MESSAGE FROM MONS JOHN – 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time / A – 17th September, 2017

Today’s passage from St Matthew’s Gospel speaks about “forgiveness”. Matthew recounts a parable of Jesus about a servant who, having been forgiven by his master, refuses to forgive others.

If we only had a very limited understanding of God’s unconditional forgiveness for each and every one of us, we would have a greater willingness to forgive other people when they have hurt us.

There is an old saying that goes like this: “To err is human; to forgive is divine”. That is the message St Matthew is trying to impart to his readers in today’s Gospel passage.

For most of us, sincere forgiveness is very difficult. We are mere human beings! Nevertheless, we are invited to remember that God’s forgiveness of us is absolutely unconditional. The best we can ever do is to try to imitate God’s unconditional forgiveness, at least sometimes.