ORDINARY TIME

THURSDAY OF THE NINETEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

YEAR 1 | ROMAN MISSAL | LECTIONARY

First Reading Joshua 3:7–10a, 11, 13–17

Response Text

Psalm Psalm 114:1–6

Gospel Acclamation Psalm 119:135

Gospel Matthew 18:21–19:1

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