09/13/2026
On this 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, we are invited to consider how we embrace and extend forgiveness in our lives. Through the Gospel, Jesus teaches Peter, the apostles, and His disciples, including us, that God's love and mercy overflow abundantly.
We have sinned. We will sin. Time and again, we turn to the Lord to seeking forgiveness and receiving absolution through the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
The next step for us, , is to resist acting like the servant in Jesus' parable and instead to be merciful to others.
Being merciful does not mean that you are never angry at someone, especially if that anger is warranted from the wrong committed against you. It doesn't mean we let others take advantage of us. Rather, it means we are called to understand where the other person is coming from, remember the core love that unites us as brothers and sisters, and and, as we reflected on last week, not let our hearts become hardened but open to permit God to work through us as instruments of His mercy.
This is a radical love at the heart of the Gospel. May the Sacred Heart of Jesus make our hearts tender to know and show mercy.
