24th Sunday in Ordinary Time

In the Penitential Rite of the Mass as well as the Sacrament of Reconciliation, we ask for, and receive, God’s mercy. And we come to the realization that we must forgive others just as we have been forgiven by God. Today’s Gospel (Matthew 18:21-35) began with Jesus speaking about the breadth of the forgiveness that we are called upon to offer. Peter asks Jesus, “Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive? As many as seven times?” Peter thinks he is being generous. Remember that in the Bible the number seven represents fullness and completion. God had created the world in six days and rested on the seventh. In Peter’s eyes he is offering the fullness of forgiveness. But to his amazement, Jesus answers: “I say to you, not seven times but seventyseven times.” Now, I can just imagine hearing some people saying, “Look, I’ve already forgiven you seventy-six times. You only have one more forgiveness left!” But the number seventy-seven is, of course, symbolic and means that we are to forgive without limit, just as God is willing to forgive us without limit when we are truly sorry for our sins. Jesus forgives us without limits. How different would our world be if we practiced offering this kind of forgiveness ourselves?

This week is rich with feast days of the Church. On Monday, we will celebrate the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, formerly known as the Triumph of the Cross, a feast that commemorates the finding of the true Cross by Emperor Constantine’s mother, Helen, in about the year 320 AD. In the 4th century, two churches in Jerusalem were dedicated on this day. The feast day commemorates both the dedication of the original Church of the Holy Sepulchre in 335 AD, and Christ’s victory over death by his crucifixion and Resurrection. As St. Cyril of Jerusalem reminds us: “The Cross has set free all who were slaves of sin. It has redeemed all humanity.”

On Tuesday is the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, formerly known as the Seven Sorrows of Mary, a memorial that was begun by the Servite Friars in 1668 AD and continues to be observed by members of the Servite community – both ordained and lay. In 1814, Pope Pius VII extended the celebration of this feast to the entire Western Church. The Seven Sorrows of Mary are: Simeon’s prophecy at the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple, the flight into Egypt, the disappearance of Jesus as a boy in Jerusalem, the road to Calvary, the crucifixion, the removal of the Body of Jesus from the Cross, the burial of the Body of Jesus. These Seven Sorrows are depicted as wood carvings mounted on the East wall of our church. They can be meditated upon, just as one meditates upon the mysteries of the Rosary or the Stations of the Cross.

Still other feast days this week include: St. Cornelius and St. Cyprian - martyrs (Wednesday), and St. Robert Bellarmine – Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Thursday), and St. Januarius – Bishop and martyr (Saturday). This is, indeed, a week filled with history and the richness of our Catholic faith.