09/13/2026
Below is the text from Father Fleming's Homily for this weekend's Masses.
# # # # # #
Friends, in the Gospel last week we heard Jesus instruct His disciples about how to address a brother or sister in the Church community who sins. A key insight there was not to focus on our own hurts but to see if we can win back the one who has sinned. Today we hear Peter ask about the limits of forgiveness: “Lord, how often should I forgive my brother or sister if they sin against me? As many as seven times?” Likely, Peter thinks he is being generous, but Our Lord says that we must be prepared to forgive without limit. This is essentially what He means by “Not seven…but seventy-seven times”.
To illustrate how we can learn to forgive from the heart without limit Jesus uses a parable. A servant is summoned by his king to pay back a debt of 10,000 talents. To put this in perspective, a talent was a large weight of precious metal; most estimates seem to value it at about 20 years wages. So, 10,000 talents, given today’s average salary, would be about $10B — an unimaginable debt. The servant should have been utterly astonished that the king had forgiven him. Yet, leaving the king, he comes across a fellow servant, owing 100 denarii. A denarius was a day’s wage; therefore, this was a significant amount of money but miniscule compared to what had just been forgiven. He should have been ready to forgive the small amount. Similarly, Our Lord wants us to realize how much God has given us and forgiven us. Out of that awareness, we can forgive the comparatively small the offenses we receive from others.
God has given us many things we could never pay back— all creation and our very life is from Him. He holds us in existence at each moment. In addition, He has given the graces of faith and the sacraments, which share His own life with us. Further, we can consider what God has forgiven or is ready to forgive. In baptism, God forgives original sin that separated us from Him. He forgives our actual sins (the ones we commit by our own fault) in baptism and in the sacrament of Confession. He is even ready to forgive all the things we ought to have done but failed to do. There is an infinite quality to what God has both given and forgiven. When we realize this, the faults of others against us, even if significant, begin to seem small in comparison.
We need the light of the Holy Spirit to truly see all that God has given and forgiven. It requires a supernatural vision upon our lives, and we can pray for this. Moreover, the sacrament of Confession is the privileged place where we experience both the reality of our sins and the greatness of God’s mercy. The experience of being forgiven is a powerful step in learning how to easily forgive.
What about someone who is not aware of any grave sin? First, if we are not aware of our sins, we should make a good examination of conscience and ask the Holy Spirit to help us see. Often, there is more in our lives that needs forgiveness than we acknowledge. However, even if someone has not committed any serious sin, they can thank God for being preserved. St. Therese of Lisieux in her writing reflected on how she had been preserved from certain grave sins in her youth; consequently, she felt she owed God a tremendous debt of gratitude because it was His grace that kept her safe. She said, “Without Him I should have fallen as low as St. Magdalen”(Story of A Soul). She knew she owed God as much as anyone who had gravely sinned and been forgiven.
Many people carry hurts that are extremely painful. As a priest, I have heard stories of terrible suffering and cruelty. Yet, it is possible to forgive. Even if the offender does not ask for forgiveness, we can still, on our part, make the interior act of forgiveness. In many cases, it is not possible to do this by our human strength; we need God’s help. While preparing for this weekend, I came across a moving passage in the Catechism about forgiveness: “It is not in our power not to feel or to forget an offense; but the heart that offers itself to the Holy Spirit turns injury into compassion and purifies the memory in transforming the hurt into intercession (CCC 2843).” Even with the most painful sufferings, the Holy Spirit can “purify our memory” and turn the hurt (focus on self) into intercession (prayer for the other). For our part, we can ask the Holy Spirit to help us see all we have been given and forgiven; we can make good use of the sacrament of Confession; and we can ask the Holy Spirit to turn our hurt into intercession.
