Reflection for the 24th
Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A
(Sirach 27:30-28:7,
Rm 14:7-9, Mt 18:21-35)
1.0.THE BURNING
RAGE
Have you noticed that an angry person often justifies
himself? And as his self-pity accumulates so does his rage accelerates. Anger
burns like fire! It can explode or gradually melt. In either case, the angry person
is the first victim. Physically, anger can trigger hormones in the body; affect
heartbeat, body temperature, digestion, etc. It can distort sleep, induce ulcer
or even lead to nervous breakdown. Anger is an emotional burden. It destroys
prayer life and leaves us spiritually dry. It is contagious. If not checked, it
can be an uncontrollable habit. We all get angry at some point, but no one likes
to interact with an angry person. Anger spreads like a plague. Many families
today are torn apart due to grudge and quick temper. And this grows into the
larger society.
The first reading condemns anger in strong terms, “Anger
and wrath, these are abominations, and the sinful man will possess them.” Here anger
and grudge are seen as the fruits of sin. Sirach tells us that harbouring anger
can be obstacle to receiving God’s forgiveness. “Forgive your neighbour the
wrong he has done, and then your sins will be pardoned when you pray.” Forgiveness
remains the key solution to anger.
2.0. HARDENED
HEART
In the Gospel of today, Jesus tells us the story of
the unforgiving servant. When the servant begged for more time to pay the debt,
his master treated him with great mercy and cancelled the debt. But on meeting
a fellow servant who owed him far less than what he owed their master, he
hardened his heart against the pleading of his colleague and locked him up in
prison. The master was infuriated and said to him, “You wicked servant! I
forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me; and should not you have
had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?”
Here we can see that hardness of heart is the source
of anger. A hardened heart is one not touched by God’s mercy, like the
unforgiving servant. Such a one is ever hungry for mutual understanding and
forgiveness but less ready to give such to others. Selfishness is at the root
of it all. Nothing fuels anger like selfishness and pride. However, the real
consequence of lack of forgiveness is not that we hurt others, but that we
incur God’s wrath. “And in anger his lord delivered him to the jailers, till he
should pay all his debt.” This Divine wrath appears to be directly opposite and
proportional to Divine mercy. The difference is that the mercy was unmerited
and given freely, but the servant incurred the wrath upon himself.
3.0. THE FACE OF FORGIVENESS
The master was angry with the unforgiving servant, not
just because he treated his fellow harshly nor because he lacked the capacity
to forgive, but mostly because he failed to draw from the abundance of mercy shown
him. Forgiveness can be difficult if we want to rely on our strength or
disposition to forgive. Worse still, it can be an agonizing experience if we
look at the ‘face’ of the offence or the offender as condition to forgive.
Forgiveness now has a face—the face of the Master! By
cancelling the servant’s debt, the master showered him with supra-abundance of
mercy, more than he could imagine. Since he ought to be sold, but set free, his
current life should be lived as a gift. In other words, he ought to be
overwhelmingly grateful to his master. Having been reborn in the master’s
mercy, he ought to live it out. He was expected to forgive his fellow servant
for this simple fact: the joy of what the master did for him. So, he ought to
draw forgiveness from the master. Thus, the mercy of his master should become
his reason to forgive.
Therefore, to forgive is an act of gratitude. The
ungrateful cannot forgive! It’s a gesture of gratitude to God. Yes, we look
upon the face of the Crucified and learn to forgive. We are expected to show
mercy because we have received from His fullness grace upon grace (Jn 1:16). The second reading captures this
forgiving attitude as living for Christ. “If we live, we live to the Lord, and
if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we
are the Lord’s (Rm 14:7-9). The supreme joy of belonging to Jesus Christ should
lead us to let go of hurts, and look on them all as filth if only we can gain
Christ (cf. Phil 3:8). “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me”
(Phil 4:13).
Forgiveness, located in Jesus, remains the authentic
solution to anger. It brings healing and joy to the soul. Forgiveness is no
longer what we imagine in our hearts or project in others. It is like rays of
light illumining our hearts from the face of Jesus. He guarantees us of God’s
mercy, and He empowers us to forgive others.
Fr. Jude Nwachukwu, C.Ss.R
National Shrine of Our Mother of Perpetual Help,
Ugwogo-Nike, Enugu, Nigeria.
17/09/2017.
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