Message from Fr. Brito:

24th Sunday Year A

I like to begin with our first reading which points out the necessity of forgiving. We are all sinner, but we don’t all have to be ungrateful sinners. It is the ungrateful sinner who is condemned. The Joy of being forgiven is solidified in our forgiving others who have sinned against us. The ones who think themselves as entitled to forgiveness are reluctant to offer forgiveness to others.  Mercy should be received with gratitude and Joy. Joy cannot be contained, true joy must be shared, and the ways we share are joy for receiving God divine mercy is by being merciful ourselves.

In the parable of the desperate servant, Jesus gives us an image of how we look before God, when we decide to cling to “Wrath and Anger”. We are in deed in debt to Our Lord for forgiving a Debt that we could never pay. We should have as much gratitude as one who deserved life in prison for his crime and instead is given his freedom.  What he deserved and what he got are two different things; and one would expect that person to be extremely grateful for his freedom. 

Yet we take our pardon for granted, and proof of this is demonstrated in our unwillingness to forgive others. Who is the one who has sinned against me? Have I clung to wrath and anger, which are hateful things, or have I set my heart on true forgiveness and joy, which are beautiful things. As is contained in the first reading, the parable and the Our Father, the message is the same, if we want to be forgiven we must learn to forgive. It is not enough to be sorry for our sins and confess them, we must also be merciful and forgiving to others. Amen

Amen