YEAR A: HOMILY FOR TUESDAY OF THE 3RD WEEK OF LENT (1)

YEAR A: HOMILY FOR TUESDAY OF THE 3RD WEEK OF LENT

HOMILY THEME: THE CHRISTIAN WAY

BY: Fr. Benny Tuazon

HOMILY: (Mt. 18:21-35) Tuesday of the Third Week of Lent, Day Twenty-One (21) of Lent

In today’s Gospel Jesus tells the parable of the unforgiving servant as a response to the question of PETER on how many times must one forgive. While Jesus responded seventy-seven times, He added that our forgiveness to others should also come from our experience of our forgiveness from God. The servant was relieved by being forgiven by his master but would not want to do the same to his fellow servants. It is clear that God wants us to share forgiveness to others. The question, “How often must we forgive?”, seems to be the wrong question. Even if JESUS mentioned a number, He still meant it to be to governess without limits. Seven is regarded as a perfect number in the Jewish culture. Besides, how many times will we have an opportunity to forgive in our lifetime? JESUS stressed on our own experience of being forgiven by God. The fact that God makes us experience the joy of forgiveness should inspire and move us to share that experience to others.

As a bonus, we are also being freed from our anger, hate, and pain once we render forgiveness. Needless to say, the pain we lose when we forgive is much greater than when we take revenge. Revenge continues, in fact, to imprison us in our pain. Furthermore, we had not really gotten even but made it worse because we had shared more pain to others. We became who and what we hated. Precisely, Jesus elected to suffer and die on cross rather than exact revenge against His torturers and enemies. He knew the best response to violence and death. Forgiveness heals the offender and forgiver. That is the Christian way.