Scripture Study for

Twenty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

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.

Living the Word logo

Copyright © 2021, 2020, 2019, 2012, 2011, 2010 World Library Publications, a div. of GIA Publications, Inc. www.giamusic.com
All rights reserved. Used by permission.