Homily – Twenty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)

“Give me a second chance.”

“Just give me another chance.”

Every time we’ve fallen short, every time we’ve failed or every time we’ve seriously messed up, this phrase or something along these lines is within us.  “Please just give me a chance” to redeem myself or “just give me another chance” to prove I can put things the right way.  We beg and cry out in desperation for those second chances.

Today, God reveals the nature of these second chances in a parable through a servant and his king.

Yet, not only does Jesus encourage us to give others one or two chances but to forgive as many as “seventy-seven times”.  It doesn’t mean we literally forgive only 77 times but it’s a metaphorical way of explaining we should forgive infinite times.

All this stems from the great Divine Mercy of God extended to us.  Many Christians have understood and personally experienced the forgiveness of God, causing their whole life to be transformed.

There is a story about a homeless and drunken man in the streets of Rome.  Apparently, he told others that he was a seminarian, who once studied with Pope John Paul II, and later became a priest but left the priesthood.

No one believed him but someone reported it to the Pope.  The Holy Father asked for his name and it turned out to be true.  Upon hearing this, the man was invited by the Pope for dinner.  After dinner, the Pope asked the homeless man to hear his confession.  Stumped by the request, the man choked saying, “Your Holiness, look at me.  I am a beggar.  I am not a priest”.

The Holy Father responded “once a priest always a priest, and who among us is not a beggar.  I too come before the Lord as a beggar asking for forgiveness”.

“But I cannot do ministry, I have no faculties,” replied the man but the Pope retorted, “I will sort that out, after all I am the Bishop of Rome!”  Afterwards, the Pope restored his faculties and assigned him a new role to do outreach to the homeless.

Just like the Pope, we are all beggars in need of God’s love and mercy.  Forgiveness from God offers us a second chance and like that homeless man, forgiveness recovers a lost soul and brings it back to life.

We have received forgiveness countless times and it has changed our lives.  Let’s also give others another chance because we are all children of God.

By Fr Ian Vergel