Homily: 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time
September 13, 2026
My dear brothers and sisters, the readings of today continue with the theme that we started last Sunday on how we handle the offence done to us by others. The first reading and the gospel reading center on the virtue of forgiveness. First of all, it must be admitted that forgiveness is not easy, it is not cheap. When people treat us unjustly, everything inside us screams for revenge. Many people regard it as their right to return evil for evil. If they cannot, they feel they have lost their freedom. The desire to hold to hatred and seek vengeance against someone who has injured us lies deep in the human heart, it is a base instinct, all animals do the same. In ancient times, the way to make up for wrongs received was to retaliate with the greatest possible violence, so that those responsible would pay dearly and heavily. The wrong was returned with added interest. If one harms your domestic animal, you go and kill his entire household, plunder and loot all his flock and anything good in his house. That was animalistic level of existence.
In the Sacred Scripture, we see that there was a progressive evolution from this retaliatory instinct towards the virtue of forgiveness. As far back as the time of Moses, Ex 21:22-25, the law of lex talionis; “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,” was introduced in order to bring proportionality to retaliation and put a cap on vengeance. This law was already a step towards justice and mercy, in the sense that when one punches you once on the head, you punch back once on the head, not when one punches you once on the head, you get a matchet and cut off his head. The Scribes at Jesus time used to teach on forgiveness and discuss on how many times one should forgive, some say once, others two or three but all agree that it should not exceed four times. So, when Peter asked Jesus, how many times should one forgive, he was expecting may be a maximum of four times. He might have said seven, a number signifying totality, with the expectation that Jesus would take him back to the rabbinic teaching of maximum of four times. Jesus rather shocked them by saying seventy times seven and went ahead to tell this parable we heard today.
The lessons from this first reading and gospel reading are deep. Very clearly, they tell us that when we give free vent to our retaliatory instinct and give full expression of our rage and grudges, they do not remedy the injustice, instead they make things worse. Unforgiveness does no good to anyone both to the person offended and the offender. The person offended suffers too, from these readings we see that a mean and revengeful disposition shuts out God’s forgiveness and God’s graces and the wrath of God is kindled against the hard and the relentless. Physically, unforgiveness is also self-destructive because if one refuses to let go of one’s anger, the anger can get one imprisoned for a lifetime, making the person to feel sick, depressed and so uninterested with life that the person won’t be able to see anything beautiful and good in life.
Jesus’ seventy times seven forgiveness and parable tell us that our disposition to forgive should know no limit, our heart should be like that of God. Jesus did not ask us to keep quiet at the face of injustice, not at all. As Christians, we must pursue justice, however, we should not pursue justice in isolation, a blind pursuit of justice, such blind pursuit of justice may even turn to become injustice, which tilts more to revenge. Instead, our pursuit of justice must be permeated by God’s merciful love. Sometimes, when we make a little space for Christian love, we will end up achieving much more which endless bickering, violence and revenge never helped us to achieve. Forgiveness and Christian love instead of making us weaklings as some tend to think, makes us heroes and heroines, the way it made Jesus Himself, Stephen, Saint John Paul II and others.
Some practical Christian way of exercising forgiveness are: First, allow your anger to cool down, so that you can view the circumstances in a more rational manner. Secondly, view the hurts and offences from God’s point of view. God uses hurts to improve our character and spiritual effectiveness. See the offender not as your enemy but as humans who are hurting just as you are. Then finally, we are called to do what the official in the parable of today failed to do: sit down in God’s presence and recall how much and how often God has forgiven you, in spite of the magnitude of the wounds and hurts we have inflicted on others.
