Year A: Twenty-Fourth Sunday

Many of us will remember the heroic example of Gordon Wilson in Northern Ireland. On a BBC interview on the evening of Sunday, November 8, 1987, just hours after his  twenty-year-old daughter Marie had been killed in Enniskillen after a bomb exploded during a laying a wreath ceremony for the war dead, Gordon Wilson managed to say, ‘But I bear no ill will. I bear no grudge. Dirty sort of talk is not going to bring her back to life. She was a great wee lassie. She loved her profession. She was a pet. She's dead. She's in heaven and we shall meet again. I will pray for these men tonight and every night.’ The historian Jonathan Bardon recounts, ‘No words in more than twenty-five years of violence in Northern Ireland had such a powerful, emotional impact.’ And the journalist, William Urey commented that “in a few words, Gordon Wilson had spoken for those on both sides who had lost family and friends—and he had furthered for many the slow, painful process of healing”.

I’ve often wondered about what happened in the days and weeks and years afterwards. Did thoughts of hatred or revenge occur to him? I presume they did. Because, as we all know, even from the simplest experiences of hurt and offence, forgiveness is not easy. It’s not just a one-off thing. It has to be worked at because thoughts of getting our own back, or revenge for our hurt can so easily return to us. Sometimes we might think forgiveness is weakness whereas it really requires courage. So many divisions in our families and everyday life poison our lives because of the lack of forgiveness.

In the Gospel today Jesus provides us with a few keys that both explain and help us in the art of forgiveness.

The first servant owed so much (in today’s reckoning it would be millions of euros) that he’d never really be able to pay it! His Master cancelled the debt. But the point is he didn’t really accept the Master’s great act of compassion. He in turn couldn’t show compassion. He throttled the other servant for a measly debt of something like a few hundred euro. Here is a first lesson for us from the Gospel: if we want to go into training in the art of forgiveness, we’ve got to keep going back to basics – God has forgiven us so much. Believe in that and act accordingly. From the day or our baptism to our everyday life, God’s overwhelming mercy is enveloping me. God’s mercy is present to me in all that I have, my home, family, friends and the constant forgiveness of my mistakes. A first step every day is to believe in God’s merciful love for me. St. Paul keeps saying it: while we were sinners Jesus came lay down his life for us. And so, “blessed are those whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the one against whom the Lord will not reckon sin.’ (Rom 4:7-8). Part of believing in God’s merciful love is that we ask God to help us to show mercy and forgive others! We can’t manage it on our own. We need God’s help.

The second step is to go out and try see others with new eyes. That too is an exercise we have to do every day. We have received compassion from God and so “from our heart” we are to go out and see others through the eyes of mercy. And that means, to try and see Jesus in them even in their defects and weaknesses. And with the eyes of mercy try to reach out.  Maybe we can’t feel we have the strength to do it. A piece of advice given to me years ago has been helpful. When we recite the “Our Father” prayer – and in that prayer, remember we say “and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us” – insert the name of the person who has offended you. That is a first step in reaching out even if you can’t yet physically go that person.

The third step is to think we only have one life. The “No Pockets in Shrouds” is well known proverb meaning you can’t take wealth with you after death. But you can’t really take the resentments either. A few years ago when preaching on the readings we’ve heard today, Pope Francis said that he was struck by the sentence in the first Reading from the book of Ecclesiasticus that says, “Remember the end things, the end of your life, and cease from enmity”. St. Ignatius of Loyola had recommended that exercise of thinking about the end of one’s life so as to get perspective on what really matters. The Pope said the sentence from the First Reading today made him think: “think that you will be in a coffin… and will you take hatred there? Think of the end, stop the resentment”. The Pope continued, “’It is not easy to forgive because in moments of calm we say: “Yes, this person has done so many things to me but I have done many too. Better to forgive so as to be forgiven”. But then resentment returns like a bothersome fly in the summer that keeps coming back. Forgiveness isn’t something we do in a moment, it is something continuous, against that resentment, this hatred that keeps coming back. Let’s think of our end and stop hating”.’

It’s worth forgiving because it brings peace and healing. A woman I know, let’s call her Evelyn, told me of how her Dad had walked out of her family and was living with someone else. He had left a lot of pain behind him and she had been angry towards him for a long time but then began to realize she needed to reach out to him to make peace again, even though many years had passed. One Sunday she decided she’d go to the church where he used to go every Sunday. She saw him there and sat some rows back from him and when the sign of peace came, she got the strength to forget everything, to go up to him and his second wife. She said it was like becoming a child again and said 'Peace, Dad,'. He clasped her tightly looking at her with clear eyes. Then, Evelyn said, “a peace I had not felt before invaded my heart and I understood, perhaps for the first time so clearly, that there can't be peace without real forgiveness”.

God rejoices in forgiving us. He wants us to have joy in showing forgiveness and mercy to others.