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Second collection -Thanksgiving meals for
the poor.
When we hear today's
Gospel it is very natural to think it is about human patience and
forgiveness.
We are impressed with the magnanimity of the king and hope that many will
share his good qualities even if they are not able to forgive such huge
debts. (The ten thousand talents would have a weight of gold or silver,
worth something in the neighborhood of tens of millions of dollars—well
beyond most people's ability to be generous or even patient.) Contrary wise
we are negatively impressed with the fellow servant who was so unforgiving
over a few pence—maybe a hundred or so pieces of copper. On the human
level, this is a valuable lesson about how we should and shouldn't treat the
people around us.
But the parable did
start out with the often heard phrase: “The kingdom of Heaven is like such
and such....” That suggests that there is also a more God centered meaning
to the story. The enormous debt owed to the king should remind us that all
of our sins against God are of an enormous distain for One who deserves all
of our respect and obedience. It should also remind us of God's
magnanimity—just like the king in the parable. In spite of the evil worked
by so many of us, God sent His only Son to suffer on the Cross for our
redemption from the spiritual (and sometimes physical) death of sin. Human
sin is an outrageous offense against God, and we must multiply that by the
millions of people who inhabit the planet.
All men and women are
redeemed by our Lord's sacrifice on the Cross. That is to say that they
have been made capable of accepting God's Grace's and living lives which
honor rather than dishonor Him. It remains necessary for us to live this
life of cooperation with God. It is a serious mistake to think that there
is no need for individuals to give up their sins. It is utterly false to
think that all men and women are saved from eternal punishment solely by the
sacrifice of the Cross. Individual forgiveness can be gained only through
contrition and a firm intention to stop sinning.
A few weeks back we
heard that there are two great commandments: the love of God with our whole
heart, mind, and soul; and the love of our neighbor as ourselves. We can
see this second commandment in the part of the parable where the servant has
the opportunity, but refuses to forgive even a small debt. Indeed the
fellow servant was not even asking for forgiveness, but merely for some time
to work things out.
This parable is a
warning. Certainly, we must stop committing those sins against God, for
they are mortal because of His great majesty. But we must also stop
committing sins against our neighbors. Sins against our neighbors are
essentially sins against God Himself, for in them we are violating God's
second great commandment, and we are failing to show love, compassion,
patience, and forgiveness toward those whom God Himself shows love,
compassion, patience, and forgiveness.
We may have a legal
claim to collect a debt—people expect to be paid for their goods and
services, and expect loans to be repaid—and, usually the parties have agreed
on a time when repayment can be expected. Very often these things are
enforceable under civil law. We say that we have a right to collect “in
justice,” and we do. But often enough we must recognize that there are
rights that exist “in charity,” rather than strictly “in justice.” We are
told that we must “love our neighbor as ourselves”—we are told to “do unto
others as we would have them do unto us.”
This is particularly true when we have some sort of relationship with the
other person—a family member, a co-worker, a fellow parishioner, or a
neighbor whose tools we borrow and with whom we socialize....
As Catholics we must
see even those with whom we have no relationship as though they were Jesus
Christ Himself--the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the sick, the prisoner,
the stranger--Our Lord tells us that when we do something good for any of
these, we are doing good for Him, and that our reward will be eternal. If
we fail to do this good for Him our punishment will be similarly eternal:
“Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire which was prepared for
the devil and his angels.”
Of course, no one is
expected to “give away the store.” Indeed if we gave away all of our goods
and services and loaned money without repayment, we would soon become
hungry, thirsty, naked, and homeless ourselves. But when we find ourselves
with more than we need for our own use, we need to think about helping those
in need.
We are hoping to feed a
few hungry people at Thanksgiving, and hopefully to go on doing so
throughout the year. Undoubtedly there are other ways we can help our
neighbors—and we will be exploring them as we grow in size. For the moment
I think we will do just fine as long as we keep our Lord's words firmly in
mind:
“Amen I say to you, as long as you did it
for one of these,
the least of My brethren, you did it for Me.”
