Monsignor Enrique Díaz Díaz shares with Exaudi readers his  reflection on the Gospel of this Sunday, September 13, 2026,  entitled:  “The Lord is compassionate and merciful . ” 

***

Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) 27, 33-28, 9:  “Forgive your brother’s offense so that you may be forgiven.”

Psalm 102: “The Lord is compassionate and merciful”

Romans 14:7-9: “ In life and in death we belong to the Lord”

Matthew 18:21-35: ” I tell you, forgive not seven times, but seventy times seven.”

While love can achieve admirable feats, hatred drags one to dark depths. Two antagonistic groups hate each other to death. Aggression, pride, and the tallying of offenses overwhelm them. Although they are aware they are destroying each other, reaching any consensus is impossible. Each side clings to its position, plotting even worse revenge, feeling wronged, and neither is willing to ask for or grant forgiveness. Reconciliation? At one point, they even shook hands, but it all remained just words, and soon the aggression returned. The human heart is blinded by hatred and resentment, preventing it from seeing the folly of revenge. They feel wronged and fail to grasp the consequences of their offenses. At times, words are spoken that sound like forgiveness, but uttered with sarcasm and irony, they produce the opposite effect. And so the two groups continue, living in the same community, but destroying each other, biting at each other, hurting each other even unintentionally. All because of not granting forgiveness .

Both in Jesus’ time and in our own, the human heart is tempted by hatred and violence. The grave massacres we are suffering, which are said to be the result of revenge killings between rival cartels, the terrible murders and horrendous crimes, cannot be understood as the work of people with human feelings, much less Christian ones. When there is hatred and resentment, the desire for revenge grips our hearts, clouding our reason, hardening our consciences, and leading us to commit the most atrocious acts. Hatred and resentment not only harm others, but also harm ourselves. It is like a fruit that rots so that others won’t eat it, but ends up rotten inside. Only authentic forgiveness, given and received, will be capable of transforming the world. And not only on a purely individual level; hatred, violence, and revenge as instruments for resolving humanity’s great problems are also present at the heart of the current social system. There are peoples, entire nations, driven by feelings of hatred and revenge.

Perhaps the greatest sign of being a disciple of Jesus is forgiveness, or in other words, love for one’s enemies. Loving those who love us and treat us with consideration is easy; but loving someone we judge to have offended us requires great heroism and magnanimity of heart. Forgiveness is a gift, a grace that comes from God’s love and mercy. But it demands opening one’s heart to conversion, that is, to acting toward others according to God’s criteria and not those of the current system. Only those who know they are loved by God are capable of loving others freely, and only those who have experienced the greatness of God’s forgiveness will be able to overcome offenses and offer forgiveness wholeheartedly. It is treating others as God has treated us, and quite the opposite of what we intend when we are incapable of offering even a little of what we have received. Jesus’ example is abundantly clear: we have received countless gifts from God: life, health, family, time… and we are ungrateful, offending Him with our sins. We receive His forgiveness simply because He loves us. But conversely, we feel deeply indignant when a brother or sister fails to greet us, disrespects our rights, or wrongs us in some way. There is no proportion between the love God bestows upon us and the forgiveness we owe Him. 

For Peter, forgiveness is difficult to understand. The Lord has already given instructions on how to correct one’s brother, has already emphasized the importance of community, and now Peter seems impatient and even tired of “having to offer” forgiveness. The number seventy implies both quantity and quality: always and wholeheartedly. But Jesus goes even further: “seventy times seven,” meaning the disciple is called to perfection, just like his Father God who makes the sun rise on the good and the bad. These numbers also remind us of those used in the punishment of Cain, which seek to break the cycle of violence. Only forgiveness can restore community. It is true that there must be correction, but it must spring from love for the community and for one’s brother, not from a desire for revenge. How many families have been destroyed because a simple anger transformed into a chain of resentment and vengeance? How many people live embittered because a relative or their parents did not give them the affection they expected or made a mistake, and now they are unable to forgive? Only by experiencing God’s love for us will we be able to overcome our desires for revenge. If we live for God, we will be able to build a new world where true peace reigns. Not the peace sustained by force and fear, but the peace grounded in the security of God the Father’s love.

The Book of Sirach swims against the current. While the world sings, “How sweet is revenge!”, Sirach truthfully affirms,  “Resentment and anger are abominable things,”  and assures us that to obtain forgiveness, we must forgive. We pray the Lord’s Prayer daily and say, “ Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”  Some, shirking their commitment, change these words and say, “Forgive us as we should forgive,” but the truth is that we must forgive as we have been forgiven. Let us give thanks today to the Lord who forgives us, because thanks to his forgiveness we feel free, saved, and loved. Let us ask him to help us break down the barriers of hatred and resentment that we build to protect ourselves but that end up suffocating us and stifling our spirit. Let us learn from Jesus, let us seek to follow in his footsteps. What would Jesus think of this person whom I do not want to forgive? How could Jesus love him if he gave his blood for him? What does Jesus tell me about my resentments and hatreds?

Thank you, Good Father, for the generous forgiveness you always grant us. Look upon us with eyes of mercy and transform our hearts so that, overcoming our hatred, we may learn to forgive and love our brothers and sisters. Amen.