Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scriptures, we are all reminded of the love and kindness that God has always shown unto us, His beloved people, through the various times that He had aided us and our predecessors in the past from what we have heard in the Scriptures, and how He, our Master, has shown us His generous mercy and kindness, compassion and love, sparing us from destruction and damnation because of our sins, and therefore how He expects us all to do the same in our own lives, that we, as His disciples and followers, show the same love that He has shown us, to our fellow brothers and sisters all around us. We are reminded to forgive one another our faults, mistakes and sins to each other, just as the Lord Himself has already forgiven us ours.

In our first reading today, we heard the story from the Book of Joshua during the time when the people of Israel, under Joshua’s leadership, was finally about to enter into the Promised Land of Canaan by crossing through the River Jordan. At that time, the Lord had patiently led His people through a long forty years sojourn in the desert as a punishment for their repeated rebellions and refusal to trust in Him and in His providence, in doubting that He would lead them safe and sound into the land He has promised to them and their descendants. He has continued to care for them and loved them despite the repeated betrayals and grumblings from those ungrateful people, and in the end, the Lord was finally about to lead them into the land promised to them, and He also reassured Joshua that He would be with him in his leadership of the Israelites just as Moses had been blessed before him.

God therefore opened the River Jordan itself before the people, as He instructed Joshua and the people of Israel to put the Ark of the Covenant handled by the Levite priests to the middle of the River itself. Just as God had once opened the Red Sea before His people to lead them through the dry seabed to their freedom from their slavery in Egypt, thus He once again showed His power and might, in leading all of them through the river, opening it before their very own eyes, so that all of them might remember His deeds and love, in His guidance through all those years, and that when they finally entered into the land promised to them, they would still continue to do what He has shown and taught them all to do through His Law and commandments. As mentioned earlier, just as God has loved His people, thus He expected all of them to love one another in the same way.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard of the Lord Jesus speaking to His disciples regarding the parable of the ungrateful servant, in which a servant who owed his master a large sum of money, ten thousand pieces of gold in total, was ungrateful and uncharitable in his actions, even though his master had shown him his mercy and compassion, in forgiving his whole debt when that servant was just begging for the master to give him more time to settle his debts. We heard how that ungrateful and uncharitable servant went to one of his fellow servants who owed him just a hundred pieces of silver, which was probably barely a thousandth or even less than what the ungrateful servant owed his master earlier. That ungrateful servant refused to forgive the debt or to give a chance for his fellow servant to pay off his debt, unlike what his master had done to him.

We heard well how the ungrateful servant was punished severely by his master for his lack of empathy and love, his lack of mercy and understanding, compassion and care for another. It is a reminder to all of us that just as the servant was expected by his master to follow in his examples in loving one another and in forgiving each other, one’s debts and faults, therefore, all of us, as God’s people, and with God as our Lord and Master, each one of us should be like Him in all of our words, actions and deeds. Hence, we should commit ourselves to walk ever more faithfully and with greater conviction to follow the Lord at all times, and to show one another the inspiration and the actions that we should be doing as faithful and committed disciples of the Lord. Each one of us should be more loving and forgiving, kind and compassionate towards one another as Our Lord Himself had done to us.

If God has forgiven us our huge and enormous sums of debts, that is our many sins and wickedness, which we have committed before Him, then how can we not forgive others who have committed faults and mistakes towards us? We ourselves must have also committed some mistakes and faults in our own lives, and we cannot pretend that we are ourselves without any blame at all. If God is willing to forgive us all these faults and debts, then we should always be ready to forgive our fellow brothers and sisters their mistakes and faults towards us as well. After all, each and every one of us must reflect the light and the love of God in our own lives, and we should be the beacons of God’s light and truth, His love and kindness in our communities and societies today. It is through us, our way of life and actions that we can show the Lord and His truth, His love and compassion to others around us, and to the world.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today all of us are reminded therefore that each and every one of us must remember God’s love and kindness, which He has always generously shown us all these time. We must also remember just how patient He has been with us, despite our repeated iniquities, stubbornness and wicked actions, just as He had done to the Israelites. That is why, all of us should keep in mind to turn our whole heart and mind, our whole entire being towards the Lord, and commit ourselves thoroughly to Him once again. Are we able to do that, brothers and sisters in Christ? Are we willing and able to do God’s will in our lives, and to be exemplary in our actions and lives, so that by our examples and inspirations, we may show the Lord to more and more people, and to bring them ever closer to God and His salvation? This is our calling as Christians, and what we are all expected to do, and what we should live up to, in our daily actions and lives.

May the Lord, our most loving and compassionate, patient and kind Master, continue to bless and love us all, and may He continue to guide each and every one of us as we continue to live our lives in our world today. May God be with us always and may He bless our every good efforts and works, all of our actions and dealings, our way of life. Amen.