Twenty-Fourth Thursday of Ordinary Time

“Two people were in debt to a certain creditor; one owed five hundred days’ wages and the other owed fifty. Since they were unable to repay the debt, he forgave it for both. Which of them will love him more?” Simon said in reply, “The one, I suppose, whose larger debt was forgiven.” He said to him, “You have judged rightly.”

We are all sinners, some of us more than others, but just because we have sinned more than others does not mean that we are beyond God’s forgiveness, nor does it mean that those who have sinned less deserve God’s forgiveness. The grace of God is given to both sinners and saints as a free gift of God in hopes that we might become better people because of it. However, in the end as long as we seek God’s Mercy with truly contrite hearts we will be able to enter into the kingdom no matter how sinful we have been. So too no matter how holy we have been in our lives, if at the end of our days we condemn others or sin against God and His children, than all our good works rot in the storehouse of our hearts and we will discover that we have nothing to offer God. So let us be ever humble before God and His children and seek to wash the feet of Jesus through helping our fellow children and never looking down on them.

Do we realize how much in debt we are to God? Do we treat sinners with Christ-like compassion and generosity? How can we be more forgiving in our own lives?

O Lord, forgive our debts as we forgive those in debt to us.

Amen.