Year A - Twenty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Twenty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year A

Sirach 27 - 30

Psalm 102

Roman 14, 7 - 9

Matthew 18, 21 - 35

 

To go further 

Details 

- This short comic strip sums up the Gospel very well.

- First page : The rabbit sees a scratch on "his ride". He's very angry (above the page, there is a clenched fist). He's all the more annoyed as he doesn't seem to be responsible for it (his wife is discretely walking away).

- Second page : he's asking God whether he should forgive up to seven times (he's counting on his fingers). Seven scratches would be the equivalent of a strike with a rake.

- Third page : the hands (of God) answer "no no, not seven times, but ..." and they show a scrapheap where we can only just about recognise the colour of the car, the rims and the steering wheel. 

Questions 

- From that perspective, the story is perfectly preposterous. As it is, gentlemen, a scratch on your car is no less than a total affront, how could we consider forgiving that much ? And yet ...

- In the Catechism of the Catholic Church, under n° 982, we can read " There is no one, however wicked and guilty, who may not confidently hope for forgiveness, provided his repentance is honest. Christ who died for all men desires that in his Church the gates of forgiveness should always be open to anyone who turns away from sin.

- This is very good news for me if I believe that I have done something unforgiveable, because God may still forgive me (provided that I truly regret)

- This is very bad news for me when I support the death penalty or when I want to sentence someone, believing it woud be better to get rid of him because he's wicked. By doing this, I'm not offering him any chance to change. What's more, I'm taking God's place.