September 13, 2026
Twenty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Gospel: Mt 18:21-35

Today is the Twenty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time. The passage from the Gospel of Saint Matthew presents to us a dialogue between Jesus and Peter. In this dialogue, Jesus teaches us, through a parable, the Christian way of forgiveness. I would like to take this opportunity to offer some reflections.

In life, we often quarrel with others over trivial matters, and we even frequently feel that others have offended us. Sometimes, we too are like Peter, wanting to ask Jesus: “Lord, if my brother sins against me, how many times must I forgive him?” (cf. Mt 18:21). For, in our eyes, our tolerance toward others has its limits. Yet Jesus tells us: “Not seven times, but seventy-seven times” (cf. Mt 18:22). That is to say: unconditional forgiveness, unconditional pardon.

As I write this reflection, I often think of the parable Jesus tells in today’s Gospel at Mass. In this parable, the king who settles accounts with his servant is not the harsh king we might imagine; he is an exceedingly merciful king, who forgives the debt of the servant who owed him ten thousand talents. One talent is about 16 to 30 kilograms of gold, worth the wages of a worker for twenty years. Ten thousand talents amount to the wages of a worker for two hundred thousand years. In today’s terms, that is roughly six billion dollars, nearly forty-four billion yuan. This is a sum one could never repay in a lifetime. Yet, after his own debt had been forgiven, this servant did not spare the fellow servant who owed him a hundred denarii. One denarius is a day’s wage. A hundred denarii is three months’ wages for a worker. In today’s terms, that is roughly ten thousand dollars, about seventy thousand yuan. In the end, the king was furious and handed that wicked servant over to the torturers until he should repay all his debt.

In this parable we see our own reflection. Sometimes we too are like that wicked servant, living within an order of our own making. We always want to demand justice, for in our eyes, it is only right that debts be repaid. Yet this is not the view that truly belongs to the people of God, as Jesus teaches it. For everything we possess in the present moment has been created by God, who entrusted all that he created to our care (cf. Gn 1:28-30). The Father, rich in mercy, in the appointed time sent his Son into the world to proclaim to us the Gospel of the Kingdom, and even offered his death on the Cross to atone for the sins we had committed, so that, by receiving his Baptism, we might be cleansed in the water that flowed from his sacred side, no longer living under the dominion of sin but in the grace of God. After receiving his Baptism, we also received the anointing of the Holy Spirit. By this anointing of the Holy Spirit, we became children of God. This shows how generous God has been toward us. Since God has treated us so bountifully, we too must treat all people bountifully; for only in this way can we truly reflect the image that God gave us when he created us. For we know: we are made by God in his own image, in his likeness, and God is merciful.

Look upon us, O God, Creator and ruler of all things, and, that we may feel the working of your mercy, grant that we may serve you with all our heart. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever

©Totus Tuus 2026
Cum Approbatione Ecclesiastica