24th Sunday of Ordinary Time, September 13,
2020
Anger is an emotion we all experience from time to time. We
can be angry with ourselves for something we did or failed to do; we can be
angry at others for the same reasons; we can be angry at institutions and those
who run them if we perceive they have hurt or harmed us in some way
or other.
Our anger is often a sign that some injustice has been done either to ourselves
or to others. In that sense, anger can be very appropriate.
Jesus was angry at
times. He was angry at the religious leaders because they objected to a
paral-yzed man being healed on the Sabbath; he was angry at his own disciples
when they tried to stop parents bringing their children to him; he was angry
when he cleansed the temple, at those
who had allowed God’s house of prayer to become a market
place. What we might call ‘justified
anger’ can be a very creative force; it can
give us the courage and energy to put right what is clearly wrong. Jesus knew
how to channel his anger into his mission to bring about the ‘kingdom of God’.
We are also aware that anger has the potential to be a
destructive force, damaging to ourselves
and others. One of the phenomena of
recent times is what has come to be called ‘road
rage’.
People behind the wheel of a car can
get angry at relatively slight offences on the part of other drivers. Such rage
can have very serious and even deadly consequences. When we find that our
anger
is out of proportion to what caused it, then we probably have to look within
ourselves
rather than look outwards. We could say that Jesus died the victim of
destructive anger.
By the standards of justice, he had certainly done nothing
to deserve the kind of death he suffer-ed. The first reading speaks of nursing
anger and cherishing resentment. We can become excessive-ly attached to our anger
and our resentment, justified though the initial anger may have been.
When that happens, our anger and resentment can become destructive to ourselves and
others.
At such times, we need to find a way of dealing with our anger and
resentment. Forgiveness is a m-ain ingredient in healing our anger and
resentment.
At the beginning of today’s
gospel reading Peter asks Jesus the question, ‘Lord,
how often must
I forgive my brother if he wrongs me?
As often as seven times?’
In the biblical world, the number seven was considered a symbol of
perfection. To forgive someone seven times would have been considered the
ultimate standard of
forgiveness. Yet, in reply, Jesus says to Peter, ‘Not seven, I tell you, but seventy
seven times’
So often, the sayings of Jesus can
shock us by what they demand. Peter wanted to put some limit
on forgiveness,
even if a very generous limit.
Jesus called for forgiveness without limit.
Jesus embodies that quality of forgiveness. He died
the victim of other people’s anger. He would have been justified
in acting out of that anger.
Instead, the gospels allow us to hear the words of
Jesus from the cross, “Father, forgive them,
for they do not
know what they are doing.”
It takes an extraordinary degree of inner freedom to forg-ive in that way. The
second reading states, ‘Now
the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spiri-t of the Lord is, there is freedom
[to forgive]’. The Spirit frees us to love even
those who are least deserving of our love, to forgive in the way that God
forgives. It might take time, lots of time to release the anger, but we can
depend on the Spirit to assist us. Something of that divine freedom is captured
in the parable Jesus speaks in today’s
gospel reading. The master finds the
freedom to forgive, to cancelled an
unpayable debt owed to him by his main servant. In contrast, the main servant
went on and treated a fellow servant quite differently. Therefore, the master
cancelled his forgiveness of the main servant. The message is clear and
apparent: God relates to us on the basis
of mercy rather than simple justice. Therefore, we are challenged to relate to each other in the same way. “Freely you have received, freely
give, ” (Matthew 10:8) is really a summary of the entire gospel of Jesus
Christ, and the impact that the Truth ought to have upon
us. God has given us all things freely in Christ. The result ought to be that we freely give to
God
and then to others.
Fr. Don Webber,
C.P.