SEPTEMBER 13, 2026 FATHER MICHAEL COUTTS
Father Ed at Saint Justin’s Church was speaking about forgiveness.
He said: “We are human, we hurt one another, we need to forgive one another. If there’s anybody in this church that does not need to forgive anybody, please stand up.”
Old Mrs. Murphy stood up, and Father Ed was shocked.
He says: “Mrs. Murphy, you’re 96 years old. And you have got nobody to forgive?”
And Mrs. Murphy said: “Father, I’m 97 years old, and I have nobody to forgive. Because all those I have to forgive are those old biddies. They’ve all died and gone to heaven. There’s nobody left to forgive.”
Our first reading is from the book of Sirach. Sirach was written about 200, or 210 years before Jesus Christ. It was a book that was part of the Jewish wisdom literature. It spoke about the cultural and political changes that affected the Jewish culture, in the diaspora.
About 100 years later, his grandson, also called Sirach, Ben, who translated this into Greek, for the sake of the people of Israel who were in the diaspora. And it spoke about forgiveness.
Ben Sirach said look, emotions come up among us. Emotions are neither good nor bad, but the actions that we do affect not only ourselves but affect the whole tribe.
We somebody that is hurt, or somebody close to us that is hurt, and emotions of anger, of revenge, of justice, of harming the other person, rise to the front. And it’s when we have that calmness, and say: “You’re not going to get anything by doing this,” that finally, we can be at peace.
And he speaks about forgiveness on two levels. He says first of all, the Lord has forgiven you, forgiven you for so many things, and you can’t forgive others? It’s rather cheeky that you should ask for forgiveness.
When it comes to ‘the final judgement, on one side you’ll have your anger, your lust, your hatred, and all these other things, but it should be balanced out with forgiveness on the other side. If you don’t have that, then in the eschatology moment, you will find that you are in want, and you will not be treated justly before the throne of the Lord.
Saint Paul speaks about this in a different way all together. He speaks about the Hellenistic Christians, those who had a Gentile background, and the Jewish background, and he says all of you belong to the Lord. So for goodness’ sake, get together, and work together.
The Jews, the Hellenistic people, were liberal. And they said, 400 years before Saint Augustine, you can love and do what you will, because you’ll never do wrong if you do it out of love.
Our Gospel speaks about 10,000 talents. It’s an astronomical figure. You may consider it to be almost like the debt of the United Sates, $37,000,000,000. Canada wouldn’t even figure among this for this metaphor.
And on the other side, you have 100 denarii, which would be equivalent to a $10 penalty for an overdraft.
Jesus uses all these extraordinary figures in order to show us the disparity between God’s forgiveness, and how God is generous with us, and as our cantor sang: “The Lord is full of mercy and compassion, slow to anger and full of steadfast love.”
This is the Lord that forgives us. And we can’t forgive one another? And so Jesus would show that disparity between God’s forgiveness to us, and our forgiveness of each other.
One of the reasons for doing this is because whenever we hold onto the anger, it keeps on mounting and crippling us in our desire to do anything. It seems to grip our minds and hearts.
And that is why Paul would say in the letter to the Romans, “Whether we live or we die, we live for the Lord.” And if we live and die for the Lord, then our whole attitude should be one of the Lord’s: “Forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
And even if they know what they do, Jesus says, go ahead and forgive them. You have got a big heart, and I’ve given you the Spirit, to lead you out from your anger, into the land of forgiveness and peace.
God bless you all.
When the sun opens the day, when the road winds its way,
where the fields are high with hay, may we see the Lord.
Where the leaves are rustling, where the markets are bustling,
where the crowds are jostling, may we see the Lord.
Where the stars shine on high, where the birds soar in the sky,
when the dawn of day draws nigh, may we see the Lord.
May this Lord bless us.
