24th Sunday of the Year Eccles 27:30–28:7; Rom 14: 7-9; Mt 18:21-35 (Year A) “Resentment and anger, these are foul things, and both are found in the sinner.” These words of ancient wisdom underline an uncomfortable truth. There is within us all a tendency to resentment. Unchecked, we feed our resentments, nursing our hurts, be they real or imagined. Resentment leads to anger, anger to judgment, and judgment to alienation. The author of the Book of Ecclesiasticus recognised this familiar pattern and did not hesitate to dismiss it as sinful. “If a man nurses anger against another, can he then demand compassion from the Lord? Showing no pity for a man like himself, can he then plead for his own sins? Mere creature of flesh, who will forgive him his sins?” In the heat of the moment we often seek to justify our anger, failing to recognise that anger is most commonly rooted in unrestrained selfishness. Words of forgiveness are readily spoken, and easily fall to the ground. If we are to live the reality of the Lord’s forgiveness, we must acknowledge that it frequently lies beyond our grasp. We can sense Peter’s frustration when confronted with his Lord’s repeated insistence on forgiveness. “Lord, how often must I forgive my brother if he wrongs me? As often as seven times?” The question flowed from calculation, a calculation that marked the gulf between human and divine forgiveness. The answer of Jesus, “not seven but seventy-seven times”, was dismissive. If we are to live in relationship with a merciful Father, there can be no calculation in the forgiveness we hope to receive, or in the forgiveness we are called to give. The parable of the king settling his accounts harbours a daunting challenge. We readily identify with the pleading of the servant who could not pay his debts. As he begged his master to forgive his debt, so we long for God to forgive our sins. We are, in effect, seeking a relationship of grace and mercy rather than calculation and irredeemable debt. As the parable unfolds, we recoil from the forgiven servant’s subsequent behaviour. We ask ourselves “how could this servant have become so calculating, so judgmental and so unforgiving to his fellow debtor?” We probably nod approval as the king condemned the ungrateful servant to prison and torture. The real challenge of the parable is quite different. When we judge others, are we not inviting the Lord to relate to us according to calculated judgment rather than the mercy and grace for which we long?