Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time – Sr. Janelle Sevier, SNDdeN
September 13, 2026
Matthew 18: 21-35
Peter, in his desire to “get it right” and to know the “measure” required of him, stands in for all of us this weekend, as is so often the case with our friend Peter.
Wanting to know the limit of Jesus’ command to forgive, Peter’s question prompts Jesus to tell today’s parable. Peter wants to “know” so that he can fulfill what is required of him, a rather decent goal. Perhaps you have asked this sort of question yourself.
Jesus, however, invites Peter, and us, into a much larger, less measured, and more generous worldview: one of compassion and mercy. Seventy-seven times? What?
I admit that this story always catches me off guard. The servant, having just been shown such extraordinary mercy, turns around and treats another person with harshness and remarkable smallness. It is an unpleasant shock. I do not like it. The first servant’s attitude really bothers me. What? He did what? How could he?
Again, the parable is doing its work.
That reaction tells me Peter may not be the only one who stands in for us in this Gospel story. In the unmerciful servant, we can also see traces of ourselves.
Have you ever had someone say something that provoked a reaction far stronger than the situation seemed to warrant? Often, an over-the-top response, like the one portrayed in the parable, has less to do with the words that were spoken and more to do with what those words touched deep within us: an old wound, a recurring hurt, a lingering sense of being overlooked, or a painful reality we are carrying in the present.
Life gives all of us wounds and hurts. Unfortunately, some of us hold on to them far too long, and they resurface in various ways over many years. We human beings seem to excel at remembering our hurts rather than our joys.
Forgetting how deeply I am loved and forgiven, I sometimes require of others, at least in my own mind, what I am unable to do myself. Let’s stop doing that.
Jesus offers another way: simply love as you have been loved.
Is there any one of us who has not been loved? Is there any one of us who has not fallen short of the way we have been called to love?
Rejoice in the Holy One’s love for you.
Exult in your forgiven-ness.
And then go and do likewise.
The Lord is kind and merciful, slow to anger, and rich in compassion.
Matthew 18: 21-35
Peter approached Jesus and asked him,
“Lord, if my brother sins against me,
how often must I forgive?
As many as seven times?”
Jesus answered, “I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times.
That is why the kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king
who decided to settle accounts with his servants.
When he began the accounting,
a debtor was brought before him who owed him a huge amount.
Since he had no way of paying it back,
his master ordered him to be sold,
along with his wife, his children, and all his property,
in payment of the debt.
At that, the servant fell down, did him homage, and said,
‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full.’
Moved with compassion the master of that servant
let him go and forgave him the loan.
When that servant had left, he found one of his fellow servants
who owed him a much smaller amount.
He seized him and started to choke him, demanding,
‘Pay back what you owe.’
Falling to his knees, his fellow servant begged him,
‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.’
But he refused.
Instead, he had the fellow servant put in prison
until he paid back the debt.
Now when his fellow servants saw what had happened,
they were deeply disturbed, and went to their master
and reported the whole affair.
His master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant!
I forgave you your entire debt because you begged me to.
Should you not have had pity on your fellow servant,
as I had pity on you?’
Then in anger his master handed him over to the torturers
until he should pay back the whole debt.
So will my heavenly Father do to you,
unless each of you forgives your brother from your heart.”
Meet Sister Janelle Sevier, SNDdeN
