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Lectio/Reflection

24th Sunday in Ordinary Time — Year A
Matthew 18:21–35
The Mercy We Have Received
There are wounds we can talk about easily, and there are wounds that still have the power to tighten something inside us when we remember them. Peter's question to Jesus comes from that very human place: How many times must I forgive? Somewhere beneath the question is another one: What do I do when the hurt is real and the person who caused it has left something behind that I cannot simply erase?
Jesus' answer is not really about mathematics. He is inviting Peter, and us, to see something much deeper: the heart of God.
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Peter approaches Jesus with what sounds like a generous question. “Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Seven already sounds like a lot. Peter may even think he is being remarkably generous. But Jesus responds by taking Peter somewhere beyond counting. He tells him that the kingdom of God cannot be measured by keeping score, because mercy does not begin with the number of times we have forgiven someone. Mercy begins with the mercy we ourselves have received.
Jesus tells the story of a servant who owes his master an enormous debt, a debt so large that there is no realistic way he could ever repay it. The master has every right to demand payment, yet when the servant pleads for mercy, the master does something astonishing. He releases him from the debt. He does not negotiate a smaller payment. He does not give him more time. He simply forgives the debt because he is moved with compassion. The servant walks away carrying a freedom he did nothing to earn.
Then he encounters another servant who owes him a much smaller amount. Instead of extending the mercy he has just received, he demands payment. The contrast is almost painful. He has experienced extraordinary mercy, yet he can’t recognize himself as someone who has been given mercy. He receives compassion but doesn’t allow compassion to change the way he sees another person.
That may be where Jesus' story becomes most personal for us. Forgiveness can be difficult precisely because the wound is real. There are things people have done to us that should never have happened. There are words that can’t be unsaid and choices whose consequences remain long after the moment has passed. Jesus is not asking us to pretend that those things didn’t matter. He’s not asking us to call evil good or to ignore the wisdom that sometimes requires distance and boundaries. Forgiveness does not mean that trust must immediately be restored, and it does not require us to place ourselves back into a relationship that has become harmful.
What Jesus offers us is something deeper. He wants us to become free.

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Lectio/Reflection

That freedom often begins by remembering that we ourselves live inside the mercy of God. We’re not standing outside the mercy of God trying to learn how to give it away. We’re already inside it. Every one of us carries moments we would rather have lived differently. We know the things we have said, the things we have failed to say, the opportunities we have missed, the people we have disappointed, and the ways we have fallen short. Yet Christ doesn’t look at us and see only our worst moment. He sees the whole person. He sees the story behind the failure, the longing beneath the weakness, and the person we are still becoming through grace.
When we begin to see ourselves that way, something changes in the way we see others. The person who hurt us remains responsible for what happened. The wound remains real. But gradually, Christ can help us see that person as more than the worst thing he or she ever did to us. That does not erase the truth. It simply keeps that truth from becoming the whole story.
This is why forgiveness is sometimes a journey rather than a single decision. We may need to bring the wound to Christ again and again. We may need to tell him honestly that we are not ready. We may need to pray, “Lord, you know what happened. You know how deeply it hurt. Hold this for me until I am ready.” There’s no failure in bringing the same wound back to God. Sometimes that is exactly what faithfulness looks like.
Over time, something begins to happen. We stop allowing another person's actions to determine the condition of our heart. The memory may remain, but it begins to lose its power over us. We can remember without being consumed. We can tell the truth without living inside the anger. We can maintain a necessary boundary without carrying hatred across that boundary. And slowly, the wound becomes part of our story without becoming the author of our future.
That is the freedom Christ desires for us.
Peter wanted to know how many times he had to forgive. Jesus answered by showing him the heart of the Father. The point is not that God is keeping count while we try to keep up. The point is that we have already been given more mercy than we could ever measure. We live because mercy has made room for us. We stand because Christ has not reduced us to our failures. We continue because God's compassion is greater than our debt.
Maybe that’s where forgiveness begins: not by forcing ourselves to feel something we do not yet feel, but by remembering what has already been given to us. We bring our wounds into the presence of the One who knows them completely. We allow him to hold what we cannot yet release. And little by little, his mercy becomes larger than the wound.
The wound remains part of our story, but it no longer has the power to write the ending. Christ does.
Amen.
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A Moment to Carry
When I struggle to forgive, I can begin by remembering the mercy I have already received.
I don't have to force myself to forget the wound.
I can bring it to Christ and let him hold it with me.
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Closing Prayer
Lord Jesus,
you know the wounds we carry.
You know the things we cannot yet release
and the memories that still hurt.
Help us remember that we live inside your mercy.
Hold what we cannot yet hold ourselves.
Teach us to forgive without denying the truth,
to love without abandoning wisdom,
and to seek freedom without pretending the wound never happened.
Let your mercy become greater than our resentment
and your love become stronger than our fear.
And when we are ready,
let the mercy we have received
become mercy we are able to share.
Amen.
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If this Sunday's reflection spoke to you, you might find the Companion Essay helpful during the week. It isn't another homily. It's an invitation to sit a little longer with the Gospel and notice where God's grace may already be at work in your own life. It’s like a second doorway into the same encounter. The homily opens the Sunday Gospel; the essay gives you somewhere quieter to enter it again during the week.
When Mercy Becomes Bigger Than the WoundPlease keep me and my family in your prayers, as we will pray for you.
Peace,
Dcn Bill Brawner
PS If you found something in this reflection that touched your heart, please forward it to, or Share with, friends and relatives. The Church’s mission is to share the Gospel ‘with all the world’. You can do your small part by sharing these reflections for their consideration, meditation and discussion.

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24th Sunday in Ordinary Time — Year A
The Mercy We Have Received

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23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time — Year A
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22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time — Year A
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