09/13/2026
Reflection for the Twenty-fourth Sunday In Ordinary Time:
Our readings for this Twenty-Fourth Sunday concern forgiving those who wound us and being reconciled with them. All three readings today remind us of the path to forgiveness, mercy, and reconciliation and challenge us to walk this, the only Way to Life.
First Reading: Sirach 27:30—28:7
Today Sirach gives us a simple but difficult message: “Forgive your neighbor’s injustice; then when you pray, your own sins will be forgiven.” All of us have been hurt by someone. Sometimes the wound is small; sometimes it stays with us for years. And when we have been deeply hurt, anger can feel justified. We may even convince ourselves that holding onto resentment somehow punishes the person who hurt us. But Sirach reminds us that resentment often hurts us more than anyone else. When we refuse to forgive, we continue carrying the injury wherever we go. Forgiveness does not mean pretending that what happened was acceptable. It does not mean forgetting, and it does not always mean that a relationship can return to what it was. Forgiveness means refusing to let another person’s wrongdoing control our heart. Sirach asks us to remember something important: we ourselves need mercy. How can we stand before God asking, “Lord, forgive me,” while saying to someone else, “I will never forgive you”? So perhaps our prayer today can be very simple: Lord, help me release the anger I am carrying. Help me forgive as You have forgiven me. Because when we forgive, we do not change the past—but through God’s grace, we keep the past from controlling our future.
Second Reading: Romans 14:7-9
Saint Paul gives us a beautiful truth today: “Whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.” We often live as though everything depends on us—our plans, our success, our health, our future. But Paul reminds us that our lives are not simply our own. We belong to God. That changes the way we live. If I belong to the Lord, then my decisions should reflect Him. The way I treat my family, the way I speak about others, the way I forgive, the way I use my time—all of it should point toward Christ. And there is also great comfort in these words. Life brings moments we cannot control: disappointment, suffering, loss, and eventually death itself. Yet through all of it, we are never outside the hands of God. Christ died and returned to life precisely so that He might be Lord of both the living and the dead. So today Saint Paul invites us to ask a simple question: Who am I living for? May we be able to answer—not only with our words, but with the way we live each day: “I belong to the Lord, and I live for Him.”
Gospel Reading: Matthew 18:21-35
Peter asks Jesus a question that all of us have probably asked: “How often must I forgive?” Peter thinks seven times sounds generous. But Jesus answers, “Not seven times but seventy-seven times.” Jesus is telling us that Christian forgiveness is not something we keep score of. Then Jesus tells the story of a servant who owes his master an enormous debt—something he could never repay. The master has compassion and forgives everything. But that same servant goes out and refuses to forgive someone who owes him a much smaller amount. The message is simple: We cannot ask God for mercy while refusing to show mercy to others. Every time we come to Mass, every time we pray the Our Father, we ask God to “forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Those words are easy to say. Living them can be much harder. Forgiveness does not mean that the hurt was acceptable. It does not mean we have to remain in a harmful situation. It means we refuse to allow anger and resentment to have the final word in our hearts. And the reason we can forgive is because God has forgiven us first. Maybe there is someone in our life whose name immediately comes to mind today. We may not be able to erase the hurt overnight, but we can begin with a simple prayer: “Lord, You have been merciful to me. Give me the grace to be merciful to them.” Because in the end, the people who truly understand God’s mercy are the people who learn to give that mercy away.
