Scripture Study for
Twenty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Sirach 27:30 — 28:7 / Psalm 103:8 / Romans 14:7–9 / Matthew 18:21–35
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Understanding the Word
By Br. John R. Barker, OFM
In a passage that mentions “sin” six times, Sirach focuses on refusal to forgive. Here the sinner is not so much the one who causes wrath and anger, as the one who “hugs them tight,” like a security blanket; not the one who offends, but the one who avenges the offense. It is preposterous to hope to be forgiven for one’s own sins if one is not willing to forgive others. It is presumptuous to expect the sinless deity to forgive our sins when, as sinful human beings, we are unwilling to do the same thing. Refusal to forgive is a form of hate, which is antithetical to the ethical perspective of the covenant between God and Israel.
Paul’s insistence that Christians live and die for the Lord occurs within an exhortation against judging others. Those whose consciences lead them to abstain from certain foods must not be despised by those with different scruples, and vice versa. The point, Paul says, is that each should be eating (or not eating) for the Lord. If we are doing it for the Lord, and it is not evil, then it is good. In fact, everything, even up to one’s own death, should be done for the Lord. It is the Lord, he goes on to say, who will judge us. We will give an account to the one for whom we have done everything, and that is the Lord, not each other.
Immediately after Jesus gives instructions on the church’s proper response to obstinate sinners (Matthew 18:15–20), Peter inquires about the limits of forgiveness. Jesus’ answer—there are no limits— must have astounded those who thought that seven times was already quite generous. The parable gives a straightforward rationale for the demand that humans place no limits on their willingness to forgive: because God places no limits on the divine willingness to forgive. To act as if we have the right to limit forgiveness when we ourselves must ask for it repeatedly constitutes gross hypocrisy and ingratitude. We ourselves are the ones who place limits on God’s forgiveness of us when we insist on placing limits on our forgiveness of others.