Homily for the 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Sept. 13, 2026. Gospel of St. Matthew 18:21-35. Theme: 77 Times?!
In today’s Gospel Jesus tells the story of a servant who owes his master an enormous amount of money. Some traditions tell us that the amount he owed was anywhere from 2,000 to 10,000 talents. So, in order to appreciate the shock that must’ve been the response of those who heard of Jesus’ words, I think it helps to know that just one single talent was payment for 20 years of physical labor. So, even at the low end, those 2,000 talents that the servant owed would be equal to about $2 billion dollars in today’s economy... an absurdly large amount far beyond what he could ever hope to repay! And yet, that entire debt was forgiven and the man walked away free! However, the story goes on to tell us that this servant, who received such extraordinary mercy, refused to give even a drop of ordinary mercy to another guy who found himself in the same desperate situation. And that’s the point of the story that Jesus wants us to remember and take to heart. It’s a twist on the Lord’s basic and familiar teaching that we are to treat others the way we ourselves want (and expect) to be treated.
In other words, we who have been freed by God from a huge moral debt of sin are to pay it forward by showing this same kind of big-heartedness in forgiving others. And furthermore. Jesus was saying that the amount of mercy that God will show to each one of us will be based on the extent of mercy that we have chosen to show to others. So you see, even though God is wanting and willing to forgive everything we have done, we ourselves will set the bar on how much forgiveness we will receive. And so that we might never forget this, Christ wove it into the daily prayer He gave us where we say: "...forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us..." These familiar memorized words come so easily to our lips that I think we often overlook what it is that we are actually saying! Every time we pray the “Our Father” we are making a pact with God, so to speak, telling Him to forgive us only and to the extent that we forgive others!
And so, with all this in mind, I think that through today's Gospel Jesus is telling us three basic things about forgiveness. We should forgive. We need to forgive. And we will be given the spiritual power to forgive, even in the most difficult of situations.
First, we should forgive. Because if we don’t we are in fact rejecting God’s mercy for ourselves. I honestly think that most of us do not keep in mind the reality of this precondition for our own forgiveness. Jesus made this quite clear when talking about the punishment that the unmerciful servant received from his master: “So will my heavenly Father do to you, unless each of you forgives your brother from your heart.” So, you see, for our own good if nothing else, we should forgive.
Secondly, we need to forgive. Otherwise, we’ll end up destroying ourselves. We know that unresolved anger along with the underlying seeds of resentment easily become a spiritual cancer in our lives if we do not treat it with the medicine of mercy. It will entrap us in a toxic attitude that reaches out and poisons all our relationships in one way or another. How cold, callous and cruel it would be to have to live out our days in such a state of mind! There would be no inner serenity. No genuine laughter or contentment. To refuse to forgive is to condemn ourselves to a slow and painful spiritual and emotional death. Holding a grudge means that we are willing to allow past hurts to remain within us like radioactive material, gradually poisoning us from the inside out. We need to forgive if we want to live a happy life to the fullest both in this world and in the next.
Thirdly, we truly can forgive because Christ will give us the power to do so as we need it. The sacrifice of Jesus on the cross let loose a great river of grace that keeps flowing through all centuries and generations until the end of time. When we need to forgive someone and find it hard to do so, we can jump into this ever running stream. It’s not easy and we might have to put a lot of effort into learning how to swim in these waters of mercy, but we have Christ’s word that it can be done. And so in prayer we simply need to ask Him to make what seems impossible, possible. And he will do so. We have his word on this!
So, as we go out from Mass strengthened by the grace of the Eucharist, let’s keep in mind that Jesus didn't say, “Forgive once.” He said: “Forgive seventy-seven times.” This numerical riddle actually means that we need to stop keeping track, we need to stop counting, because forgiveness isn't about keeping score. In trying to live this way, I personally find it helpful to remember something else Jesus said on this topic that is recorded for us in the Gospel of St. Luke, and it’s this: “Stop judging and you will not be judged. Stop condemning and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven…For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you.” (Lk. 11:37-38)
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