- Feb 5, 2002
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A boggy marsh: This is how Dante imagines the reality of anger in his “Inferno.” Greed looks like the eternal weight of a heavy stone pressing against one’s chest. Our readings for this Sunday present these sins in contrast to the blissful happiness of forgiveness.
Matthew’s Gospel offers us other images. Sin, in Matthew 18, is likened to a debt. Indeed, sin is a lack — it is lacking in love. In contrast, Matthew 18 likens the kingdom of heaven to the forgiveness of all debt, of all sin: “Moved with compassion the master of that servant let him go and forgave him the loan” (vs. 27). This imagery gives us a way to envision sin and forgiveness for what they truly are.
In fact, if we might make a brief scriptural tangent, we could look to the prophet Hosea for an even stronger image of sin and forgiveness, also delineated through a financial transaction. Hosea’s wife, Gomer, leaves him for a life of prostitution (cf. Hos 1:2). The Lord tells Hosea that he should go and purchase his wife back — he must literally redeem her as he returns to purchase her in the place she worked. “So I acquired her for myself for fifteen pieces of silver and a homer and a lethech of barley” (Hos 3:2). Imagine how Gomer must have felt in response to such an act of forgiveness!
Continued below.
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Matthew’s Gospel offers us other images. Sin, in Matthew 18, is likened to a debt. Indeed, sin is a lack — it is lacking in love. In contrast, Matthew 18 likens the kingdom of heaven to the forgiveness of all debt, of all sin: “Moved with compassion the master of that servant let him go and forgave him the loan” (vs. 27). This imagery gives us a way to envision sin and forgiveness for what they truly are.
In fact, if we might make a brief scriptural tangent, we could look to the prophet Hosea for an even stronger image of sin and forgiveness, also delineated through a financial transaction. Hosea’s wife, Gomer, leaves him for a life of prostitution (cf. Hos 1:2). The Lord tells Hosea that he should go and purchase his wife back — he must literally redeem her as he returns to purchase her in the place she worked. “So I acquired her for myself for fifteen pieces of silver and a homer and a lethech of barley” (Hos 3:2). Imagine how Gomer must have felt in response to such an act of forgiveness!
Continued below.
The reality of sin and forgiveness
Preparing us for the 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Catherine Cavadini summarizes the Gospel: “We must love ‘as’ the king loves, and so we must forgive ‘as’ he forgives through an imitation of God’s mercy.” In Matthew 6:12, we are reminded that Christ himself teaches us to pray this way: “ [Our...
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