WE ARE ALL FORGIVEN SINNERS
1. Forgive: Enter God’s World
2. A New Lease on Life
Greeting
The God of forgiveness, mercy and life
be always with you. R/ And also with you.
Introduction
1. Forgive: Enter God’s World
We are all familiar with the saying: “To err is human, to forgive is divine.” (Someone told me another version of the second stanza: to persist in error is diabolical.) Perhaps we forget the second part too easily: by forgiving one another, we do what God does all the time for us. If we cannot forgive we have not learned to love deeply and we are still far from the Gospel. We begin this Eucharist by asking pardon from the Lord and from one another.
2. A New Lease on Life
Most of us have experienced how difficult it is to forgive. It is almost impossible. In Old English it means “give to the uttermost,” “extremely,” “as far as you can go.” Isn’t that what it really is, going all the way? Who can forget the hurt? Yet we should. Who doesn’t see and feel the scars and keep the memories? And yet we shouldn’t. Think of God: when he forgives, the evil belongs to the past. It is gone. God keeps no accounts. He wants us to think only of the future. Jesus did not condemn but gave new chances. Let us ask for the Lord’s attitude now in this Eucharist.
Penitential Act
Let us look at the Lord Jesus
how he forgave people.
(pause)
Lord Jesus, you forgave Peter
after he had denied you:
Lord, have mercy. R/ Lord, have mercy.
Jesus Christ, you did not condemn
the woman caught in adultery;
you simply told her to sin no more:
Christ, have mercy. R/ Christ, have mercy.
Lord Jesus, you prayed your Father
to forgive even those who had crucified you:
Lord, have mercy. R/ Lord, have mercy.
Forgive us too, Lord, and keep doing so
every time we sin against you.
Dispose us to forgive others always.
Lead us to everlasting life. R/ Amen.
Opening Prayer
Let us pray that we may learn to forgive
the way the Lord forgives
(pause)
All-loving Father,
you are good and patient,
compassionate, loving, and merciful with sinners like us.
You forgive us all our debt of sin.
Let your pardon brings us much joy and hope
and induce us to forget and forgive readily
the debts, often so small, that others owe us
because of the wrongs they have done to us.
You have restored us to life:
help us to make others live by our pardon,
that they may feel a bit of your goodness in us.
We ask this through Jesus our Lord. R/ Amen.
First Reading: Forgive and God Will Forgive You
Even by the end of the Old Testament, the believer knew that God does not forgive those who cannot forgive others. Forgiveness is a demand of the covenant.
1 Reading: Sirach 27:30—28:7
Wrath and anger are hateful things, yet the sinner hugs them tight. The vengeful will suffer the LORD’s vengeance, for he remembers their sins in detail. Forgive your neighbour’s injustice; then when you pray, your own sins will be forgiven. Could anyone nourish anger against another and expect healing from the LORD? Could anyone refuse mercy to another like himself, can he seek pardon for his own sins? If one who is but flesh cherishes wrath, who will forgive his sins? Remember your last days, set enmity aside; remember death and decay, and cease from sin! Think of the commandments, hate not your neighbour; remember the Most High’s covenant, and overlook faults.
Responsorial Psalm 103:1-2, 3-4, 9-10, 11-12
R. The Lord is kind and merciful, slow to anger, and rich in compassion.
Bless the LORD, O my soul;
and all my being, bless his holy name.
Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits. R.
He pardons all your iniquities,
heals all your ills.
He redeems your life from destruction,
crowns you with kindness and compassion. R.
He will not always chide,
nor does he keep his wrath forever.
Not according to our sins does he deal with us,
nor does he requite us according to our crimes. R.
For as the heavens are high above the earth,
so surpassing is his kindness toward those who fear him.
As far as the east is from the west,
so far has he put our transgressions from us. R.
Second Reading: Like Christ, No One Should Live for Himself
By baptism, we belong to Christ. Like him, we should live and die not for ourselves but for others.
2 Reading: Romans 14:7-9
Brothers and sisters: None of us lives for oneself, and no one dies for oneself. For if we live, we live for the Lord, and if we die, we die for the Lord; so then, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. For this is why Christ died and came to life, that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.
Alleluia John 13:34
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
I give you a new commandment, says the Lord;
love one another as I have loved you.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel: Forgive from the Heart
If we do not know how to forgive, God will not forgive us, says Jesus. The kingdom of God will not come among us if we cannot forgive.
Gospel: Matthew 18:21-35
Peter approached Jesus and asked him, “Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive? As many as seven times?” Jesus answered, “I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times. That is why the kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who decided to settle accounts with his servants. When he began the accounting, a debtor was brought before him who owed him a huge amount. Since he had no way of paying it back, his master ordered him to be sold, along with his wife, his children, and all his property, in payment of the debt. At that, the servant fell down, did him homage, and said, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full.’ Moved with compassion the master of that servant let him go and forgave him the loan. When that servant had left, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a much smaller amount. He seized him and started to choke him, demanding, ‘Pay back what you owe.’ Falling to his knees, his fellow servant begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.’ But he refused. Instead, he had the fellow servant put in prison until he paid back the debt. Now when his fellow servants saw what had happened, they were deeply disturbed, and went to their master and reported the whole affair. His master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you your entire debt because you begged me to. Should you not have had pity on your fellow servant, as I had pity on you?’ Then in anger his master handed him over to the torturers until he should pay back the whole debt. So will my heavenly Father do to you, unless each of you forgives your brother from your heart.”
Commentary
Forgiven sinners
Anger, the wise man told me, is one among few “possessions’” that kill their possessors. The more the sinner hugs anger tightly, as the wise man says in the First Reading, the more anger slays him – alone (maybe, beginning with chronic silent illnesses of today).
Who has never been forgiven? A man once told me, proudly, that he was nearly a failure the way he lived his youth. But his parents would forgive him and forgive him and tried to get him going again and again until eventually it worked.
The insecure Peter, as usual looking for approval, asks in today’s Gospel, “Lord, how often must I forgive my brother if he wrongs me; as often as seven times?” Seven times seemed to be a very generous number and he expected to get a clap on the back for it because he knew that Jesus put a high priority on forgiveness. But Jesus answered, “Not seven, I tell you, but seventy times seven times.” And he went on to tell a parable about a king who decided to settle accounts with his servants. As usual the parable, which is designed to subvert our usual way of thinking, is grossly exaggerated. A servant owes his king 10,000 talents which is ten times the annual income of the king. When he cannot pay, the king orders that he and his family be put in prison to pay the debt. The man asks for mercy and his debt is forgiven. Now the servant goes out and meets another servant who owes him a hundred denarii – the wage of a labourer for a hundred days. When his fellow servant cannot pay he seized him by the throat and began to throttle him. “Pay what you owe me,” he said. His fellow servant fell on his knees and implored him, saying, “Give me time and I will pay you.” But the other would not agree. On the contrary, he had him thrown into prison till he should pay the debt. His fellow servants were deeply distressed when they saw what had happened, and they went to the master and reported the whole affair to him. Then the master sent for him. “You, wicked servant,” he said, “I canceled all the debt of yours when you appealed to me. Were you not bound then to have pity on your fellow servant as I had pity on you?”
So there in a nutshell is the teaching of Jesus about forgiveness. Why do we forgive others? We forgive others because we ourselves are forgiven sinners. We do not forgive because we are commanded to do so. We forgive because we have been forgiven and in being forgiven we know that we owe a debt. It shows we are loved. When we know that we are loved we can love others and we in turn show it by forgiving them.
Peter himself was one of the great examples of this principle. During the lifetime of Jesus, Peter was hungry for his affection and constantly spoke up and protested his loyalty in an effort to attain approval. But, he failed again and again, and particularly at the trial he denied Jesus three times. Yet when Jesus met him after the resurrection he accepted him and love and just said, “Shalom” (peace).
Judas also betrayed Jesus. Knowing the type of person Jesus was, there is do doubt that he would also have forgiven Judas. But Judas could not accept forgiveness and committed suicide. Everyone who cannot accept forgiveness locks himself or herself into the past and in a sense commits suicide. They carry with them the hurts of the past – the hurts done to them or their own failures – and are so burdened that they cannot accept the joys of the present moment. In a sense one of the most selfish things we can do is to forgive. It is doubtful if the other person will even know that we have forgiven, but we ourselves will be set free by doing so. The great difference between Jesus and the Pharisees, the religious leaders of his time, was that he wanted to set people free from their past. The Pharisees labeled people with their past – prostitutes, tax collectors, sinners – but Jesus reverenced people in the present and gave them the capacity to love themselves again and to be good again for the future.
If we know ourselves, we will know our own selfishness and the tendency of our egos to use our strengths and weaknesses to get the better of others. If we know ourselves, we can observe this process with a certain sense of humour and forgive ourselves again and again. If we know ourselves in this way we will not belittle others. We will look at their sins and foibles with love and a capacity to forgive. St. Teresa of Avila said that awareness of our own sinfulness is the bread – or rice – that accompanies all levels of spiritual growth. It is easy to say in Nigeria, there is no food because there is no rice. It goes anytime everywhere. So should prayer. It increases God’s presence and diminishes Satan’s influence. The more we remain in the Lord, we have an opportunity to set ourselves free from the past and to start to live again anew.
What the young man experienced in seeing the forgiving love of his parents in his youthful days, what Peter and may others experienced in the forgiving love of Jesus, we too can experience if we are willing to accept that all of us are forgiven sinners. Let us take this serious as we participate in the Sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist.
Intercessions
Let us pray to our merciful God that we his people who have experienced his forgiveness may bring the joy of reconciliation to the world. Let us say:
R/ Lord, help us forgive from the heart.
– For the Church, the people set free by the blood of Christ, that we may not be divided in factions but live together in tolerance and peace, let us pray to the Lord:
R/ Lord, help us forgive from the heart.
– For all Christian Churches, long divided by grudges and pride, that we may be brought together in the unity of one Gospel and one love of Christ, let us pray:
R/ Lord, help us forgive from the heart.
– For those who are committed to causes of justice and human liberation, that they may not only accuse and protest but also recognize and uproot sin in their own hearts, let us pray:
R/ Lord, help us forgive from the heart.
– For married couples who live side by side without much love and without communicating, that they may come to forgive, to understand and to appreciate one another again, let us pray:
R/ Lord help us forgive from the heart.
– And for us gathered here, people with our failures and foibles, that we may learn from the Lord to be merciful as he has been to us, that we may forgive one another from the heart, let us pray:
R/ Lord, help us forgive from the heart.
Lord, you are so good that all our evil becomes like nothing. Let us, little and frail people, speak to one another your words and deeds of forgiving love, on account of Jesus Christ our Lord. R/ Amen
Prayer over the Gifts
God our Father,
in these signs of bread and wine
we celebrate the death of your Son
that brought us forgiveness and life.
Let the table of the Eucharist be to all of us
an occasion and place where we learn
to accept one another, even with our frailties,
and to share the same bread and the same Lord
in friendship and peace.
We ask you this through him
who reconciled in himself all factions,
Jesus Christ our Lord. R/ Amen.
Introduction to the Eucharistic Prayer
At the very heart of the Eucharistic celebration, we say: “This blood will be shed for you and for all so that sins may be forgiven.” The Lord Jesus brought us forgiveness by his death. Let us thank God for his forgiveness and forgive one another in the Lord.
(The Eucharistic Prayer of Reconciliation 1 is recommended.)
Introduction to the Lord’s Prayer
In Our Lord’s words we pray:
forgive us our sins
as we forgive those who sin against us.
May we not pray those words
only with our lips, but also with our hearts. R/ Our Father…
Prayer for Peace
Lord Jesus Christ, you said to your apostles:
I leave you peace, my peace I give you.
Look not on our sins, and help us
not to look on the sins of others,
for we all need the peace
of your forgiving love
and of each other’s pardon.
Grant us the peace and unity of your kingdom
where you live for ever and ever. R/ Amen.
The forgiving peace of the Lord
be with you always. R/ And also with your spirit.
Invitation to Communion
This is Jesus, the Lamb of God
who was slain for our sins.
On the cross he prayed for those
who sought his death.
Happy are we to receive him
and to learn from him
to bring reconciliation and peace. R/ Lord, I am not worthy…
Prayer after Communion
God our Father,
you have created us anew
through the Bread of Life of your Son
and through the forgiveness he keeps bringing us.
Help us also to restore to life
our brothers and sisters who wait for our pardon
and open our hearts
to receive their forgiveness with gratitude.
Let us be a community
where we raise up one another
to the joy of your life and your healing love.
We ask this in the name of Jesus the Lord. R/ Amen.
Blessing
Today God has spoken clearly to us,
people for whom it is difficult
to overlook failures,
to give new chances,
to forgive from the heart.
“Become like me,
forget and forgive,
heal and care,
and you will be healed yourselves.”
May God be with you and bless you:
the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. R/ Amen.
Let us walk with one another in the forgiving peace of the Lord. R/ Thanks be to God.