Fr Kevin Kilgore

***

Gospel: Matthew 18: 21-35

Peter approached Jesus and asked him,
“Lord, if my brother sins against me,
how often must I forgive him?
As many as seven times?”
Jesus answered, “I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times.
That is why the Kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king
who decided to settle accounts with his servants.
When he began the accounting,
a debtor was brought before him who owed him a huge amount.
Since he had no way of paying it back,
his master ordered him to be sold,
along with his wife, his children, and all his property,
in payment of the debt.
At that, the servant fell down, did him homage, and said,
‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full.’
Moved with compassion the master of that servant
let him go and forgave him the loan.
When that servant had left, he found one of his fellow servants
who owed him a much smaller amount.
He seized him and started to choke him, demanding,
‘Pay back what you owe.’
Falling to his knees, his fellow servant begged him,
‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.’
But he refused.
Instead, he had him put in prison
until he paid back the debt.
Now when his fellow servants saw what had happened,
they were deeply disturbed, and went to their master
and reported the whole affair.
His master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant!
I forgave you your entire debt because you begged me to.
Should you not have had pity on your fellow servant,
as I had pity on you?’
Then in anger his master handed him over to the torturers
until he should pay back the whole debt.
So will my heavenly Father do to you,
unless each of you forgives your brother from your heart.”

The Gospel of the Lord.

***

***

Scholars have tried to calculate just how much debt these two characters owed. In dollars and cents, you might say one owed millions to the king, while the other owed a few pennies to his master.

***

The parable begins with the multi-million dollar debt being forgiven by the king. Relieved, the once indebted man returns home.

Suddenly, he begins strangling one of his servants who owes him a few pennies.

How can someone who’s just received forgiveness for a massive debt be so petty? The story sounds ridiculous, as Jesus intended it to be. 

***

What might the Lord be saying to us?

***

Asking God to forgive us our trespasses is like a servant asking to be relieved from a multi-million dollar debt – one so large we could never repay it.

Yet the King forgives us every time we approach him.

Why, then, can we be so petty with our neighbor?

A colleague gets underneath our skin; a person cuts us off on the road; a family member does something that leaves us nursing a grudge for weeks, even months or years.

“If your heavenly Father forgives you,” the Lord says, “then you also should forgive one another.”

“How many times?” Peter wonders in today’s Gospel. “As many as seven times?”

“No,” the Lord says, “seventy-seven times.” Meaning, without limit.

***

By God’s grace, may we all have hearts that open – to both being forgiven and to forgiving those who trespass against us not seven times, but without limit.

***

***

Image credits: (1) The Christian Broadcasting Network (2) Tabletalk Magazine (3) unveiledwife.com

***

Gospel: Matthew 18: 15-20

Jesus said to his disciples:
“If your brother sins against you,
go and tell him his fault between you and him alone.
If he listens to you, you have won over your brother.
If he does not listen, 
take one or two others along with you,
so that every fact may be established
on the testimony of two or three witnesses.
If he refuses to listen to them, tell the Church.
If he refuses to listen even to the Church,
then treat him as you would a Gentile or a tax collector.
Amen, I say to you,
whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven,
and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Again, amen, I say to you, if two of you agree on earth
about anything for which they are to pray,
it shall be granted to them by my heavenly Father.
For where two or three are gathered together in my name,
there am I in the midst of them.”

The Gospel of the Lord.

***

***

One of my favorite Saints is Damian of Molokai.

As a young priest, he felt called to be a missionary. So, he left his family and friends in Belgium behind and spent the rest of his life living in a leper colony on the Hawaiian island of Molokai.

At the time, people didn’t know how leprosy was contracted, only that it caused immense suffering and, ultimately, death. So, when a person contracted leprosy – or, at times, was even exposed to it – they were sent away.

Molokai was a place of despair, which is why Father Damian felt called to live, serve, and ultimately die there. He wanted to be light where there was darkness.

***

Once a month, a fellow priest would sail to Molokai and throw supplies overboard for Father Damian and the other residents. Damian also seized this opportunity to confess his sins. 

Because the other priest was too afraid of contracting leprosy, Damian had to wade out into the water and literally shout out his sins before receiving absolution.

You can imagine how humiliating that might’ve been.

But Father Damian recognized his need to be reconciled – not only with his brothers and sisters on the island, but also with God.

As Saint James tells us, “Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed.”

***

This is the essence of Christ’s teachings in today’s Gospel – be reconciled with one another at any cost, even if it means shouting out your sins to a priest on a boat. 

Do I need forgiveness? Is there someone whom I need to forgive?

“Whatever you loose on earth, will be loosed in heaven,” Jesus says, meaning whatever you forgive on earth shall be forgiven in heaven.

What an opportunity! May we seize it.

Saint Damian of Molokai, pray for us.

***

***

Image credits: (1) Southern Living, Bryant McGill (2) Damian High School (3) CBN

***

Gospel: Luke 1:39-56

Mary set out
and traveled to the hill country in haste
to a town of Judah,
where she entered the house of Zechariah
and greeted Elizabeth.
When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting,
the infant leaped in her womb,
and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit,
cried out in a loud voice and said,
“Blessed are you among women,
and blessed is the fruit of your womb.
And how does this happen to me,
that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears,
the infant in my womb leaped for joy.
Blessed are you who believed
that what was spoken to you by the Lord
would be fulfilled.”

And Mary said:

    “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord;
        my spirit rejoices in God my Savior
        for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.
    From this day all generations will call me blessed:
        the Almighty has done great things for me
        and holy is his Name.
    He has mercy on those who fear him
        in every generation.
    He has shown the strength of his arm,
        and has scattered the proud in their conceit.
    He has cast down the mighty from their thrones,
        and has lifted up the lowly.
    He has filled the hungry with good things,
        and the rich he has sent away empty.
    He has come to the help of his servant Israel
        for he has remembered his promise of mercy,
        the promise he made to our fathers,
        to Abraham and his children forever.”

Mary remained with her about three months
and then returned to her home.

The Gospel of the Lord.

***

***

While studying for the priesthood in Rome, I used to visit a children’s hospital located right next to our seminary. I’ll never forget meeting a 5-year-old girl there named Martina.

Martina suffered from a very rare condition, causing her to spend almost every day of her short life in the hospital.

She had no joints. The bones in her arms and her legs didn’t connect, so she could neither stand nor walk. All she could do was lay in her little hospital bed.

It sounds impossible, but making her life even harder, she was blind, deaf, and mute. 

Martina had never seen her mother nor heard her voice. She only felt her mother’s touch, a gift she experienced every single day.  

***

Martina’s mother never left her side. She was always there, because that’s what mothers do – they give us life; they bring us into this world, they nurture us, they shower us with love and affection.

Seeing the bond between this mother and her child reminded me of a definition I once heard of love: “Love is a single soul dwelling in two bodies.”

This mother was inseparable from her child; they were like a single soul dwelling in two bodies.

***

That’s the type of bond we celebrate today – the inseparable bond between a mother and her child – in particular, the bond shared between Mary and Jesus.

***

Mary was the only person who both welcomed Jesus into this world and was with him when he left it; from the day he first opened his eyes in Bethlehem to the moment he closed them on Calvary, Mary was there.

Wherever her child went, she would follow. But she was not only the Mother of Jesus; she was also his disciple.

Some would say, his first disciple. 

Over the course of thirty-three years, Mary’s heart became so united to Christ, they were like, “a single soul dwelling in two bodies.” His will became her will; whatever was pleasing to Jesus was pleasing to Mary.

As she reminds Christians in every age, “Do whatever he tells you.”

***

On this Feast of the Assumption, it makes sense that wherever Jesus goes, Mary would follow – not only in this life, but also in the next.

After he rose from the dead and ascended into heaven, Jesus called his mother home – body and soul. It’s what we celebrate today – our belief that human beings have a place in heaven, starting with Mary.

As Jesus says in John’s Gospel, “Do not let your hearts be troubled, you have faith in God. Have faith also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places.”

A place for Mary. A place for Martina. A place for you. And a place for me.

***

This is essentially the message I shared with Martina’s mother the day Martina died. That bond of love between the two of them was so strong it was as if they were, “a single soul dwelling in two bodies.”

Wherever Martina went, her mother would eventually follow.

But in heaven, Martina’s body has been freed from the cross that bound her here on earth. She’s been given a glorified body where she’ll be able to walk and run; she’ll see her mother face to face; and she’ll thank her for never leaving her side.

It’s just what mothers do. Wherever their child is, so the mother will follow.

***

***

Image credits: (1) The Visitation, Reddit (2) The Jakarta Post (3) A Contemporary Assumption, Catholic Telegraph