JPII bulletin

Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time | September 17, 2023

Following last Sunday's Gospel, today we are invited to continue reflecting on the “manual of forgiveness in community” that Jesus leaves us in the Gospel.

Faced with the “very human measures” of Peter who, in a still very legalistic mentality, wants to quantify the “minimum” of what he must forgive, Jesus, once again, “changes his mind”, making him see the measure of forgiveness not from the place of those who forgive “out of obligation” – and who, therefore, always think they are “giving too much” – but from the place of those who are forgiven by grace – and who, therefore, are called to “give too much” grace what he received freely.”

Jesus is very clear on the “rules and measures” of forgiveness: we will be forgiven to the extent that we forgive. Therefore, far beyond our “very human measures”, the measure to be used is the one that God uses with us when we turn to Him repentant of our sins: total liberality, gratuitousness and mercy, regardless of what we have done or not done to deserve it, since forgiveness is always an undeserved gift.

In brief moments of silence and intimacy with God, let us ask ourselves the following questions:

• What measure do I use to forgive? “Up to seven times”, or “seventy times seven”? Am I able to use the measure I would like to be used with me?

• How do I react to the faults of those around me? Do I look at them with pride, or with the awareness that “much has been forgiven to me too”?