OMELIE / Omelie EN

13 set 2026

13/09/2026 – 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year A

13/09/2026 – 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year A

1st reading: Sir 27:30–28:7; Psalm 102; 2nd reading: Rom 14:7–9; Gospel: Mt 18:21–35

The Lord Jesus continues his teachings. What sort of life is lived in the Kingdom of Heaven? In the kingdom where he is the King? What rules are followed? How do we behave towards one another? Is it possible that in the Kingdom of Heaven – which began when we gathered round the King, Jesus – there are still sinners who take offence at one another? It is Peter who asks this question. Even amongst the Twelve and the other disciples, difficulties and potential offences were arising. What should one do in such a case? Peter asks Jesus himself, posing a question with which he wishes to appear generous. By today’s standards, this question is downright shocking. With it, the foremost of the apostles envisages the possibility of forgiving up to seven times! How excessive! Are there such excesses in the Kingdom of Heaven?

These ‘exaggerations’ are not exaggerations at all. Whoever forgives becomes a brother to his brother once more. If the other sins again and again asks for forgiveness, I will forgive him yet again, and it will still be the first time. Whoever truly forgives does not keep count of how many times they have forgiven. Otherwise, what do you do the eighth time? This is what Jesus means in his reply: the exaggerated number, seven times, becomes a speck of dust when you multiply it by seventy.

Sirach helps us with some insights to make Jesus’ reply more acceptable: ‘A man who harbours anger towards another man, how can he ask the Lord for healing?’ Failure to forgive prevents me from being heard by God. And it continues: ‘He who shows no mercy to his fellow man, how can he plead for his own sins? If he, who is but flesh, harbours a grudge, how can he obtain God’s forgiveness?’ These are the words that Jesus wishes to take up and shed light on through the parable he tells, and he tells it again – as he does with most of his parables – to show us how to live in the Kingdom of Heaven, that is, amongst those who follow him as King.

The parable is well known. A king has servants, and he calls them to account for their work. One of them has incurred a debt to him, a debt he will never be able to repay. Will he have to sell himself and his family? But this servant follows his instinct and, kneeling in prayer, asks the king for patience. The king is indeed patient; indeed, he is more than that. Not even the servant dared to ask for what was granted to him: the debt is cancelled. What grace, what an immense gift! A king capable of forgiving everything is more than a king!

Now comes the crux of the matter. It is what will give Peter—and us too—food for thought. That servant was owed a sum by another servant, a sum which, compared to his own debt, was nothing. Yet, having forgotten the grace he had received, he violently demands the full amount of his small debt from his friend. Those who hear of this are astonished: why was this servant unable to imitate his king? Had he learnt nothing?

The king himself is astonished: ‘I forgave you that entire debt because you begged me. Shouldn’t you too have shown mercy to your fellow servant, just as I showed mercy to you?’ ‘Just as I had mercy on you’—that is the crux of the matter. In the Kingdom of Heaven, everyone learns from the King and imitates him. He is a King who has mercy on his servants, so that they too may learn to have mercy on their friends.

Stepping outside the parable: I owe my life to the Father, along with all the riches of faith and wisdom with which he has enriched it. He does not hold me to account; he gives me everything freely. I have even offended him through my acts of disobedience, whether small or great; I have let him speak to me without listening; I have lived without heeding his advice or commands. When I pray to him, he pardons me and forgives me absolutely everything.

My greatest joy will be to imitate him, to echo his love that pardons and forgives, so that anyone who has a grievance against me may receive the same joy that I have received.

Will this be possible? Of course it will. The Apostle instructs us with these words: ‘Whether we live, we live for the Lord; whether we die, we die for the Lord.’ I shall not concern myself with what I can gain or possess. My life and my death are not my own; they belong to another Master: He, my Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Kingdom of Heaven. Aware of this, let us not think of what would please us – so as to become or remain selfish, greedy or boastful – but of what pleases him, the Lord. In the Kingdom of Heaven we live for him, to give him glory, to let the beauty of his love shine forth through our behaviour!

And St Paul goes on to say: ‘For this very reason Christ died and came back to life: to be the Lord of the dead and the living.’ Jesus is the Lord when we live and when we die: it is he who shines forth in our living and in our dying—that is, always. Knowing that we are his glory is for us an immense, priceless and eternal joy.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)